Greek Language Tools from SFU Gain Imprimatur of Greek Government through New Initiative

The clever apps, developed through the two-year Rebooting the Greek Language project and building on years of research and development, seek to engage preschoolers, elementary students, and young adults in the Greek diaspora with story-driven and game-based language courses. Rebooting the Greek Language is supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) and is a project of the SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies and the SNF New Media Lab at SFU.

The new initiative, StaEllinika, is a collaborative effort of the SNF Center for Hellenic Studies and the General Secretariat for Greeks Abroad at the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The announcement is timed to offer beta versions of resources to students stuck at home in lockdowns around the globe, pending release of the full version scheduled for September 2020. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to have the language resources, currently English-oriented, customized for French, German, and Spanish speakers too, and the SFU team plans to add content on Greek history and culture in addition to language.

The apps that form the basis of the StaEllinika platform were developed in a way that fittingly reflects the diaspora communities they’re built to serve. With SFU its the hub, a distributed network of early-career Greek professionals collaborated across international lines to envision, build, and perfect the apps.