Native Greek Teacher teaches all levels of the greek language online. For kids and adults, groups or individual lessons.

Find out more about Efi

• Did you grow up speaking this language? Or were you inspired by a trip abroad, an individual or a certain aspect of the culture?

  I am a native Greek speaker; I am a Greek and I have lived in Greece all my life.

• Can you name a living, historical or fictional character that you think is the emblematic representative of the language's culture?

  It is difficult to choose one, in a country with 2500 years of culture, philosophers like Epicurus, poets like Sappho and amazing teachers like Aristotle, but if I have to, I will choose an incredible man of our recent history, Adamadios Korais, the man who worked officially on creating again our language after the creation of our nation 200 years ago, he "cleaned" the language from Turkish words and words from other influences and created a "clean Greek language". He saves the Greek language.

• Is there a typical word, phrase, tradition or expression in the language that you particularly like?

  I am in love with the word "Hellenism". The Hellenic Light of the Olympic Games, the Hellenic Light of the eternal human spirit.

• Why does speaking this language matter to you?

  I strongly believe that learning the Greek language can create the wings for our self-improvement, either someone has got Greek heritage and lives in the diaspora or not. This knowledge can give joy to someone's soul to keep on working with themselves and thrive in all aspects of life. It is not the first time in our history that Hellenism has spread the light in the darkness. If someone has Greek heritage, I find it very important for people to know about their roots and their Greek identity. These roots can give the wings for someone to go high, no matter how old we are. Age is not relevant, basically, the older we are, the better.

• What is the main difficulty in learning this language and what can help the process of learning?

  There are many difficulties in learning a language, like memorizing the vocabulary and getting familiar with Grammar. The only way to overcome this is to insist and repeat in order to train the muscles and empower the memory. This way we cultivate ourselves and we create a new self, a self who speaks Greek.

• Provide a valuable anecdote related to your language learning or your days at school.

  I think that what helped me the most understand how the process of learning works, is during my guitar lessons where I learned the importance of insisting and repeating. This way I understood that our muscles have got memory and if we repeat something again and again finally it will come. This taught me that in the world of learning, there is no problem practice cannot solve. This way we can turn the information into knowledge that can stay with us forever.

• How has travel or a specific trip helped you to increase your skill and knowledge of the language?

  To be honest, hanging out with my people, older people of my family and my environment who are not with us anymore has helped me increase my knowledge and has cultivated a philosophy in me. Also my precious teachers in primary, secondary and high school have played an important role in shaping my character in the language. But, also travelling to Athens and the islands of Greece and spending many hours in our museums is something that enriches my knowledge and understanding of the Hellenic World.