Rouse's Greek Composition Book

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jeidsath
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Rouse's Greek Composition Book

Post by jeidsath »

I have a scan of Rouse's composition book, but the key has been hard to find. Cambridge is the only place that will scan it for me, and since it will be expensive, I have started a $200 kickstarter campaign:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/14 ... ition-book

The idea is to put everything online for free. The composition book is in the next link -- no one has made it available before now as far as I know. Note that I haven't edited it into individual pages yet:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B23NN- ... sp=sharing
“One might get one’s Greek from the very lips of Homer and Plato." "In which case they would certainly plough you for the Little-go. The German scholars have improved Greek so much.”

Joel Eidsath -- jeidsath@gmail.com

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calvinist
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Re: Rouse's Greek Composition Book

Post by calvinist »

I think I can put up $10 or so for this. Is Rouse's Comp. book different in style from the others, e.g. North & Hillard et al.?

EDIT: I should've read your entire post. I browsed through the book and it seems to be much more thorough in treating not just the "basic" syntax like indirect speech, conditionals etc., but also some more specific idioms.

mwh
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Re: Rouse's Greek Composition Book

Post by mwh »

Would it perhaps be worthwhile setting up something like Jason’s ongoing Athenaze group? Exercises like these are of course most useful if tried before accessing the key. There are one or two people here who might be willing to correct and explain mistakes and/or to answer questions about the key’s answers. Anyway, once the key is available, it’s vitally important that anyone doing the exercises should come up with their own answers before checking against the key. I dare say with Textkit users this goes without saying, but I know how strong the temptation to look at answers is.

The exercises seem very good to me. Two cautionary points, though:
(1) I doubt if there’s anyone here capable of doing more than a very few of them orally on the spot. That would require much greater experience and competence in ancient Greek than has been shown here. They’re wholly unsuited to “Direct Method” use, and of course they already violate the fundamental principle of that approach by being in English.
(2) The book moves very fast. (ου μη construction by Ex.4 already!! That’s not normally encountered until a fairly advanced stage. The following Exx. on conditionals however look very useful, and could be done impromptu by those who know Greek well enough.)
So I’m not sure whether they offer much advantage over the exercises in more modern counterparts.

Add (3) The book assumes that the schoolboy for whom it was designed has already been taught Attic syntax, and the exercises seem intended to test and practise his knowledge of it. So it’s quite different from North and Hillard (or Susan Stephens’ composition book), which introduces the various constructions before giving exercises on them. Anyone who can make their way through it—which I suspect means not a single person on the planet—will end up with an excellent knowledge of Attic. It’s hyper-retro.

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jeidsath
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Re: Rouse's Greek Composition Book

Post by jeidsath »

I like mwh's idea to do lessons following the Athenaze group schedule. Is anyone else interested?

Meanwhile, I've edited the initial PDF and broken it down by page. Here it is on the internet archive:
https://archive.org/details/RouseExerci ... AtticGreek

The book on Lulu.com:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/whd-rouse/exer ... 07486.html

Already 25% funded for getting the key:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/14 ... ition-book

My wife suggested that I add rewards to the Kickstarter campaign. I thought that her list was funny:
I think you need to increase the number of rewards offered to really attract donations, e.g.:

For $5, I will show you how to block from your vision all posts made by Isaac Newton on Textkit.

For $10, you will get to participate in the Oakland Ancient Greek Lesson (held weekly on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. PT) via videoconference.

For $20, I will translate a brief ancient Greek passage of your choice or will translate a brief English passage of your choice into ancient Greek (word limit: 250).

For $50, I will translate a longer ancient Greek passage of your choice or will translate a longer English passage of your choice into ancient Greek (word limit: 2000).

For $100, you are invited to my house to enjoy a dinner featuring feta cheese (limited dates and times available, travel not included).

For $300, I will set up weekly 30-minute ancient Greek video chats with you for the next 12 months (limited dates and times available).
“One might get one’s Greek from the very lips of Homer and Plato." "In which case they would certainly plough you for the Little-go. The German scholars have improved Greek so much.”

Joel Eidsath -- jeidsath@gmail.com

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bedwere
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Re: Rouse's Greek Composition Book

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ariphron
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Re: Rouse's Greek Composition Book

Post by ariphron »

I'm interested in the group too. Also made a pledge to the Kickstarter campaign.

Whoo! It's been a while since I've posted here. I'm restarting my study of Greek after a break. (A move, several months as the primary caregiver of a small child, with the little spare time available devoted to music and Chinese, and a trip to China.)

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jeidsath
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Re: Rouse's Greek Composition Book

Post by jeidsath »

The key arrived from the Cambridge University Library today:

https://archive.org/details/RouseCompositionKey

Thanks everyone who pitched in to make this possible! I now have a good idea of why this book is so rare:
This Key is only supplied to authenticated teachers direct from the Publishers.

It is earnestly requested that should there be no further legitimate use for this Key, teachers will destroy it, to prevent it falling into hands for which it is not intended.
If anyone wants to use it to check Bedwere's and my latest exercises in the other thread, it would be appreciated, otherwise I'll do it.
“One might get one’s Greek from the very lips of Homer and Plato." "In which case they would certainly plough you for the Little-go. The German scholars have improved Greek so much.”

Joel Eidsath -- jeidsath@gmail.com

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calvinist
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Re: Rouse's Greek Composition Book

Post by calvinist »

jeidsath wrote:The key arrived from the Cambridge University Library today:

https://archive.org/details/RouseCompositionKey

Thanks everyone who pitched in to make this possible! I now have a good idea of why this book is so rare:
This Key is only supplied to authenticated teachers direct from the Publishers.

It is earnestly requested that should there be no further legitimate use for this Key, teachers will destroy it, to prevent it falling into hands for which it is not intended.
If anyone wants to use it to check Bedwere's and my latest exercises in the other thread, it would be appreciated, otherwise I'll do it.
Excellent, thanks. The scan is very clean and readable, and this is a one-of-a-kind Greek composition book. It's great that we can preserve these old treasures that would otherwise be lost.

thornsbreak
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Re: Rouse's Greek Composition Book

Post by thornsbreak »

jeidsath wrote:The key arrived from the Cambridge University Library today:

https://archive.org/details/RouseCompositionKey

Thanks everyone who pitched in to make this possible! I now have a good idea of why this book is so rare:
This Key is only supplied to authenticated teachers direct from the Publishers.

It is earnestly requested that should there be no further legitimate use for this Key, teachers will destroy it, to prevent it falling into hands for which it is not intended.
Hmm... reading a bit further on the same page, it seems we missed the boat by a century or so to get this one at a good deal without crowdfunding: "Price Six Shillings net."

(I thought that sounded cheap. Though on further investigation in currency calculators adjusted for inflation over time, that comes out somewhere around $35 to $40 dollars today... equivalent to a pretty expensive book today).
μέγας ὁ θεός· καλὸς ὁ ζῦθος· μαίνεται ὁ δῆμος.

Thrasystomos
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Re: Rouse's Greek Composition Book

Post by Thrasystomos »

Thanks for providing it (came too late for join the funding).

I made a scan, and put the en/greek sentences next to each other. The sentences are now quite carefully proofread. From this I made a so-called "anki deck" (convenient way to review it, also on mobile phones etc., NB: this is free/non-commercial) which you can easily access for searching for "Rouse" in the shared anki decks.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kmQT_c ... sp=sharing

If you find any mistakes, please post them. (if I find time, I might proofread the rest).

SamParkinson
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Re: Rouse's Greek Composition Book

Post by SamParkinson »

Thrasystomos wrote: From this I made a so-called "anki deck"
Thanks, that's a wonderful addition to the Anki decks currently available.

Can I ask you (or anyone else with Anki experience) how you tend to use something like this with Anki? Have you found review of large number of sentences etc. helpful for Greek? Do you tend to go for volume, or to focus on particular points where you need drilling?

Why do you find a book like Rouse to be a good use of Anki?

I've used SRS including Anki mostly for vocab, with a bit of sentence and grammar practice thrown in. Just wondering if I should take things up a notch with sentences focused on points of grammar.

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Re: Rouse's Greek Composition Book

Post by jeidsath »

If you're interested in memorizing colloquial Greek, you couldn't go far wrong with Plato. Grab a Loeb, and you've got English and Greek reverse.

The problem with using a book like Rouse or Sidgwick for that (beyond the artificiality of the Greek) is that you can't use those books for composition practice later on.
“One might get one’s Greek from the very lips of Homer and Plato." "In which case they would certainly plough you for the Little-go. The German scholars have improved Greek so much.”

Joel Eidsath -- jeidsath@gmail.com

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