Agrinio 02 (AP)
A school with three teachers, and an average of ten students per class.
Our teacher will teach at all levels from beginners to proficiency.
The accommodation is pictured
below.
AGRINIO
I worked in Agrinio from September 2006
until May 2007 and I have to say it was a great experience! Alice runs her
language school meticulously and takes charge of lesson planning for all
classes. However, compared to some schools that simply work methodically
through textbooks, Alice allowed me some freedom with the syllabus and
encouraged me to use my initiative and feed the children with ideas. This
brings me onto the children – I can honestly say that the vast majority of them
are absolutely lovely and I will miss them! They are eager to learn English
(and all about you!) and are extremely welcoming and respectful (nothing like
the way British children generally treat foreign teachers!) Teaching hours are
from 3pm until 9pm plus Saturday mornings, but it is possible to see a lot of
the Greek countryside and attractions in your spare time.
Agrinio itself is a commercial city with
roughly 80,000 inhabitants and has all modern amenities. There are cinemas, a
ten-pin bowling centre, and restaurants, cafes and bars galore! The other
native English teachers and I wanted to embrace the café culture in each and
every one, but it was mission impossible! The beach is only 40minutes away on
the bus and the beautiful island of Lefkada is also reached easily. There are
also outdoor swimming pools in Agrinio so you can take advantage of the
sunshine. If you want to get active, it is possible to go skiing(!), rafting,
paragliding and there are many walking routes from the city into the nearby
mountains.
Alice will make you feel like one of the
family – she also has two teenage children who speak perfect English. She makes
sure that you never feel like you have been dumped in a strange city and left to
your own devices. As well as this, there is a cute, basement flat at your
disposal, which is clean and modern and even comes with a small garden! What
more could you want?! I guarantee you will have a good time if you choose to
spend 9months of your life in Agrinio.
Catriona
From: Xenia Nedelsky [xmn@worldnet.att.net]
Sent: Δευτέρα, 2 Ιουλίου 2001 1:48 πμ
To: anglo-hellenic@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [anglo-hellenic] My experience in Greece
I hope this general e-mail will be helpful to anyone out there who is unsure
about spending a teaching year in Greece. I would like to emphasize from
the beginning that I will be talking about my experience alone (which was
wonderful).
I had no experience before I went to teach in Greece. No training,
never been to the country, had no idea what to expect or even what to ask
for at the interview.
My first piece of advice is to get a general idea of what the different
areas of Greece are like by looking at travel books and searching the Web.
You will have weekends off (you may have to teach Saturday morning), but
in my experience you might not always have the energy to go very far in
your time off. So if you enjoy mountain climbing, for example, know that
you'll have terrific opportunities in the north. In my opinion, most Greek
towns are the pits; they're dirty, smelly, with terrible architecture, insane
traffic, and little cultural life. So when deciding where you'd like to teach,
don't pay too much attention to the descriptions of the _cities_ in your guide
book. You'll just get depressed. Choose by area.
Another important factor, of course, is the school itself. I had a very
good experience in my dealings with Peter Beech. He got an idea of my
personality and what kind of things are important to me, and set me up with
a really great institute run by a director with whom I worked very well. If
you get your job through Peter, you won't end up in a place you hate.
So, about my experience. I chose to teach in Agrinio, a town of about
80,000 on the west coast. My employer, Alice Barneche-Pappa, is French
and married to a Greek. She teaches English grammar and French, and I
taught, basically, writing and speaking. I didn't need any training working
for Alice because she taught me herself. I met with her every day and we
went over what I would be doing with the students. I don't think most
employers give the English teachers that much of their time, however. In
any case, I think most of the institutes are quite small, and you may end up
being the only native English teacher at the school. I have read other people
saying that English teachers are looked down on and treated badly, but this
was not my experience at all.
In fact, Alice treated me like part of her family, giving me plates of
food and inviting me on excursions with her family at the weekend. The
accomodations that she provided were excellent. I had a light, airy room
with all the necessities, and even a washing machine. I could also open my
door onto my own, private garden.
As for the pay, it _is_ rather low, but so is the cost of living. You can
do whatever you want on the pay you get. If you're young and don't have a
huge amount of student loans to pay, you'll be fine. In fact, I ended up
spending almost nothing, Greek hospitality being what it is. This is the
biggest advice I can give: make Greek friends. I stayed away from the
British teachers at first as I had very little time, and then decided not to go
out of my way to meet any of them later on as I had plenty of Greek friends
to keep me company. A woman down the street from me made me delicious
meals every day. Every day! Other people invited me on trips and out to
eat. I didn't set out to mooch, but the Greeks just won't let you pay for
anything! And they're wonderful people beyond that, of course...
The most important part about teaching in Greece: the students. I
LOVED them. It can't just be chalked up to good luck that _all_ of my
classes were good natured and had some truly brilliant students in them.
You may have heard that there's a lack of discipline among Greek students.
Well, this can be true, but if you get them interested and earn their respect,
they'll work for you and pay attention, just like any kids. My kids didn't
give me the attitute that one of my friends (working in Sweden) got from
his, the "I don't need you" attitude. Instead, I got "We love you very much,
Miss!!!" messages on the board, roses from gardens, and freshly baked
sweets from the younger students. The older ones confided in me and
invited me out for coffee. If you want to be their friend, they'll want to be
yours. What most amazed me, though, was how eager most of them were to
learn and how well they spoke already. It was a terrifically rewarding
experience watching them grow.
Don't go to Greece if you just want a vacation; you will have to
WORK. Preparing, correcting papers, teaching in the heat. But if you want
nine months in a beautiful country with wonderful people and
lively, motivated students, go for it!
Anyway, that's my experience. Feel free to e-mail me at xmn@att.net
Xenia Nedelsky
