Saturday School

Other than GCE I attended a Greek school every Saturday for 3 hours, where I would learn the Greek language and culture/history. The reason I did was, because my dad is Greek and his whole side of the family is as well. It was challenging because it was on Saturdays, and I would always have plans. I enjoyed going because I got to meet people that were at various levels of Greek. I also learned how to Greek dance, which is a very big part of the culture.

NVA, "Essay Certificate." 2014, Chicago

The picture above is a certificate of excellence for writing an essay on my thoughts/experience with the Greek culture.

Ever since I was young (5-8 years old)  I did everything Greek; I practiced the religion, I went to festivals, I ate the food, and I would hang out with Greek people. The only thing holding me back from being one hundred percent Greek was I couldn't speak the language. When I was younger I would go to school to learn Greek at a church like most Greek children, but I would always struggle, even when I was put in the special needs classes. I would always keep trying for my father because he is Greek and his whole side of the family would speak it. When I would go home to try some of what I learned that day, I would mix up words and I would always mess up every time. So after that my family decided that I wouldn't attend school at that church anymore. I never took any classes after that because regular school always got in the way. I also started to attend fewer events, like, going to church or going to festivals. Years later when I was about to start high school my family and I decided to give it another shot.

We would first read a story from our books, then we would go over the vocab and discuss what was happening in the book to see if we understood. Then we would go to our work books and do a lesson. When a holiday would come we would have a big event where each class would come up and do a poem about that holiday and what it meant for the Greek community. I would always get very nervous, but my teacher knew I would struggle so she would only give me a small verse. Same would happen for graduation. Before any class would begin we had to do dancing, which was very fun and good exercise. We would learn these different dances each time a new holiday was coming. Then we performed what we learned at the big events after our poems had been read.

In the end, I learned how to pronounce the letters, and understand some of what I was reading. I never got to learn how to write it, but I am still proud that I went to that class. Even though it was for one day of the week for six months and I had to balance my first year of high school, I still learned a lot more than I did when I was younger. I plan to take it next year so I can continue to learn the language of my family. Thank you for reading!