A PANACEA FOR LEARNING GREEK?
At the request of a Greek-American educator, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki recently created a modern Greek language summer program that would satisfy the two-year foreign language requirement for a college degree in the United States -United.
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Most students attending or planning to attend college hate having to take a two-year, four-semester course totaling 48 weeks of foreign language instruction. Some of the reasons for their dislike are: they do not want to learn a foreign language; If they are going to study a foreign language, they want to enroll in one of their majors – modern Greek, for example – taught only at a very limited number of universities in the United States, which, of course, makes this impossible since they attend their own establishments.
There are a few, very few, American universities that offer summer courses in Modern Greek, but they are usually far from home. An added difficulty is that they have to pay high tuition fees and high housing and living expenses, since most of them may live out of state. Another reason why they do not want to study a foreign language is that it interferes with their main field, it requires too much time and because of these obstacles it often results in a lower grade, a serious problem that affects negatively their academic average.
The Aristotle University program will meet U.S. foreign language requirements through participation in two six-week summer sessions, for a total of 12 weeks, instead of the 48 required at home.
The program will be as follows; During the first year — beginning June 15, 2015, students will complete two three-week sessions of four hours per day, comprising 60 academic hours per session, worth 3 academic credits, resulting in 120 academic hours for the six weeks , for 6 university credits.
This will cover the first of the required two years. The following summer, students will complete the equivalent of a second year of study, completing all requirements. In addition, they will have a “study abroad” component in their resume, strongly advocated today by colleges and universities. This program has another important, perhaps even huge, advantage in that credits will transfer to the original institution, while grades will not transfer. This means that unless a student “fails” the course, they will receive the credits without impacting the academic average.
Tuition fees for two to three week sessions (six weeks total) will be 600 euros, the approximate equivalent of approximately $750. Attending two summer courses at an American university will cost around $3,000.
Below you will find the information provided by Aristotle University, as well as the syllabi for the two three-week courses that students will need to submit to their home institution after receiving the application materials from Thessaloniki.
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Interested students and parents should also consider the many additional benefits of this program. Instruction will take place in a full immersion situation, students will converse in Greek off-campus in the community, connect with fellow Greek-Americans and locals, and be exposed to tremendous opportunities The program will include excursions to sites such as the area of Alexander the Great and his predecessors, Meteora, Mount Athos and the various Byzantine sites spread throughout the city of Thessaloniki.
For the program to become a reality in the first year, at least 20 students must register. The deadline to submit an application for the 2015 summer sessions is March 1, 2015. However, it is strongly recommended to make contact this fall, so that arrangements for the first year can be respected. Interested students and parents are advised to contact the Aristotle University program directly and request application materials.
Website: www.smg.auth.gr
For emails from the Modern Greek Language School:
(email protected) (for the attention of Ms. Elena Koutousi, administrative manager)
(email protected) (Attn: Dr Anastasios Tsangalidis, Chairman, Oversight Committee)
The burden on our Hellenic Link members, indeed on everyone who cares about the future of Hellenic cultural heritage in America, should be that if everyone recruits just one student to attend the first year of the program, the program will come to fruition. Like any other successful “study abroad” program, returning students become the best advocates and advertisers for their future participation.
Let’s go out and recruit just one student each. Just think about what a year’s success will do!
Dean C. Lomis, Ph.D.
Professor of International Education, Emer.,
University of Delaware, Newark DE Member, Hellenic Link Hellenic Education Advisory Council