JACT Reading Greek

Here you can discuss all things Ancient Greek. Use this board to ask questions about grammar, discuss learning strategies, get help with a difficult passage of Greek, and more.
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booyah
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JACT Reading Greek

Post by booyah »

Hello all!

What do you guys think about the JACT Reading Greek book? I am interested in learning Greek and somebody suggested this series. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

chrisb
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Post by chrisb »

I used it as a refresher after a spell of a few years doing no Greek at all. I enjoyed it, and went on from the basic books to read A World of Heroes, etc. I found it ideal for this purpose.

There is quite a lot to it, though, and I think that if you want a good grounding in grammar, you might do better with a more traditional text book. If, however, you want to be able to read some Greek quickly, then it is as good, if not better, than Athenaze.

chrisb

rad
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JACT Reading Greek

Post by rad »

I've just started this book and I like it a lot. Even though I know it is adapted, I feel as if I'm really reading Greek. I've used various other books first for the grammar. My favorite was/is probably Ancient Greek Alive which has a good bit of reading. I've also used Athenaze, Mounce, Crosby and Shaeffer.

Question: I'm trying to figure out this JACT series. I know this is the first book. What comes next? Is it World of Heroes? Where does A Greek Anthology fit in?

chrisb
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Post by chrisb »

It doesn't really matter which book you read next. Each one, e.g. A World of Heroes, expects a knowledge of the grammar and vocabulary from Reading Greek. All new words are glossed on the same page or facing page, and selected words are starred to be learned. They then do not appear again in the vocabularies of the same section.

I found that reading the selections from these books was not difficult after going through the main book. I don't know about The Greek Anthology. I haven't bought that one yet!

chrisb

rad
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JACT Reading Greek

Post by rad »

Thanks. That's good to know. I'll bet the same thing is true of the Greek Anthology, that it will fit in anywhere.

Antonius
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Post by Antonius »

I'm taking a class where "Reading Greek" is the text. Having studied other inflected languages, I like the fact that this book doesn't throw all of the cases at you at once. A number of students in the class have never seen case endings before, and I think it's been good for them to spend some time getting used to one case at a time, especially since we have our hands full with the different contracts and so forth. I think the adaptations are pretty good, and the exercises include some English to Greek translations, which I think make a big difference in reinforcing the grammar. And, it's hard to argue with a concept that involves reading continuous prose right from the start! Isn't that the idea?

cadoro
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Post by cadoro »

I used this course to improve my Greek and found it admirable-very thorough.It does tend to get bogged down in some involved subjects, like the role of women in society or justice etc but it pulls no punches with the subjunctives and optatives which is all to the good.I did find it a chore however constantly jumping from the Text book to the Grammar/Vocabulary book to look up words.
Amusingly the preface to Crosby and Schaeffer's Introduction to Greek describes it thus, "The text produced by the J.A.C.T. is more ungainly and less serviceable than any camel". More than a hint of professional rivalry there,no doubt.

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