Ancient Greek Alive

[CanadianGirl]

Hi! Hope this isn't an inappropriate question: what do you guys think about Saffire's "Ancient Greek Alive" as a beginning textbook? I tutor Greek sometimes & I'm really concerned to get a text that is good on the grammar, but also interesting. "A.G.A." seems pretty sound, & I love the bright (unstuffy) approach, and the "conversational" beginning. However, the use of real Greek texts & authors in the book is limited. May I ask (if this isn't too big a topic-what is this group's Greek textbook of choice? Thanks for your help! Paige. (CanadianGirl).

[Hciebel]

Hi! Hope this isn't an inappropriate question: what do you guys think about Saffire's "Ancient Greek Alive" as a beginning textbook? I tutor Greek sometimes & I'm really concerned to get a text that is good on the grammar, but also interesting. "A.G.A." seems pretty sound, & I love the bright (unstuffy) approach, and the "conversational" beginning. However, the use of real Greek texts & authors in the book is limited. May I ask (if this isn't too big a topic-what is this group's Greek textbook of choice? Thanks for your help! Paige. (CanadianGirl).

Hello Paige,
I can recommend this book strongly, since I began teaching myself greek with it and I think, it gave me a successful start.
I can imagine many people may see a flaw in it's limitation in genuine greek, but for the beginner I believe this is even advantageous, since he won't be disencouraged by a mass of difficult texts or by reading short dull passages without proper context (or context provided).
In addition to that, one must not forget, that there is quite a mount of genuine greek in it and if you think this isn't sufficient, I think you will easily find some appropriate text from other textbooks.
AGA seems to be shorter (in pages) than most other introductions in greek I saw, but I could only seldom find a topic, that Mrs. Saffire left out but better shouldn't have to.
This book is still one of my favourite refences (especially the appendix with the different conjugations of the verbs are superior to all other textbooks I know in clarity of arragement).
I don't know what edition you are going to use - I used the 3rd, I think - and one big malus is the number of misprints in this edition, but surely you will easily spot and rectify them.
Finally, I can't imagine, that someone shouldn't like the stories she translated into greek for the students (though they are not particulary "greek").
Conclusion: Thumbs up.

Puh, finished. I hope this is helpful.

Mark

[JuliaP]

I have the book but I'm waiting until after I get some Homeric Greek under my belt (my own preference) to start studying with it.

You will need the audio files that go with the scripts at the beginning of the book, either by writing to the authors for an audio cassette or by going to the web page of one of the authors: http://home.millsaps.edu/freiscr/greekscripts.html

[CanadianGirl]

Mark & Julia: Thanks very much! This is excellent advice! Take care- Paige (CanadianGirl).