About the Teacher
About Maciek Gdula
Philologist, historian, and teacher of Ancient Greek as a living language, known to his students by his Greek name, Ματθίᾱς.
Maciek Gdula teaches Ancient Greek the way it was meant to be used: spoken. His approach joins philological rigor with conversational fluency: close attention to idiom, to particles, and to what actually separates Attic from Koine, so that students don’t just parse Greek, they inhabit it. Every lesson, from a student’s very first class, is conducted entirely in Ancient Greek.
He trained in the immersion method at the Polis Institute Jerusalem’s two-year Fluency in Ancient Greek program with its teaching-track emphasis, and returned as an instructor there, leading weekly sessions that pair classical texts with modern compositions. His research interests run to Greek prose fiction, epistolography, and everyday life in antiquity (the Letters of Phalaris in particular), along with what cognitive science can teach us about how languages are actually acquired.
Languages have shaped his whole path: native English and Polish, professional fluency in Ancient Greek, advanced Mandarin from two years at Tsinghua University in Beijing, working proficiency in Latin, Spanish, and French, and academic knowledge of Classical Chinese and Egyptian hieroglyphs. He grew up in Syria, Poland, and the United States, and produces free educational content spoken entirely in Ancient Greek on YouTube (opens in new tab) and social media.
Teaching Experience
Founder & Teacher, Ancient Greek School
2024–present
Private one-on-one tutoring at every proficiency level, plus free video content: vocabulary lessons, idiom studies, and audiobook recordings, all spoken entirely in Ancient Greek.
Ancient Greek Instructor, The Polis Institute
2024
Led weekly immersion sessions at the institute where he trained, pairing classical texts with modern compositions. Has also contributed editorial work to Polis Institute textbooks.
Ancient Greek Instructor, Institutum Antiquitatis
ongoing
Teaches spoken Ancient Greek alongside an international faculty of active-language classicists.
English Language Facilitator, Google Beijing
2012
Developed and taught an advanced conversational curriculum: early proof that immersion works for adult learners.
Education
University of Warsaw
M.A. in Classics (expected 2026)
The Polis Institute, Jerusalem
Two-year Fluency in Ancient Greek program with the Emphasis in Teaching Ancient Languages track (2022–2024)
Tsinghua University, Beijing
Chinese Language Program (2010–2012)
University of Nottingham
B.A. in History & Political Science (2007–2010), with a History exchange year at McGill University, Montreal
Learn Ancient Greek With Me
Private one-on-one lessons online, from beginner to advanced. Every session fully in Ancient Greek.