Greek education is test mad. Few teachers are able to see testing and teaching as separate, and so very few students can either. What are the effects of such a learning culture? How can it fuck things up? Here is a worst-case scenario.

First, in such an environment,… Read full post »

I decided to learn some Arabic. There was but a paltry choice of books for the purpose at Waterstones, so I bought ‘Arabic for Dummies: the fun and easy way to start speaking Arabic’. Normally I can do without the ‘For Dummies’ series and its relentless chumminess: ‘Wind… Read full post »

‘Jeni Food’ was the quaint name of a tiny Chinese restaurant in Kolonaki, the posh bit of central Athens. The place was a one-woman show, run by Jeni Chen, who for a while was a friend of mine. The food was excellent if Jeni was in the mood, but could be… Read full post »