A Holiday Guide To The Greek Alphabet

After having taught Greek to foreigners for many years, Anna now felt it was time to publish her ebook to help foreigners to learn Greek;   it all begins with the “Holiday guide to the Greek Alphabet”.

How Anna started herself to learn the Greek Alphabet? Read her story below.

Holidays, Greece, a beach, a donkey and the Greek alphabet…that was 1970 when I first visited Greece, a little girl 9 years old. It was all “Greek” to my (German) family and me, way back in those first summers on Corfu, the beautiful island in the Ionian Sea.

We were among the first foreign visitors to a small seaside village, which had, and thank God still has, a long, wide, golden beach with shallow waters. A paradise for my sisters and me! There were no other children to play with than the local boys and girls in our village. They tried hard to teach some Greek to us, concentrating on essential words to make playing games together possible. “Hide and seek” was their favorite, as the three of us, sisters always were the ones to stand at a tree, eyes closed and counting in GREEK up to 100 until all others had hidden!

I still remember myself sweating those hot summer days and trying to pronounce the strange words correctly. But then…it was holidays, we all thought we had all the time in the world, a peaceful happy paradise was ours. We learned to read with a first few road signs while walking from the mountain village we stayed into the seaside, A 5 km walk ( one way!) we didn’t mind doing, as a donkey was with us, carrying our bags. Some letters looked very strange, but that was fun! Our local little friends would explain, find words for us to learn, would giggle with our mistakes and efforts.

Childhood days are long gone by now, but all of us do enjoy to be in Greece, don’t we?

The “Holiday guide to the Greek alphabet” is meant to make you meet the Greek letters in a cheerful, easy and enjoyable way. You don’t need any knowledge of Greek beforehand. All letters are explained separately. There are some interesting facts and stories about certain letters, too. All you need is …a real or virtual sunbed or your winter sofa combined with holiday feelings and having the sea and the sand in mind. A glass of Ouzo or nice wine might add to the pleasure and fun while reading!

I have been teaching Greek to adults for many years, having lived in Athens since 1979. I came to Athens in order to study Greek Philology but also studied life with getting married and raising my three boys.

As my family’s background had always been closely connected to foreign languages, Greek and living in Greece wasn’t really difficult for me. Teaching Greek was soon to become the main object of work, concentrating on individual approaches and lessons with my adult pupils of all ages and educational backgrounds. I was also fortunate and blessed with meeting interesting and kind people and families in Athens right from the start.

Although up to now I haven’t yet met Dimitris and Maya in person, I’ve known their Omilo Greek Language School for many years. I truly admire the great job they are doing, together with their team.

Maya’s eShop “masaresi”, is a beautiful, exciting and inspiring web-presence for all loving Greece and the Greek language!
If you are interested in my Greek Alphabet approach, then click here here: “Holiday guide to the Greek Alphabet”.

Big thanks for having me here!

Anna Dourou