studying Greek

Here you can discuss all things Ancient Greek. Use this board to ask questions about grammar, discuss learning strategies, get help with a difficult passage of Greek, and more.
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iamandrew
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studying Greek

Post by iamandrew »

What is the best way to study Greek?
You have to remember so many ending, infixes and so on.
I can read about something, eg how the verbs work, but remembering it and applying it to the translation exercises is more difficut.
Do you have any wisdom to give me?

GJCaesar
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Re: studying Greek

Post by GJCaesar »

iamandrew wrote:What is the best way to study Greek?
You have to remember so many ending, infixes and so on.
I can read about something, eg how the verbs work, but remembering it and applying it to the translation exercises is more difficut.
Do you have any wisdom to give me?
Make cards, English/mother language on the one side, Greek on the other. Practice, practice, practice. Repetition is the key to learning any language! Print out the most common verbs and put them on the mirror in the bathroom and practice them every night when you brush your teeth :D
vincatur oportet aut vincat

ragnar_deerslayer
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Re: studying Greek

Post by ragnar_deerslayer »

Memorizing verb endings was a losing battle for me. (I say that from three years of seminary Greek.) If you're like me, here's what I'd suggest:

1. Use Randall Buth's "Living Koine Greek" ("Introduction Part One"). This will start you out thinking in Greek and teach you the Restored Koine pronunciation.

2. Use Kendick's Greek Ollendorff + Bedwere's audio. This will give you the grammar of Attic (which applies to Koine as well) as well as increasing your ability to comprehend spoken Greek without needing to translate it into English first.

3. If you can read French, use Assimil's "Le Grec Ancien Sans Peine". Its audio is Attic with the pitch accents (very different from Restored Koine), but the book alone would be helpful for your purposes.

Good luck, and (most importantly) don't give up!

Ragnar
Read my blog! --> Study Greek

iamandrew
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Re: studying Greek

Post by iamandrew »

How will a book about Koine Greek help me with Attic Greek?

Are there any good website about Attic Greek that you can recommend?
Do you look for patterns in the grammar tables in order to remember?
Sometimes people tell you that you can use different technique but that the most important thing is a good memory!

ragnar_deerslayer
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Re: studying Greek

Post by ragnar_deerslayer »

I'm sorry, I wasn't clear. Koine is a limited subset of Attic; what you learn for one will generally (with some exceptions) apply to the other. The Living Koine book I mentioned is 10 chapters of 100 pictures each, with some exercises. The audio for each picture is either the name of the object or a sentence describing the action. They slowly build in complexity as the book progresses, so you go from "a horse" to a sequence of images depicting a story or scene. Later, it introduces you to the Greek script and how to read. This is an extremely effective way to enable you to read in Greek rather than quickly translate into English. (Plus, I just like the Restored Koine pronunciation. If you really want to go for Attic pitch accents, do that.)

Of course, it costs money. If you follow my link on Kendrick's Greek Ollendorff, you can get what you need for that basically for free.

Ragnar
Read my blog! --> Study Greek

epikeia
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Re: studying Greek

Post by epikeia »

iamandrew wrote:What is the best way to study Greek?
...
Do you have any wisdom to give me?
I would not have made it to the level I'm at (reading and understanding short adapted Attic passages) if I had not participated in Rob McConeghy's beginner/reviewer groups at the Latin & Greek Study Groups site (I don't think I'm allowed to post a link here, but just look up that name.)

Now in my third year studying there, I'm approaching the end of the two volume introductory series, Greek to GCSE, by John Taylor. I think finding a study group in which a short assignment is due every week has been, for me, the only way to get over the initial hump of incomprehensibility. Good intentions and initial enthusiasm only go so far: learning Greek is demanding, difficult, and time-consuming.

In addition, I've found it helpful to have several other introductory texts around for variety. None of the books takes the same approach or introduces things in the same order as Taylor, so you get new perspectives. In addition to the Taylor, I find the JACT Reading Greek set, Athenaze, and Learning to Read Greek by Keller and Russell the most approachable, though I've collected a few others, and have downloaded several from this site as well. I have Mastronarde's text but it is just too dense for me (though I like his explanation of the way accents work.) (I also have a long list of internet sites I've collected just through searching diligently.)

Studying Attic Greek is my main hobby, and as such, I devote a considerable amount of time to it. Sometimes I feel like I'm obsessed. :shock: But as a semi-retired person (I have a 3/4 time nannying job) I want to use the limited time I have left to engage in something challenging and meaningful.

Greek is hard. If you really want to learn it, make it a priority, collect what materials you can find and/or afford, and spend time every week, every day if you can, with some small aspect of it. Persistence has been the key, for me.

ariphron
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Re: studying Greek

Post by ariphron »

I strongly believe that the best drills have both stimulus and response in the target language. That means, for basic inflections, you should read word lists out loud, changing from singular to plural, from genitive to nominative, from active to passive, supplying articles etc. And spend a lot of time reading complete sentences aloud as soon as you can. Reading aloud at a natural speed forces you to get every detail in your short-term memory, which is much easier if you've thoroughly learned the grammatical rules, so it reinforces your learning in a way that the study of individual words and paradigms does not.

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