Teacher Who Keeps Albanian in Greece Alive

Timo. 04. 2012. It was the day when Albanian children of the Greek island first went to school to learn Albanian. On the table it says:” You give me honor in Albania, give me the Albanian name” and then the poem of Naim Frasher:

Our tongue is so good!

So sweet, so wide.

How easy, how cheap!

How beautiful, how valuable!

There is also teacher Vera, who made it possible for Albanian children on the island of Timos.

I won't forget those moments of joy when school principal number two. Valakas, he called me and told me to come to school and sign the class's delivery for the beginning of Albanian-language lessons”, so report to the Albanian language teacher on Tino Island. It is Vera Shorti, the teacher who is keeping Albanian among Albanian children on this island of Greece alive. It speaks of the challenges of her life in immigration and her dream of learning Albanian language to Albanian children born in Greece. After many dilemmas, she decided one day to leave for the city's municipal offices to apply that had not been so unexpected for Greek officials.

Before I gave my hand to the deputy mayor and president of the Syros Island emigrant Council, Mr. Nikos Albanopoulos, I asked: “When Greek schools will open the doors for learning Albanian as the doors are opened for learning Greek in Europe, America and Australia? The time had come when patience was running low, and I really wanted to make it as soon as possible. My goal was to start on March 7th. The school opened on April 1, 2012,...”, says Timos' teacher of Albanian children.

But how Vera's dream began to open Albanian school on the beautiful Greek island, where Albanian children live life, but did not know any Albanian words, writes KultPlus, conveys albinfo.ch.ch.

Vera emigrant Dream

. . When I first came, I didn't know where I was going, and I didn't know what to do... I slowly lost myself... I didn't know which one I was supposed to be to adapt to the new life as an immigrant in Greece. I came to realize every simple man's dream of having a home. That was the point. It was a close purpose because we thought about going, working for several years, collecting what money was needed to make a house, and returning to our country, our lives, my profession. But that was not the case. I've had a hard time, anyway. There have been moments when I thought about the return of what all immigrants have been living and every time they leave the country, they take with them the homesickness, the love of the country, the people, everything. I went to Albania and I came back... For the second time, yes. Because I haven't found the rest of the life we built here. Looks like they've forgotten who's there.

In the first years of immigration here, you couldn't think of such a thing that even I didn't have the idea that Greece would be covered with Albanian land. After so many years, I too had found the pace of my work, but I realized that something was missing in me. I missed myself. My self was lost. She had lost her daily life in the work of an immigrant. It wasn't my dream... She made one day go to City Hall and knock on the mayor's door. He didn't think I'd go there on such a case. I thought I had some personal trouble... Stefanos Laguros, deputy mayor, says: “The Greek official has thus acknowledged the right of Albanian children to learn maternal language. “Living with a community outside his country for economic reasons is perfectly understandable, desirable, as well as compulsory, teaching the mother tongue. By being convinced of this idea, as a municipal body, we thought that the demand set forth to respond positively to”, that was the hearing that had come shortly after Vera had appeared at her bold request at the doors of the Greek city's municipality.

She later relates that with the valuable help of primary education director Ms. Vlastari, as well as with the great support of public school principal number 2, it became possible to make a decision by the school commission to give a class in Tino, which would serve Albanian children in teaching their mother tongue.