Born in Italy, AGBU AVC student Antonio E. Porreca is now living in France. He is a lecturer at Aix-Marseille University and a researcher in computer science. He has no Armenian roots, but his partner is a native Western Armenian speaker. That, coupled with the fact that language learning is Antonio’s main hobby, brought him to AGBU AVC language courses.

He was searching on the web for Western Armenian lessons when he discovered AGBU AVC and decided to enroll. Since then, he has taken 4 levels (Beginners, Elementary, Pre-Intermediate and Intermediate) of the Western Armenian course.

Being a perfectionist, Antonio describes his command of the language as “still very basic,” mainly because he wants to expand and work more on his vocabulary before claiming to speak the language. “Even though it is an Indo-European language, Armenian is very different from the other languages I know. I am not speaking Armenian that much because I want to try and achieve a better level first.”

Inspired by his partner’s cultural background and hoping to have conversations with her in Western Armenian, Antonio studies a bit every day. His daily learning routine includes the AGBU AVC online lessons, reviewing vocabulary and sentences, reading texts in Armenian, and even listening to Armenian radio.

Prior to starting his Armenian Language learning journey, Antonio was looking for two things: materials, especially audio, video and text, suitable for a beginner; and the flexibility to attend an online course online in a way that was compatible with his work and lifestyle.

“These expectations were met at AVC. Furthermore, I always had a competent teacher available online to answer my questions and practice speaking with me. I really liked my weekly video calls with my teacher Ani Dekirmenchyan, discussing the topic of the week. She was very encouraging.”

AGBU AVC Senior Online Instructor Ani Dekirmenchyan describes Antonio as a very responsible and hardworking student. “Every week during our conferences, I felt how responsible he was for learning. During the conversation, he tried to use all the new words included in the lesson. He has a big love for the Armenian language and our lessons, and it inspires me as a teacher,” she adds.

Antonio plans to continue his studies at AGBU AVC. “Since language is my main interest at the moment, I want to take the more advanced Western Armenian courses.” He also considers taking other AGBU AVC courses in the future.

“I would certainly recommend the AVC courses to anyone interested in the Armenian language, history and culture. The fact that it is possible to attend the courses online is a big factor for me, and the quality of the teaching materials and the competence of the teachers definitely convinced me,” concludes Antonio.