how do modern greeks learn ancient greek

[daivid]

This is another way of posing the question of how different are Classical Greek and modern Greek.

So do modern Greeks just pick it up from being exposed to bits of Homer in the way British kids
are exposed to Shakespeare at school? Are there Classical Greek to Modern Greek dictionaries?
Are there translations of Herodotos into Modern Greek? Are the textbooks to help modern Greeks get to grips with Homer etc?

[pster]

I showed a 65 year old, native, not particularly scholarly yet not particularly dumb, Greek man my Plato one day and I asked him if he could read it. He popped it open and read a sentence and waved his hands as though to say that it wasn't that hard to read. I also got the impression that he had had some exposure to the original texts when he was back in grade school. It is interesting though that native Greeks do not dominate classics the way, for example, Italians dominate Dante studies and Italian Renaissance studies. Of course there are plenty of non-Italians who work on Dante and the Italian Renaissance, but my sense is that the most knowledgeable writers and probably a majority overall are native Italians. Italy is four times bigger than Greece, and the Italian of 1200-1600 is closer to today's Italian than Attic is to today's Greek. Still, off the top of my head, I can only think of a couple of prominent native Greek classicists.

[Scribo]

I showed a 65 year old, native, not particularly scholarly yet not particularly dumb, Greek man my Plato one day and I asked him if he could read it. He popped it open and read a sentence and waved his hands as though to say that it wasn't that hard to read. I also got the impression that he had had some exposure to the original texts when he was back in grade school. It is interesting though that native Greeks do not dominate classics the way, for example, Italians dominate Dante studies and Italian Renaissance studies. Of course there are plenty of non-Italians who work on Dante and the Italian Renaissance, but my sense is that the most knowledgeable writers and probably a majority overall are native Italians. Italy is four times bigger than Greece, and the Italian of 1200-1600 is closer to today's Italian than Attic is to today's Greek. Still, off the top of my head, I can only think of a couple of prominent native Greek classicists.

For several important reasons, but its best not to go into it. There have been some would be prominent Greek Classicists like Kakridis but they were demonised by the establishment, even now the best Greek Classicists tend to end up marginalised, I can think of (for example) Athanassaki who is a powerhouse internationally but is barely read in Greek and teaches in Rethymno I believe.

There are...lots of reasons, and just thinking about it makes me mad. Very mad. There is something very, very, very rotten in the Greek mindset.

[LSorenson]

Nicholas Adamou, on the B-Greek site, gave an extensive account of how he studied modern Greek and then Ancient Greek in the 1950's or 1960's. His story can be found at the topic "Learning Greek Experience as a Native Greek" http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1117&p=5396&hilit=adamou#p5380

[Scribo]

Nicholas Adamou, on the B-Greek site, gave an extensive account of how he studied modern Greek and then Ancient Greek in the 1950's or 1960's. His story can be found at the topic "Learning Greek Experience as a Native Greek" http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1117&p=5396&hilit=adamou#p5380

Interesting, he learnt in the 50's/60's so I guess that puts him in our parents generation or so? The references to biblical Greek are telling...thankfully no one is forced to read the bible or anything nowadays.

Some questionable statements, e.g those in the Scientific path being the more competitive students etc. Not necessarily, a lot of my friends who went through that tend to certainly think that is the case, I've certainly given up trying to explain ancient Greece or linguistics to them. Thankfully some of the more wealthy ones have been able to study in Europe and had their asses suitably kicked by our education to learn to shut up a bit. In general I think those in the Humanities side tend to be more intelligent, hell my partner did well enough that she could have transferred to Medicine - arguably the most competitive programme after Law.

I don't really understand how one can learn a language in context without proper phonology, a good grasp of historical context - which is deliberately lacking. Honestly, if you look at textbooks used in Athens like Babinotis' <<συνοπτική ιστορία τής ελληνικής γλώσσας>> you can see oodles of mistakes, though I think Horrock's book has been translated and I know its used in Thessaloniki Uni...

For what its worth, despite the near Hesiodic amount of lamenting in that account I think the way Greek and Ancient Greek is taught in Greece now is arguably a lot better. Its less obsessed with the bible, less interpretative and less romantacised. Moreover modern Greek philology is now getting pretty badass. The next 50-100 years will be very interested, with a slow (but hopefully steady) adoption of modern philological methods and the increase of students getting familiar with Latin too - well until the recession hit...

[daivid]

Nicholas Adamou, on the B-Greek site, gave an extensive account of how he studied modern Greek and then Ancient Greek in the 1950's or 1960's. His story can be found at the topic "Learning Greek Experience as a Native Greek" http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1117&p=5396&hilit=adamou#p5380

Thanks for providing that link. What I found especially telling was even though he met a lot of Ancient Greek at church - memorising whole sections of it even - he still had to be formally taught classical Greek over quite a long period.

However odd 16th and 17th century English may seem to modern native speakers it isn't formally taught and simple exposure to Shakespeare and the King James version is sufficient. Hence the difference between modern an classical Greek must be as great as between modern English and Chaucer.