by spiphany » Fri Jan 30, 2009 7:08 pm
Depends what your goals are. If you're only interested in reading, most of the time you can safely ignore the accents. Not always, however: there are a few cases where the accent can make a difference to the meaning of a word -- distinguishing a noun from a verb, for example -- but context will often help with that, too. Or you can simply learn individual cases as they come up.
If you're at all interested in poetics or composition, you will want to learn the accents eventually, and it's easier to do this at the beginning, if possible.
IPHIGENIE: Kann uns zum Vaterland die Fremde werden?
ARKAS: Und dir ist fremd das Vaterland geworden.
IPHIGENIE: Das ist's, warum mein blutend Herz nicht heilt.
(Goethe, Iphigenie auf Tauris)