With a smattering of koine under my belt (courtesy of some grammars, lexicons and Bible software), I recently bought CGCG (which I adore) and Athenaze Book I (Oxford, 3rd ed.), with a view to a more structured course of study. I am halfway through Athenaze, and struggle at times with not knowing if I am completing the exercises correctly (hence potentially wearing out my welcome here). It’s easy to overlook or forget small but significant grammatical points from an earlier chapter, and it’s hard to remember what you’ve forgotten (or know what you don’t know).
My question: I can’t find anything that explains the difference between the book I have (Athenaze Book I) and Athenaze Workbook I. Does the latter contain the answers to the exercises in the former? Or just more exercises and readings to expand on the former’s content? The workbook is rather expensive and I would prefer not to have to buy it, if I can manage without.
Athenaze Workbook I. are only exercises. Answers are in Teachers Handbook I. I recommend buying the Italian version of Athenaze instead of the Workbook.
Athenaze Workbook I. are only exercises. Answers are in Teachers Handbook I. I recommend buying the Italian version of Athenaze instead of the Workbook.
Can you explain why it is preferable? I speak no Italian.
Hi Prisca 7 of 9,
I’ve seen many recommendations here in Textkit as well for the Italian version of Athenaze, however I’ve never seen it so I cannot give a personal appraisal. Paveln is right about the teacher’s handbook. There appears to be a pdf version of the handbook for the 2nd edition of Athenaze at Rainbow Resource Center. I cannot vouch for the site. It appears to be legitimate, but the price is very low- 4.95 US. It seems to cater to Christian private day schools in the U.S. In any event, you can have a look.
From what I’ve read, most of the answers for the 2nd edition handbook will match most of the questions in the 3rd edition.
You can never ask too many questions about Greek! The only way to wear out your welcome here is being persistently rude or antagonistic (even then people are pretty forgiving).
I don’t have any experience with Athenaze but if you haven’t already seen, there is a recent thread here http://discourse.textkit.com/t/my-journey-through-the-exercises-of-athenaze/17430/1 with someone going through what is (I think) the same edition you have and getting lots of great advice, especially from Aetos. I’m not normally one for content warnings, but you should probably know that the original poster became very ill after starting this thread.
From your recent posts here you seem to be doing brilliantly so keep at it.
First off, thank you, Sean, for the kind words! Prisca 7of 9, much of what you’ll find from me in the thread Sean points to are tips for a beginner on how to study Greek (or for that matter anything). I was able to help the OP because I happen to have a copy of the 1st edition and the OP had a copy of teacher’s handbook for the first edition, which he had mistakenly purchased thinking it was for the 2nd edition. Supposedly the 2nd edition TH is more compatible with the 3rd edition material, so hopefully you’ll be able to check most of your work. As Sean also points out, you’re doing very well. I did take a quick look at your most recent submission and was impressed.
If anyone wants to check what the inside of the Italian version of the Athenaze looks like, there’s a couple of chapters available as preview on this webpage:
I’ve been working back through Athenaze to refresh my Greek, since I haven’t used it much at all in about 20 years, and I just found this today (thanks to your post I migh add):
Many thanks for the opinions and information that you all took the time to offer. I’m especially grateful to Hugus for the link to the pages of the Italian book - it affirmed my impression that it would not be particularly useful to me, despite its many obvious merits.
I’m not willing to risk the Rainbow site, though I appreciate Aetos letting me know about it. Something about it seems not quite right (particularly when the equivalent paperback sells for $375 AU on Amazon).
I think there’s nothing for it but to keep going through Book I and then into Book II, while continuing to lean on the good will of my learned friends here. Thanks again.
My pleasure. I am absolutely loving the Orberg approach to learning Latin and have therefore ordered the italian Athenaze as well. But the beauty of a diversity of methods is that we cannot possibly all learn in the same way, nor do we all have the same exact goals. I wish you a lot of joy and success on your Greek journey
The teacher’s handbook, which you can use to check your answers, is available on Library Genesis, but only for the first edition. There’s the question of whether it’s immoral to “steal” a digital copy of a book for this purpose.
