Greek on-line draws learners, worldwide

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Contact: Andre Gerolymatos, 604.291.5597, andre_gerolymatos@sfu.ca
Costa Dedegikas, 604.780.9487, costa_dedegikas@sfu.ca
Carol Thorbes, pamr, 604.291.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca

Website: http://www.stavrosniarchosfoundation.org/page/default.asp?la=2&id=199&pl=234&ap=79&pk=2014

Simon Fraser University now teaches Greek to more students than any other university in North America. Surprisingly, most are in China where student enrolment is skyrocketing in the university’s fledgling, online, Greek language learning program.

Greek may be a difficult language to learn but Andre Gerolymatos, chair of Hellenic studies at SFU, is discovering that Chinese students welcome the challenge. While 25 students take Greek classes at SFU Burnaby, more than 170 students worldwide are enrolled in SFU’s online program –160 are at the Beijing Language and Culture University in China.

Through a partnership with the Asian university, SFU started offering the on-line program in China in March 2005. Already the Beijing university’s students are lining up for an intermediate program, which should be online by January 2007.

Says Gerolymatos, “New economic agreements opening up and shipping trade between Greece and China, as well as a growing Chinese population in Athens’ textile industry and a fascination with Greek mythology account for the growing number of Chinese people learning Greek.”

The Greek online language-learning program is unique. While others provide no real-time interaction between students and teachers, Odysseas uses a computerized, intelligent, language-learning tutor to track students’ language acquisition and provide real-time feedback.

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