A question out of curiousity...

Greek Learning Greek
1

Today in a bookstore I saw two beginner Greek textbooks I had never heard of before - Paine’s “Beginning Greek” and Peter Jones’ “Learn Greek”. I am past the begginer level in Greek, so I am not considering purchasing these books, but if anyone here has used either of these books, I am curious on your views.

Paine’s book is in a way similar to Pharr - it focuses on giving the learner unadapted Greek from the start, and teaching grammar and vocabulary along the way. The first half goes through the gospel of John (because Koine Greek is a relatively easy dialect) and the second half goes through Xenophon’s Anabasis.

Peter Jones’ book is the Ancient Greek textbook crammed with humour. I was disappointed that the cartoons were completely in English, though. Yet it does goes through the basics of Greek grammar, though less thoroughly than other books, at least from what I could skim.

2

I have Paine’s book, but I did not do more than a couple lessons in it. I found it difficult to learn from. I do use it to refer to his verb charts (complete paradigms). I like to see the whole forest before I study the trees.

3

G3,

I use Paine’s book as a supplement to my study of Greek. I do most of my studying with Mastronarde’s book, but I find Paine’s approach interesting and have been getting a lot from the readings in his book. (They are easy in the beginning of the book.)

WB