About me - Konstantina, your Greek teacher

Konstantina, private Greek teacher from Glyfada in Athens, smiling at the camera

Glyfada, AthensTeaching since 2015

My story

How I ended up teaching my own language

I am from Glyfada, on the coast just south of Athens, and I grew up surrounded by a language I never had to think about. It was simply there: in the kitchen, in the arguments, in the songs on the radio all summer long.

At the University of Athens I studied Philosophy, Pedagogy and Psychology, which means that before I ever taught a word of Greek I spent years studying something rather more useful: how people actually learn. That turned out to matter far more than any grammar book.

I have been teaching since 2015, both Greek and English, to Greek students and to foreigners. In 2019 I taught my first foreign student and everything shifted. Here was somebody who knew the rules, who could fill in any exercise you gave them, and who still froze completely when a waiter asked a simple question.

That gap between knowing and speaking is the thing I have been working on ever since. What I am certain of is this: people do not need more rules. They need somebody patient to talk with, who will not laugh, and who genuinely wants to hear what they have to say.

Come and say γεια

My favourite moment in any lesson is when somebody hears themselves finish a whole sentence in Greek and stops, surprised at their own voice.

Konstantina, your teacher

The road here

A few moments that shaped how I teach

Not a list of qualifications. Just the turns that made me teach the way I do.

GROWING UP

A childhood in Glyfada

Long lunches by the sea, loud opinions, and a language nobody in my family ever thought of as difficult. I did not know it then, but I was quietly collecting the exact material I would teach from years later.

UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS

Philosophy, Pedagogy and Psychology

I chose to study how people think and how they learn rather than only what they should be taught. It is the reason I care more about the moment something clicks for you than about finishing a chapter on time.

2015

My first students

I began teaching Greek and English, mostly to Greek students. Years of watching what makes a lesson work, what makes someone go quiet, and how much of learning a language is really about confidence.

2019

My first foreign student

Everything changed here. They knew the rules and could complete any exercise, yet froze the moment a real person spoke to them. We put the textbook aside and simply talked. That lesson rewrote how I teach.

TODAY

Greek Speaking Club

Now I teach privately, one to one, to people scattered across the world who share one thing: a reason to speak Greek that genuinely matters to them. Small circles for practising together are coming next.

How I teach

Four things I believe

These are not marketing lines. They are the rules I actually teach by.

You learn to speak by speaking

Not by finishing exercises about speaking. From your very first lesson you will talk, imperfectly and out loud, because that is the only thing that ever actually works.

Mistakes are information, not failure

Every mistake tells me precisely what to teach you next. I have never once been disappointed by a student's error, and I am not about to start.

Grammar serves you, not the other way round

We meet a rule when it unlocks something you want to say. Explained simply, in context, and never as a table to memorise for its own sake.

Language without culture is dry

The food, the music, the humour, the way we argue and the way we welcome people. These are not extras, they are the reason you wanted Greek in the first place.

Off the clock

Things you will probably hear me talk about

Because you are going to spend an hour a week with me, you may as well know what you are getting into.

Freddo espressoa serious Athenian matter

The sea at Glyfadamy whole childhood, really

Greek musicold rembetika and shameless pop

Where words come fromblame the philosophy degree

Ask me anything

What people want to know about me

Do I always get you, or another teacher?

Always me. That is the whole idea. I keep my number of students deliberately small so I can remember your goals, your family names and the word you keep forgetting, without checking any notes.

What languages do you teach in?

Lessons are taught in English and Greek, sliding gradually towards more Greek as you grow comfortable. I have taught English as well as Greek since 2015, so I know exactly what it feels like from your side of the screen. Early on I explain in English so nothing feels frightening. Later you will notice we barely switch back.

Why does your degree matter for learning Greek?

I studied Philosophy, Pedagogy and Psychology rather than only language. That means my training is in how people learn, remember and lose confidence. When you get stuck, I am not just reaching for another exercise, I am thinking about why it is not landing and what would work better for you specifically.

I am not Greek at all. Will I feel out of place?

Not for a second. Some of my most devoted students have no Greek family whatsoever, just a love of the place that refused to fade after a holiday. Curiosity is the only requirement.

My Greek is embarrassing. Can you handle that?

Your Greek is not embarrassing, it is simply unfinished. I have heard every possible version of a beginner sentence and I still find them lovely, because they mean somebody is trying. Come as you are.

Παρέα

Let us meet properly

Your first lesson is free and there is nothing to prepare. Come and talk, and we will see how it feels.

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