My Polis Experience

I thought I would share my Polis experience. Yes, it is several months later than the class. But better late than never. Hopefully, it will be useful to someone.

In June of this year, Polis put on three two-week immersive Greek and Latin courses at the University of Dallas. When I heard about it, I immediately talked to my wife and started making plans. I applied for (and took) the Advance Greek course that was to be taught by Christophe Rico. Other classes were to be taught by Luke Ranieri, Michael Sweet, and Erik Ellis.

Unfortunately, about three days before the class, Iran started sending missiles into Israel. We then started getting emails saying Christophe would be late. So things shifted around, and Luke taught my class for the first few days. When Christophe arrived, the teachers returned to their original classes.

Classes were to start on June 16th, but we all (except Christophe) met the night before. In this meeting, we all spoke in English to prepare for the classes. But that would be the last time for two weeks.

What was the average day like? For me, it started with driving. I live in Garland and drove to the school every day to attend class. But you probably don't care about this. Everyone first met at breakfast. Once you started the day, you spoke only in the language you were learning. If you were in the Latin course, you would be speaking Latin all day. If you were in one of the Greek courses, you'd be speaking Greek all day. So Greek started with breakfast or a little before. After that, we had classes in the morning, then lunch, then a break before getting together for the evening meal to eat together and practice our languages. After that, it was free time. Sometimes we played ping-pong in the dorm. Sometimes we played board games or card games. Sometimes we just hung out. Generally, unless you were talking to the cafeteria personnel at the school, it was easy to stay in the language all day long. There were no planned events on the weekends.

How was it? I thought it was fantastic. The opportunity to spend the entire day in immersive spoken ancient Greek was exhilarating. Could we ever speak in English? Sure, if clarification was needed, a little word here or there. But in general, Greek or Latin all day long.

And not only did I get to speak in and listen to Greek all day, I also got to meet some really great people. There are several classmates that I meet with weekly to converse in Greek, read, and practice. Also, surprisingly to me, almost no students were from my area. I expected more Dallas folks. Instead, we had people from all over the states, one from Australia, and one from Italy. The students in the local theological schools really missed out.

Would I Do It Again? Should You?

Gladly. I don't know what Polis will have next year, but I hope they will have something again. I'm saving up and carrying over two weeks of PTO so I can take any similar class, assuming it makes sense for me. Here's to hoping.

Should you take their in-person classes to learn Greek and Latin? Obviously, yes, I think so. I have taken a number of online courses conducted in spoken Latin or Greek, have met with groups online to do the same, or have done one-on-one tutoring. I continue to do these because they're very useful. But this immersive in-person type of event is a whole other experience. Having attended a few really great Latin-only multi-day online events, I can tell you that the energy is not the same. If you're stuck with virtual Latin and Greek, that's good. But if you can upgrade to in-person, it's better.

Unofficial Advice

And here is my unsolicited and certainly unofficial advice for someone who would consider attending.

First, if you want to take the beginner course, I recommend some preparation beforehand. Most of those in the beginner course had previous experience. It's very difficult for a teacher to provide the right material when the students are at very different levels. So I recommend that you don't go into this completely green. And if you want some advice on getting started, feel free to reach out.

Second, if you've done Greek for a little while, but you're not sure if you belong in the beginner or the advanced course, don't sweat it. There is a test you take that helps them put you in the right class. Also, after a few days, some people shuffled from the advanced class into the beginner class, and some from the beginner class into the advanced. The class you are in is not set in stone, and in my experience, they'll watch to make sure everyone's getting in the right place.

Third, stay in the dorm. If you were to come from out of town like most people, this might be your only choice. But even though I live in the Dallas area, I regret not staying in the dorm. I would've gotten more interaction and would've been able to focus more. Also, I annoyed my family when I came home because for days I refused to speak English to them. I could've avoided that as well. Regardless, staying in the dorm would be my recommendation.

Fourth, if you've had a lot of Ancient Greek but never experienced any spoken, It's not necessary, but I'd recommend some exposure before trying to join the advanced course. This is easy to do. There are a number of teachers who can meet with you to give you some basic spoken experience. Or, you can watch YouTube videos. You don't get the experience of trying to interact, but at least you'll get some auditory experience. If you want recommendations, reach out.

'Eπίλογος

What a great experience! Great instructors, new friends, and cafeteria food that was way better than I expected! And they did it right here on my doorstep. Blessed. So a big thank you to all my instructors and fellow students. You made the time a wonderful experience.

comments powered by Disqus