Suggestions for a Beginner

[BobFunland]

I've decided to study Greek.





I've also decided to take 6 or 7 college courses and learn as much as I can of about 10 other languages when I have the time/energy to do it. Luckily I'm not working right now


..About those 10 languages, I may have cheated a bit, because I counted languages that have so far proven fairly similar to each other, i.e. Old English/Gothic/Old Norse/Icelandic and Norwegian/Swedish as separate languages... I could even go so far as to say that I've noticed a few similarities between Norwegian and Old Norse, which is certainly helpful!

I can probably afford to spend anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour on Greek several days per week. I'm going to have to do some serious budgeting of my time, but I figure it's more worthwhile than zoning out in front of the TV or reading a novel for the umpteenth time.

Any suggestions, other than "Don't do it!"?

[nefercheprure]

I can probably afford to spend anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour on Greek several days per week. I'm going to have to do some serious budgeting of my time, but I figure it's more worthwhile than zoning out in front of the TV or reading a novel for the umpteenth time.

Any suggestions, other than "Don't do it!"?

Do it! Greek is an fantastic language.

At first you would probably need more than that amount of time. It depends on the textbook, teacher, and method you will use. If you will be your own teacher do not suppose your advance to be quick. If your teacher will proceed at the pace of the lightning bolt (as my college teacher did) (the whole Greek grammar including major dialectical variants and quite a complete exception set in less than two semesters), well, you'll be probably left behind. BUT! Don't worry. Then you can proceed yourself with the 30 minutes to 1 hour per day at almost the same speed as the teacher. If your teacher will go at slower (half that of lightning ) pace, the time you spared could be on the very brink of sufficiency, or beyond, depending of course on your learning abilities. (Ten languages, hmm, impressive..., but could you manage them all?)

[chrisb]

I found the 2 volumes of the Joint Association of Classical Teachers Greek Course were for me. I was reading real Greek very quickly,
They are published by Cambridge University Press and can be bought from Amazon among others.

Reading Greek: Text ISBN 0-521-21976-0
Reading Greek: Grammar, Vocabulary and Exercises ISBN 0-521-21977-9

OR you could try downloading from textkit for FREE JWW First Greek Book. The only problem here is that you will need to print it out.

chrisb

[BobFunland]

Thanks for the tips, guys, I'm doing this mostly at home so having the textbooks stored on my computer isn't a problem.