Alumna of the month
Introduction
Sofia A. Koutlaki was born in Athens and studied English and Greek literature at the
University of Athens. She received her MA in Classics from UCL in 1988 and her
PhD (1997, Wales, Cardiff) for her thesis on the system of politeness and the folk
concept of ‘face’ in Persian communication and culture. She now teaches English at
the Quran and Hadith University, Tehran, and Classical Greek at the University of
Tehran.
Sofia Koutlaki
What did you enjoy most about your time in Greek and Latin and at UCL?
The year I spent at UCL was the first year of my life in England, so I enjoyed getting
to grips with everyday life away from home. In the late 80s, Athens was not the
multicultural capital it is now, so I enjoyed meeting people from all over the world. I
particularly enjoyed discovering Islam, an interest that had lain dormant for many
years, and Iranian culture, an interest I developed shortly before I came to UCL as a
result of an acquaintance with a certain person, now my husband of twenty-seven
years.
Although not strictly speaking part of UCL, I also enjoyed making new friends from all
over the world at Hughes Parry Hall in Cartwright Gardens.
What was your career path like after leaving UCL?
As soon as I left UCL I got a job as Assistant to the Station Manager of Iran Air at
Heathrow Airport. My boss knew minimal English and I had rudimentary Persian, so
this “communication gap” was the ideal opportunity to learn Persian. From 1990 until
1997 I taught English in a state secondary school in Ealing, having two babies and a
PhD in the space of seven years!
We then moved to Iran for the next three years, where I taught Linguistics,
Introduction to Drama and General English as visiting lecturer in Tehran, and then it
was back to London, where I worked as Editorial Assistant at Booth-Clibborn Editions
on the three-volume The Splendour of Iran. I taught GCSE and A level English at the
Hellenic College London, worked as Assistant Examiner for AS English Language
(Edexcel) and for the International GCSE English Literature (Cambridge International
Examinations).
Back in Iran once more in 2007, I began writing Among the Iranians: A Guide to
Iran’s Culture and Customs which was published on 2010 (Intercultural Press:
Boston, Mass.) Again, as visiting lecturer, I taught Linguistics, Advanced Writing and
Research Methods at Shahid Beheshti University, and after all those years of to-ing
and fro-ing between England and Iran, I finally got a permanent university post at the
Quran and Hadith University in Tehran at the tender age of 48 (no mean feat in Iran,
which produces an exceptionally high number of graduates and postgraduates every
year). Since my coming to Iran in 2007, I have also had the opportunity to carry out
freelance translation from Persian to English, which I enjoy a lot.
What do you like most about your current job?
My full-time work is focused on EFL teaching and developing teaching materials for
students of Islamic Studies. It gives me a feeling of making a difference in the
students’ learning experience and progress in English. Although quite demanding, it
also allows me the leisure of devoting one day a week to the teaching of Classical
Greek, and from next autumn term of Latin too.
Something else I love about my present job is the opportunity to improve my Persian:
my students’ English is very weak, and they expect to translate the text they read. Of
course, this means that my Persian vocabulary has expanded enormously. I often
joke with them, saying that they may not have learnt much from me, but my Persian
has improved hugely!
On a different note, the location of the Quran and Hadith University is unique: the
Tehran campus is in Shahrerey, actually inside the mausoleum complex of ‘Abd olAzim, a descendant of the second Shi’a Imam. The mausoleum, a major pilgrimage
site in the Shi’a world, exudes strong positive energy.
What was your first-ever job?
During the break between my graduation from the University of Athens (1986) and
the beginning of my MA at UCL, I taught English as a Foreign Language to children
and teenagers in a private language school in Athens.
What has been your favourite job?
My favourite job is the one I hold at present. An aspect I particularly like in my
involvement in Classical Greek teaching is the fact that one of the graduate students
of Philosophy, Maryam Forghani, is so keen on improving her Classical Greek skills,
that she has voluntarily become my Teaching Assistant and helps me put together
teaching notes in Persian.
In what way did your studies help you in your subsequent work?
Mastering ancient languages gives one an extraordinary ability to analyse and learn
more languages, which has helped me learn Persian and continues to help me in my
(repeated) attempts to learn Arabic.
Over the last two years, I was asked to teach Classical Greek to undergraduate and
postgraduate students of Philosophy at the University of Tehran. This had proved an
extremely challenging yet enjoyable experience, which I hope will be the beginning of
exciting developments in Classics teaching in Iran.
Sofia and her graduate students at Tehran University
I suppose that the skills I gained from my interaction with people from other cultures
helped me develop an interest in various cultures, and consequently the flexibility
necessary to adapt to life and work in Iran. And of course, I should not forget to
mention that deciphering papyri has definitely helped and continues to do so in my
examination work!
What do you remember most about your time in UCL Greek and Latin?
I still remember struggling over the decipherment of unpublished papyri in the
Institute of Classical Studies library, as part of the Papyrology class coursework, and
how Ibrahim el-Gendy, now professor at the University of Cairo, used to help me. I
also remember morning coffees and afternoon teas there, right on the dot; it felt so
incredibly well-organised and English.
I also remember an antique typewriter, property of the Classics Department, which
had two sets of characters, Greek and English next to each other, in a kind of
Siamese typewriter. I had never seen a thing like it! Miss Mills, the then departmental
manager, showed me how one could switch between the two keyboards by releasing
a level and lifting the ribbon carriage across, over the other keyboard. I had given my
dissertation to be word-processed, but the Classical Greek bits of the text did not
exist in a computer programme, so I left blank spaces in the English text, where the
Greek should go. I typed the Greek bits on this ancient typewriter, cut it out and stuck
the bits of paper with the Greek text on the dissertation which had been printed
without the Greek). Then I had the whole dissertation photocopied.
Then there were the huts just by the Gordon street entrance, which were still used as
classrooms. The prospectus described them as “temporary”, even though they had
been there since WW2, which always reminded me of the Greek proverb “nothing is
more permanent than the temporary”. Eventually, they were removed some time in
the 90s, if I remember correctly, and were replaced by modern buildings.
Who at UCL (past or present) has most influenced you?
Professor Pat Easterling and Professor Herwig Maehler taught me more than their
specialist subjects, and became my role models in later life, each in their own way. I
can safely say that no day passes when I do not recall what I learned from them. I
had been used to the aloof, often arrogant behaviour of my professors at the
University of Athens, where we had been taught in huge groups, while most
professors did not know us by name. When I joined the Classics department, I was
surprised to find that everybody knew each other by name.
Professor Easterling, who was my dissertation supervisor, came to the Classics
Department at about the same time as me, in 1987. Being Greek, I was good at
reading Greek, but had no clue on the Reconstructed Pronunciation, which is not
used in Greece (Classical Greek is read aloud like Modern Greek!) I was
embarrassed when I was asked to read aloud in her class, but made diligent efforts
to get used to RP, to which she patiently encouraged me. She has always been a
model of a calm, confident and supporting professor, whose maternal smile made me
feel warm inside.
And then there was Professor Herwig Maehler, who, apart from teaching me how to
decipher Hellenistic papyri, he taught me something much more important: humility.
In the beginning I could not comprehend how the top professor of papyrology in the
world could ask for our views on how best to work and on his method, behave like a
shy schoolchild, sport a permanent smile and muster infinite patience in dealing with
me, who was much weaker than my classmates, and was anyway too sad (pining
away for someone back home) and too busy (writing letters to him) to do any serious
work.
Of what are you most proud about UCL?
The fact that I am an alumna of one of the top universities in the world and the
privilege that I have had to be taught by such professors from whom I have learned
such a great deal.
What is your favourite part of UCL?
My favourite part has to be the Central Library, which I continued using long after my
MA was over. In fact, the continued membership of the UCL and the Senate House
libraries has been of paramount importance for my PhD study, during which I lived
and worked in London while I was enrolled at Cardiff. I have been grateful for this
ever since.
UCL South Cloisters
I also loved the South Cloisters with the Marmor Homericum and its view on to the
Quad. This was the first image of UCL I saw in its prospectus while I was still an
undergraduate in Athens, and in a way, the image of the South Cloisters is the first
indoor image of UCL that is imprinted on my mind.
Marmor Homericum (detail), 1865, Henri-Joseph-François Triqueti (1804-74),
Marble intarsia
What, in your opinion, would improve UCL?
I have been away for so long that I do not really know what UCL is like now. But I
suspect that it continues to be as good as it used to!
Tell me something about yourself that most people don’t know!
In my last year in Greece before I came to UCL I took lessons in Classical singing
and was told that my voice had the makings of a lyrical soprano. I did not follow this
through since, until about five years ago in Tehran, when I took lessons in Classical
Persian singing. Although my voice is not what it used to be, I sometimes fire off an
aria or a traditional song from my native island of Kassos when I am in the mood.
Also, I am currently working on a (long overdue) novel set in Kassos, in the south of
Greece.