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Language Immersion in Athens
The capital where Europe's oldest continuously spoken language lives its modern life: markets, theater, and rebetiko nights as the after-class curriculum.
Why here
Greek is the oldest continuously spoken and written language tradition in Europe, and Athens is where its modern form lives at full volume. The Athens Centre has taught Modern Greek since 1969 with the most comprehensive program of its kind, sixty classroom hours per level in an intensive format, plus a three-week summer session on the island of Spetses that pairs classes with Epidaurus Festival evenings. The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens runs its own teaching center for foreigners, the institutional anchor. The immersion is the city itself: market Greek in the Varvakios arcade by day, rebetiko Greek in the Psirri clubs by night.
Best months
Year-round with monthly start dates; September to June carries the fullest city rhythm, and the Spetses summer immersion runs in June. Homestay and apartment options come through the schools.
Getting there & around
Fly to Athens (ATH). The Athens Centre sits in the Mets neighborhood by the Panathenaic Stadium; enroll two to six weeks ahead.
Skill levels: beginner, intermediate, advanced
Schools & guides (2)
The Athens Centre
SchoolThe Athens Centre is an educational organization founded in 1969 to sponsor academic and cultural activities in Greece, based at 48 Archimidous Street in Mets, about fifteen minutes on foot from Syntagma Square. Its year-round Modern Greek program teaches in sixty-hour levels through immersion, accelerated, intensive and regular formats, from three weeks of daily classes to twelve weeks of twice-weekly ones, with online levels alongside. It has also run a summer immersion session on Spetses island.
University of Athens Modern Greek Teaching Center
SchoolThe Modern Greek Language Teaching Center Panagiotis Kontos is the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens's own centre for teaching Modern Greek as a second or foreign language, functioning since the 1950s and describing itself as the largest of its kind in the world. It certifies level B2 Greek and introduces foreign learners to facets of Greek culture, and many of its graduates now teach Modern Greek and philology at universities. Classes run at the Georgiou Chatzidaki building on the University Campus at Zografou.
Also good for language immersion in September:
Torn between Athens and Florence for September?
A plan settles it for your skill and budget, same-day.