Voices from the Hub: A Student’s Perspective on Learning Greek

Meet Michalis K.: A Greek-American Student’s Journey to Reconnect with His Roots

Michalis K., a Greek who grew up in the United States, joined the Greek Learning Hub nearly two years ago. Today, he’s thriving in Level 5 of our program, steadily deepening his connection to the language and culture of his heritage. We recently sat down with Michalis to hear about his experience learning Greek online with us—and his insights are both inspiring and heartfelt.

Below, you’ll find the full interview, where Michalis shares what motivated him to start, what keeps him going, and how the virtual classroom has shaped his journey. The photo featured in this article is a glimpse into Michalis’s actual online learning space.

What was your biggest challenge before you started learning Greek with us?

Growing up in America, I went to Greek school as a kid and was exposed to Greek a lot in my family, including trips to Greece, but I lacked some of the grammar lessons and formal education, like say I had in high school Spanish. So, the hardest part was really ever finding a way to learn Greek as an adult outside of a college or university that fit my work schedule, until I found online classes with the Greek Learning Hub!

How has the Greek Learning Hub helped you achieve your goals?

The Greek Learning Hub has helped me go from 0 to 100 in Greek! Online classes are perfect for my work schedule. The teachers are so excellent, caring and supportive.The Greek Learning Hub has a great class structure and the homework is totally manageable each week. You can tell the material presents new concepts and grammar and vocabulary in fun way. To be honest, every week I think the one hour online class time went by too fast — the Greek Learning Hub is that much fun!

What do you enjoy most about our classes and community?

Online classes are intimate and so much fun! I made so many friends and we stay in touch and chat on WhatsApp or even online in our own private study group. Moving from Level 1 to Level 3 and higher over the year makes it almost feel like a fun game. It’s always great making new friends in the online classes or seeing old friends from a previous Level. And it’s so global! People might be from places in Europe, the UK, Australia or the East Coast of America or even California! I never thought as a working age adult I would meet so many other people my age learning Greek online!!!

What would you tell someone who is thinking about learning Greek but feels intimidated?

My father was from Northern Greece and used to say something like, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is today”, meaning, you can put it off but time will keep passing and you’ll not have changed, so start today with what you can change. Imagine if you do nothing and a year goes by. Worst you’re one year older and no Greek. Best you join the Greek Learning Hub and made friends and finally learned real Greek! I had put off learning “real” Greek, not just tourist phrases like ordering in a restaurant or buying things in a shop, for a long time. Now, I feel so confident thanks to Eirini and the teachers of our online classes at the Greek Learning Hub. Past tense, future tense, the different cases and noun endings, plus lots of listening and speaking each week gives me a chance to practice!

Just like anything in life, you’ll make mistakes but the atmosphere of the Greek Learning Hub is so fun and exciting, we don’t have time to be intimidated because we’re learning and laughing!