Jordan

Hi, my name is Jordan and I was born and raised in Athens, Greece. I studied at Harvard University, where I received a literary Bachelor of Arts degree and a distinction for translation into Attic Greek. I did post-graduate work in Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley, and in translation theory at Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris. I obtained a doctorate in philosophy at Université Paris 8. I have been active in international projects since my teens; and have served as a translator and (with an MA in economics) as a management executive in the United Nations system until retirement. I also speak German, can read Russian and Spanish, and am learning the rudiments of Mandarin Chinese. Teaching Ancient Greek has been to me a source of pleasure since college (when I coached classmates majoring in Classics) up to the present, as I familiarize committed learners with the workings and current relevance of that language. What makes that activity so rewarding is the unceasing give-and-take between Greek, in its long existence, and many other languages and cultures: given that ongoing exchange and affinities with other tongues, I enjoy sharing Greek as a particularly enlightening and elegant means of discussing matters that are still shaping the multilateral world we live in. Getting there, of course, presupposes proper acquaintance with Greek grammar and vocabulary. I offer grounding lessons (using a time-honoured Harvard textbook and a learner-friendly reader) as well as advanced textual and literary analysis to persons keenly interested in what has been said in Greek through the ages and in the pertinence of that to present-day issues, whether in relation to the arts and sciences or to our social and daily life. Depending on the learner's preference, I teach Ancient Greek with the current, living pronunciation or using the erudite phonation system known as "Erasmian" that was devised in the Renaissance.