Hey 👋

We're one week into Speak Greek!, and I'm loving it.

If you're new here: Krystallo teaches the course, and I'm one of the students. I sit in every session and do the homework like everyone else. It turns out I built the course I'd always needed.

That's me in the middle, with headphones. Everyone else is hidden behind a smiley, but trust me, that's what the faces looked like, although some of us were definitely sweating.

Here are my takeaways from week 1:

1. A plan changes everything. For years I learnt Greek in bits. An app here, a tutor there, a word from my mother-in-law at dinner. I was never getting anywhere. Now every Monday there’s a clear goal, and I know what I need to be able to do by Sunday.
2. Learning with others works. There are eight of us, all at a similar level, all making the same mix-ups. You hear someone else get corrected and think, “I’d have said that too.” That sticks better than anything I’ve tried.
3. Embrace the difficulty. Greek isn’t easy. Week 1 was about laying the foundations with six common verbs. But even those six verbs aren't easy: πάω (I go) becomes πήγα (I went). In the first session, Krystallo told us to embrace it: the difficulty, the complexity, the chaos.
4. Trust the process. It’s like going to the gym. You don’t see results in the first week. You keep turning up, and one day you notice the improvement.

The energy in the group is great, and I already know we’re going to push each other over the next seven weeks.

On that note, I’m off to finish my homework. Everyone else will have done theirs, and I’m not going to be the one who hasn’t.

One of the group emailed us after the first session:

Have a great week, and learn some Greek.

Jack 🌿