- The OMILO Newsletter Greek Language and Culture Courses www.omilo.com January 2016 Page 1 of 4

Dear OMILO friends,

Hopefully you had a splendid and healthy start into 2016. The OMILO-team celebrated the New Year in a Greek tavern together with the OMILO students and has cut the Vassilopita on the last day of the New Year course. Here you can see the photo-album. The flouri (coin) in the vasilopita was found in the piece for the OMILO-team, so 2016 could not start better for us! As usual we feel blessed to have such nice and motivated students from all ages and nationalities. For 20 years, our students gave us the energy to keep on going and constantly improving our lessons and services. It is because of our students that we are able to celebrate 20 Years OMILO in 2016! Thank you!

In this Newsletter we will write about: 1. 20 Years OMILO

2. Ouzeri Tsitsanis

3. Rethink Athens

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1. 20 Years OMILO

It all started in 1996 ! The idea, the name, the logo, the first

brochure, the first registrations and finally the very first course in

July of 1997 in Nea Makri (Attiki).

We love the fact that

we are still in contact

with 3 of the 7 students

of that very first course

and they still attend

courses from time to

time. Over the years

we have enjoyed so much that many

participants return on a regular basis and became real OMILO friends. We made

history together!

- The OMILO Newsletter Greek Language and Culture Courses www.omilo.com January 2016 Page 2 of 4

Also, we are extremely happy to see, witness and hear that many OMILO students

made international friends for life during their courses in Greece and visit eachother all

over the world. Our dream came through!

Not only we can write about the history of OMILO during the last 20 years, but also

about the history of technology ! It is hard to believe that only 20 years ago we

started organizing Greek Language and Culture courses, without email, website,

internet, social media.It all began with a brochure, a fax machine, a lot of postal

stamps, an analog camera and visiting libraries all over Europe to find out where

people learn Modern Greek! How times have changed!

Have a look at our website page 20 years OMILO, which will be updated regulary

with new photos, info, etc.

We would love you to participate in this

celebration. If you have any story to tell us,

photos to send us or you would like to share any

information related to OMILO between 1996 and

2016, please contact us.

We hope to see many of you in Greece this year

or keep in touch through all those diverse

channels of the last decade: facebook, twitter,

pinterest, skype, our youtube channel, the

OMILO blog, linkedin, email, etc!

Do not worry, we do not oblige you to follow technologyyou can just phone us or

come and visit us, like in the good old times!

Looking forward to hear from you or see you!

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2. Greek movie : Ouzeri Tsitsanis

In spite of funding issues due to the crisis, fortunately the Greek cinema is still very

productive. Many of you have probably seen or heard of the movie The Lobster , a film

directed by Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos . This film was selected to compete for

the Palme d'Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and won the Jury Prize. However, this

film is in English and internationally co-produced by companies from Ireland, the United

Kingdom, Greece, France and the Netherlands. This is also one of the reasons you can

see it in many European countries.

- The OMILO Newsletter Greek Language and Culture Courses www.omilo.com January 2016 Page 3 of 4

Another new Greek movie, Ouzeri Tsitsanis, was released in December 2015 and is based on the book by the same title, written by George Skarbadonis. The story takes place in Thessaloniki during the winter of 1942-43 and is about the forbidden love between a Christian and a Jewish girl. The story mainly takes place in the Tsitsanis ouzeri, where the great Greek composer sings and composes. This movie has a lot of historical information about Thessaloniki

as well as about the music of Tsitsanis. Since this is a Greek production and all the dialogues are in Greek, it is not sure this movie will make it to other European countries! So below some more information!

Since our students always mention they need listening exercises, we found two interesting videos about the movie and we have written down the conversations in Greek for you. That way you are able to listen to the Greek conversation and read it at the same time. For those that are Beginners in the language, we have also translated the conversations for you in English.

Click here for the following articles and videos: a. Greek movie : Ouzeri Tsitsanis : General info about the movie in English, and a video, where the crew and the cast talk about the difficulties they had to overcome and the way they worked. The dialogue in Greek, is written down in Greek and also translated in English. b. The music of the movie: Ouzeri Tsitsanis: (in English) Information about the composer Tsitsanis and a video where the composer (Themis Karamouratidis) and the director (Manousos Manousakis) talk about the films music. You can find the English translation of the dialogue is under the video. c. The music of the movie (in Greek)

The same information as in b. (here above) , but

now the text in Greek as well as the dialogues

written down in Greek.

Hope you enjoy it! In case you will not get the opportunity to see the movie soon, you can probably buy the DVD next year!

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- The OMILO Newsletter Greek Language and Culture Courses www.omilo.com January 2016 Page 4 of 4

3. Rethink Athens: the transformation of Athens new city centre

Over the last 20 years, not only OMILO, but also ATHENS, has gone through various transformations and changes. Those that visited Athens before and after 2004 know that the city changed tremendously. Since the Olympic Games in 2004, Athens is changing

all the time, becoming more and more modern, but fortunately also keeping its Mediterranean and Greek identity. Many things can be said about this metropolis but most of the times the OMILO students are pleasantly surprised with the various changes and developments in Athens. Another huge and impressing project for centre Athens is now on its way.

Click here to read more about it and see the video. Hope you will have the chance to visit Athens soon !

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The OMILO-team will be teaching various Greek courses in Athens, as well as the Cultural Week, till the end of April. Winter and Spring are perfect seasons to explore Athens and enjoy the many cultural events in the capital. Also during those seasons Greeks will celebrate Kathara Devtera, Carnival and their National Holiday on 25/3. We will keep you updated about those special days with the BLOG articles. For those that prefer to visit other places in Greece, there are many options! From April 24th till May 6th the Greek Easter course will take place in Nafplion again. Between mid-May and mid-September we offer courses on the islands of ANDROS (May), LEFKADA (June) and SYROS (July, August, September). We are already looking forward to welcome participants from all over the world in all these very different locations !

For the time being, our best regards from Athens! The OMILO team

OMILO Greek Language and Culture in Greece

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