Hey all. I am new to Greek and new to Textkit. I am aware that I've embarked on what will no doubt be a long journey, but I can see very far ahead and I just wanted to ask some of your thoughts on what lies there, and for your help in setting realistic expectations. I am working my way through Mounce's BBG and am still in the early chapters (chapter 10, presently).
My primary goal in learning to read Greek is to be able to read the New Testament. However, it seems like to me, if I want to have any real depth of context to define words from the New Testament by, or understand the writing styles of the authors therein, I will want to also read from other Greek texts of the period as much as possible, or possibly from other periods, right? That suits me fine, too, because I like learning new things and my interests are wide. Is this sensible? What other sorts of things would be good to read for this purpose? Also, if I reached a point where I had a decent handle on Koine, how much work would be required to reach that same point in reading other dialects such as epic or Attic? Would it be a major effort, or merely a slight inconvenience?
Where should I expect to be upon completing the textbook? Will I be reading many things, but with difficulty, and from that point, more practice gains speed plus better understanding and vocabulary? Is that a reasonable expectation? Or will there still be many things I cannot understand or read, even after completing the textbook?
For those of you who have been at it for a while, how long did it take you to achieve a level of basic competency in reading the language? Are there are milestone markers or notable phases in learning the language? Any particular goals I should be striving to achieve along the way?
Thanks for listening!
Scott