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How long does Greek actually take?

The US Foreign Service Institute has been timing this for decades, and the figure everyone quotes is only half of what they publish. FSI puts Greek at 44 weeks — 1012 classroom hours for an English speaker to reach professional working proficiency. But FSI also states that a typical week is 23 hours in class and 17 hours of self-study, so the real total is closer to 1760 hours of work. The pace below divides that full total rather than the classroom half, which is why these numbers are longer than the ones you have seen elsewhere:

Worth saying plainly: that figure is for full professional proficiency, which is a much higher bar than most learners need. Holding a real conversation in Greek usually arrives at somewhere between a fifth and a quarter of the way in.

Kinds of Greek lesson

Teachers list what they specialise in, so you can match on purpose rather than on price alone.

• Greek tutors for beginners

  Teachers who work with absolute beginners every day and can run a first Greek lesson entirely in a language you share.

• Conversational Greek tutors

  Lessons that are mostly you talking. For learners who can read Greek but freeze when someone answers back.

• Business Greek tutors

  Meetings, email, negotiation and presentations — Greek for the situations your job actually puts you in.

• Greek tutors for kids

  Teachers experienced with children, who keep Greek lessons short, build them around games, and keep a parent in the loop.

• Greek exam preparation tutors

  Teachers who know the Greek exam formats, mark to the real rubric, and work backwards from your test date.

• Intensive Greek courses

  Several Greek lessons a week with homework between them, for learners with a deadline rather than a hobby.

• Native Greek speaking tutors

  Teachers who grew up speaking Greek, for accent work, idiom and the register textbooks never cover.

• Greek grammar tutors

  Focused work on the Greek structures that keep breaking, with exercises built from your own mistakes.