What is your favorite travel memory?
My favorite travel memory is when I first moved to Germany. At first, I stayed for 6 months in a small town in the south. I didn't speak German at all, and I joined an Intensive Language Program there. I was in a classroom with 20 people from all over the world. It was very exciting and interesting to interact with all the different cultures.
Afterward, I moved to Berlin and continued the Integration Course. It was even more interesting and exciting. New people, new cultures. I also followed the Orientation course – which provide the foreigners with knowledge on the German legal system, culture, and history. I learned a lot of interesting things and I was in one of the coolest cities in the world. Berlin is a living history lesson!
One of the moments that I was truly proud of myself in Berlin and Germany in general, was when I was at the Finance - Tax Office and managed to communicate -only- in German!
How have you changed/grown since working for your current company?
I have done many jobs in my life but working at The Lamda Project is my favorite one. I have always been and teacher, and I do love teaching. At Lamda, I am the education manager as well, so I have to deal with other responsibilities, decisions, and managerial functions. It's a new and challenging experience for me but a very interesting and exciting one as well.
What is the best story you've heard from a return student?
There was a student who came from Germany to Athens to be supported with her Greek language skills due to her upcoming Erasmus program at the University of Thessaloniki. The first time that she visited Thessaloniki to register at the university, she didn't speak Greek at all. She met an old lady in the center of the city and she started talking to her in Greek, for 2 hours. She couldn't understand anything, but she stayed because she felt that the old woman needed the company. After joining our Intensive Program for about 2,5 months she achieved B1 level. Then she started the Erasmus Program in Thessaloniki. There she went to the same place where she met the old woman, she had told her that she is going there every afternoon. She met again the old woman and they could talk to each other in Greek! It was such a moving and sweet story.
If you could go on any program that your company offers, which one would you choose and why?
I would choose our Modern Greek Language Standard Intensive Course. It is the most popular one at our school and Ι believe that it combines everything that someone would like to do while learning a foreign language: 4 teaching hours daily where you can learn the language, the grammar the life skills but not only. We focus on communicational skills, and we have the ''learn the local'' idea as our motto. We want our students to learn the language, the mentality, the customs and have fun at the same time with educational games and our extra activities. Our Standard Intensive course combines all these, and that's why I would choose it.
What makes your company unique? When were you especially proud of your team?
As Noam Chomsky has said: “A language is not just words. It’s a culture, a tradition, a unification of a community, a whole history that creates what a community is. It’s all embodied in a language.” Our goal and motto ''learn the local'' is based on this and it is what makes our company unique. We want our students to be familiar with the modern Greek language and culture as well and we try to combine the social, emotional, and intellectual aspects of what we think as contemporary Greek culture.
Another thing that makes our company unique is that we strongly believe that the learning process needs and must be fun as well. If we are not interested or motivated learning will probably not happen, or not happen easily. The best way to achieve this is to make learning fun because when we enjoy and love what we do, it becomes a natural and spontaneous activity.
What do you believe to be the biggest factor in being a successful company?
The biggest factor in being a successful company is again our motto ''learn the local'' combined with the fact that we treat every student as an individual, but with the final goal to build a big Lamda family. James Comer said, “No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship” and we strongly agree with this.