An OLD question but still...

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CanadianGirl
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An OLD question but still...

Post by CanadianGirl »

With a nod to IreneY's "Resources" post, tell me this: suppose you have a fairly good back-ground in Greek and you had the opportunity to teach beginning Greek to a bright High School student, what is the best text ? She just wants a good, solid introduction this summer, probably continuing in the Fall. I'm looking for a text that's thorough, easily available and not scary (you know what I mean). I considered Ancient Greek Alive, Athenaze, a couple of others, but can't decide. I learned Greek using Payne- Beginning Greek, which is thorough but too much for High School level. Any advice?

Markos
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Re: An OLD question but still...

Post by Markos »

I would insist that she at least listen to lots of audio. (I might try to convince her to go all-out conversational and thus might use Rico, but I'm not sure.) Therefore, I would use something with readily available free audio, and that would likely be the Greek Ollendorff. I believe that more or less complete audio files are also available for Athenaze, but they are a little harder to track down. Some interesting video is available for Athenaze, so that is also in its favor.

Calgacus
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Re: An OLD question but still...

Post by Calgacus »

Athenaze is the only text that I've ever taught from, and it certainly has plenty to recommend it. There are some good resources available for it, and I like the way it introduces some Greek history in the stories towards the end of the first book. The problem with (in my opinion) is that the stories at the beginning are dreadfully boring, and the exercises are essentially just reprises of the stories (the Oxford Latin Course has the same weakness, by the way).

Long ago, I learnt from the Wilding course, which is old-fashioned but very comprehensive and not quite as dry as it appears. It would have hardly any supporting resources, though.

ariphron
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Re: An OLD question but still...

Post by ariphron »

I've learnt mostly from Athenaze. There is certainly a good variety of audio material for it. I found a decent set for the Italian version with filenames in Latin but several chapters missing, and then there's Mark Miner's audio, which is too stiff in its observance of tones and quantity for my taste. I myself have made some 2.5 hrs of audio for my own use, in my own reconstructed Attic pronunciation, and I'd be happy to make it available to you if you PM me. I didn't mind the first few stories -- they gave me the chance to try reading with dramatic expression from the very beginning, though certainly a farmer scolding his lazy slave is not the subject matter that we learn Greek in order to read about.

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