advice for AG study

[daivid]

@Hylander

Here’s what you could try. Get a copy of Dickey’s book on Greek composition and work through it from beginning to end without rushing. You’ll also need a hard copy of Smyth if you don’t have one. There are solutions to half the exercises in the back. If you put in the effort – and it’s not a small effort – I think you will find you’ll be able to read Greek much more fluently. In the later chapters there are exercises in the analysis of Greek sentences which I think you’ll find very helpful in internalizing the ability to read and understand those long Greek sentences..

I have dithered about purchasing this book for sometime. Krashen suggests that writing a language is no help in learning to read but I don’t seem to be able to resist the itch to write Ancient Greek. In any case Krashen might be wrong. So you have prompted me into finally putting in an order.

@Hylander

While you’re working through Dickey, you could supplement it with A LIttle Greek Reader, by Morwood and Anderson, instead of attempting to read other texts:

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/a-little-greek-reader-9780199311729?q=morwppd%20little%20greek%20reader&lang=en&cc=us

I have tried this. It is way too hard for me and the texts are ripped from context. At the moment I am reading the Ephesian tale about Habrokomes and Anthea which is also to hard but as I am reading as a continuous text it is absorbs my interest. I might that though too hard for me it is the easiest of the extant texts and is available on Perseus

@Hylander

A hard copy of Smyth is essential for anyone who wants to get to an advanced level in ancient Greek. But Morwood has published a short Greek grammar that very clearly and succinctly lays out all the really important points:

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/oxford-grammar-of-classical-greek-9780195218510?q=morwood%20grammar&lang=en&cc=us

Again, it’s not a substitute for Smyth (or Goodwin), but it gives puts everything essential at your fingertips.

One of the first books I bought is Smyth. Every time I have looked something up in it I have failed to get an answer. It seems to me it works only for confirming something you already know. On top of that my problem is not knowing more grammar in theory but internalizing the grammar so it is useful when I’m actually reading.

[Hylander]

Krashen suggests that writing a language is no help in learning to read but I don’t seem to be able to resist the itch to write Ancient Greek. In any case Krashen might be wrong.

If that’s what he says, Krashen is wrong. Doing exercises in composition will help you internalize the grammar so that you can read more fluently.

From the other thread:

I would be interested in your thoughts on the value of Ancient Greek written using short sentences.

Perhaps useful in the initial stages, provided you move forward to work on longer, more complex sentences. I assume you mean composition – exercises in translating from English to Greek, not simply making up short sentences about things like the weather. Structured translation exercises force you to express complex thoughts in Greek, and bring into sharp focus how Greek differs from English, which will be extremely helpful in learning to read Greek. However, as I mentioned, this takes effort and time, as well as self-discipline.

[daivid]

@Hylander

Perhaps useful in the initial stages, provided you move forward to work on longer, more complex sentences. I assume you mean composition – exercises in translating from English to Greek, not simply making up short sentences about things like the weather. Structured translation exercises force you to express complex thoughts in Greek, and bring into sharp focus how Greek differs from English, which will be extremely helpful in learning to read Greek. However, as I mentioned, this takes effort and time, as well as self-discipline.

That’s not what I meant. Not as a method to learn Greek but Greek with short sentences that can be used as a learning resource for others. I appreciate the time you took but it wasn’t really a reply to the post I made on the other thread - that’s why I forked it.

[Hylander]

I would be interested in your thoughts on the value of Ancient Greek written using short sentences. * * * Not as a method to learn Greek but Greek with short sentences that can be used as a learning resource for others.

I don’t think that would be very useful as a learning resource beyond the most elementary stage, and then only if the person writing the sentences knew Greek backwards and forwards. Otherwise, it could be more harmful than useful.

[daivid]

@Hylander

I would be interested in your thoughts on the value of Ancient Greek written using short sentences. * * * Not as a method to learn Greek but Greek with short sentences that can be used as a learning resource for others.

I don’t think that would be very useful as a learning resource beyond the most elementary stage, and then only if the person writing the sentences knew Greek backwards and forwards. Otherwise, it could be more harmful than useful.

If that were so then learning a similar language to another would be harmful (ie Danish when you intend to learn Swedish) . Of course those doing that will say things that will make a native speaker look askance but the value of having the related language already mastered is accepted as giving an advantage that far outweighs that. And Ancient Greek writing written by modern authors will not have nearly the same pull as different writers will should they fail to write good Greek likely fail in different ways.

It is quite difficult to internalize grammar so the likelihood that something will be internalized so deeply that it won’t be quickly lost when the learner progresses to the extant texts.

What is harmful is trying to run when you don’t yet know how to walk.