Courses offered:

Modern Turkish		Ottoman Turkish
Arabic		Hebrew
Aramaic		Sanskrit
Finnish		Hungarian
Turkish, Arabic, Hebrew and Hungarian for English speakers
Music instruments of the East such as ney, saz etc.
Greek for Turkish speakers

In our courses, the stress is not simply given on the language in itself, but on enabling the student to get acquainted with the culture of the country this language is spoken in. So, our students come from various backgrounds:
Students, wishing to learn a language quickly and effectively, professionals cooperating or planning to cooperate with various institutions in a country of the East, scholars interested in reading scientific sources in a specific language, even senior citizens, wishing to use their spare time in a creative activity.

ELCC’s interest in the culture of the countries of the East is also expressed through music courses offered by experienced and well-known musicians. Moreover, apart from studying a language, our students may also chose to learn more on a specific subject of their interest (word etymology, reading in older languages and translating into modern ones, comparative approach, use of ottoman manuscripts as scientific sources etc.)

Teaching system
The languages of the East are often very different from the western inflective languages and the ELCC, based on its long experience in teaching adults, considers teaching systems that are addressed to children or adolescents ineffective.
Such systems (based on teachers-transmitters, students-receivers and overfull classrooms with very different individuals, each with their own learning pace) are time-consuming, ineffective and tiring, especially for students who are professionals and wish to attend constructive classes that do not add to their stress and leave them with dozens of unanswered questions.
Even the myth of “limited number of students per class” means nothing, since students need an individualised approach instead of one that treats them all as a uniform group.
The ELCC, respecting the personality and the particular needs of each student and remaining faithful to the model teacher-student relation, organises classes in a way that learning the language and the culture behind it can be achieved through direct and unimpeded teacher-student cooperation. Such a system allows questions to be immediately answered, problems to be discussed and solved when they arise and students’ differentiated needs to be noted on the spot, resulting in a swift, flexible and pleasant learning procedure.
A one-student-per-teacher system is thus the simplest and the wisest. Of course, strictly up to three student groups may as well exist, on condition that participants will have similar backgrounds and compatible needs (students, professionals, bank or company executives etc.)
Exceptions only apply in case of students wishing to be taught in groups in their workplace. For further details, please contact us.

Teaching methods
The ELCC, being the first independent centre for learning Turkish in a time when very few people in Greece were interested in the language, has managed to prove that Turkish is not an obscure, difficult language as people generally believe, but a language that is simply different from western inflective languages. And this thanks to the teaching method applied in our Centre for years now, through which students can be easily familiarised with the particularities of Turkish. This method will soon be published in a textbook bearing the title “Turkish for Greeks”.
The ELCC’s teaching methods rely on the principle that languages with different syntax and grammar, such as the languages of the East, should be taught in comparison with the students’ mother tongue, allowing them to grasp the special characteristics of the language they are learning. Otherwise, after a certain period of time, students are tired and often give up their classes because they try to mach different linguistic codes that cannot be matched in the first place and in this way they cannot put the information they receive into context.
This is the goal of our teachers: to decode the languages taught in order to help the students comprehend their specific characteristics.
Let us not forget that a very common problem faced when learning a foreign language are the textbooks used. Most of them are translations or adaptations of books originally written in another language. So, it is more than certain that an “Arabic for the French” textbook is not suitable for Greek students learning Arabic, in the same way that an excellent Serbian grammar addressed to English speakers may irreversibly confuse a Turk wishing to learn Serbian.

Certificates
After a period, students receive from the ELCC a certificate enabling them to take an examination for a diploma of their choice, based on their level. For each language there are different diplomas, according to the standing system of each country.

For example, in the case of Turkish:
Students interested in acquiring a diploma may take an examination based on their level of knowledge in two ways:
A) In Turkey, where they may travel and attend classes in a university of their choice (aided by the ELCC in every step of the way). Students wishing to acquire a diploma of a higher level may continue their studies in the ELCC after returning in Greece and then repeat the process in order to proceed to the following level.
B) In Greece, students may participate in examinations both in Athens and in Thessaloniki, conducted under the supervision of Turkish teachers coming from Turkey for this purpose every year (see links, Tomer). For particulars regarding the examinations, our students are informed by their teachers.
Students may also discuss with their teacher scientific, artistic or leisure subjects concerning the country of their interest.

Students’ backgrounds

Education: Undergraduate and postgraduate university students, Ph.D.’s. The ELCC helps students contact universities in Turkey they wish to study in and provides them with references.

Professionals: Employees in companies interested in expanding their activities in a country of the East, bank and other institutions executives that are going to work in a country of the East for any period of time, public officials that are going to be transferred abroad (officers, diplomats, ministry employees), individuals participating in conventions etc.

Travellers: Individuals travelling in the country either for scientific purposes (conventions, archaeological tours/ excavations, research in libraries etc) or for leisure. All necessary information may be provided in closed seminars with strictly up to four participants; this information regards cultural aspects of a given country, combined with specifics on its geography and history.

The Eastern Languages and Civilizations Centre organises intensive courses for students wishing to leave shortly for a country of the East (students on exchange programmes, journalists, bank and company executives); these courses are given in small groups (strictly up to four persons) and are adapted to students’ needs, placing special stress on speaking.

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