Καλημέρα (Good morning),
Γειά σου (Hello),
Tι κάνεις; (How are you?)
Greeting each other in Greek is a common practice at Plato Academy Schools. Greek language teachers are welcoming their students in the morning or during the day as they walk by each other on campus.
The Greek language is taught to every student from Kindergarten all the way to 8th grade in Plato’s nine campuses. Students enjoy the challenge of learning a foreign language, especially when they realize that so many of the words we use in English are derivatives of the Greek language.
Words like tele (from afar) + phone (voice) or astro (star) +naut (navigator), dia (across) + gram (lines), geo (earth) + metry (measure) or more common like angel (messenger), dia (across/exchange) + logue (words) are some of the many that have a deeper meaning in their original Greek form.
NASA’s Apollo program to the moon was named after the Greek god of light. It is not a coincidence that the new program to the moon exploration is named after his (based in Greek Mythology) sister: Artemis.
Some of the many Greek words used in medical terminology are:
– Derma (skin) + logy (study)
– Ophthalm (eye) + logy (study)
– Bio (life) + logy (study)
One would ask: What is the benefit of learning Greek?. The answer is that by learning Greek, a student:
- develops the ability to think in another language. This also helps learn other foreign languages with less difficulty and children usually learn a second language easier than adults.
- Understand the terminology that is used today in fields of science like medicine and astronomy,
- Understand history and culture.
For a more extensive list of Greek words in the English language check the following page.
In a recent visit to one of the Greek classes at the Plato Academy campus in Clearwater we were able to watch a typical day in the class. Seventh grade’s greek language teacher Mr. Konstantinos Aretis has been an elementary teacher in Greece before transitioning to teaching in USA for the last 14 years, twelve of which were in Plato Academy.
Learn More about our Greek Program.