So far, I’ve avoided English to Greek exercises. I’m wondering if these exercises might be helpful specifically for learning Greek vocabulary. Any thoughts?
I avoid them too, lol.
I think it depends on your purpose.
In any language learning, output (speaking and writing) is generally harder than input (reading and listening). But it does help us to understand the language better and more fully.
Obviously for modern languages we want to practice all aspects. For dead languages… I personally don’t think it’s necessary if the goal is reading, but if the goal is expertise then writing may help…?
I have found that the most helpful thing in the world is to turn something that you are reading into English and then back again into Greek later on. Comparing the produced Greek to the original shows up deficiencies not only in your Greek, but also in your original understanding.
If I may allow myself some frank bluntness, I cannot think of a more useless exercise than translating into Greek. Translating into English is already bad enough. Just keep doing comprehensible input. Study explicit grammar and vocabulary as little as possible.
Ancient Greek is a language where it is almost futile to attempt any kind of active production, since it is impossible to have communicative feedback from a native speaker. Maybe once AI becomes the first cognitive system to actually acquire Attic Greek for the first time in the past 2000 years (give it 1 to 10 years), we can bring it back to life.
This is a common opinion to encounter online, but this one-sided focus on comprehensible input misses a few points (and tends to be overstated: surely there are “more useless” exercises than actively interacting with Greek). Some people may want to gain a certain proficiency in production as well as comprehension. Why, you may ask. Well, for no better reason than because it’s fun and challenging. Which is the exact same reason you probably study Greek to begin with. Explicit study of grammar is also interesting in its own right.
Granted, the question was whether it helps build vocabulary or not. My impression is that it does for me. Studies may show otherwise. But I wouldn’t want to let them go. The whole presumption that language study has to focus on attaining a goal (comprehension) as efficiently as possible and that anything else is “useless” is a mood-killer.
Personally I’ve always found that using language actively is really helpful for retaining vocabulary and grammar. I don’t think translation really counts, because the sentences aren’t your own ideas. Also, I don’t want to develop the habit of mentally translating everything - the goal (not always achieved, admittedly) is to read the target language and simply understand it.
On the other hand, doing English-Greek translation is a way of forcing yourself to use vocabulary and grammar that you might otherwise avoid.
Also, whenever I’m learning anything and I find I really hate one aspect of it, it’s normally because I’m not very good at it… and the solution is probably to do it more often!
It has always been my favourite exercise to translate from my native language (or the one I know well enough) to the one I’m learning. I also do it with Greek. I don’t fancy being able to write as elegantly as Plato; I would rather do it for the sake of better reading. In general, active use helps me a lot to feel more confident with grammar. If the one is able to produce randomly the forms of words and syntactic structures, one would recognise them in the text with more easy and avoid confusion. While reading, often you can guess the form, or sometimes it doesn’t matter so much, was it imperfect or aorist, and you can understand what is happening. To the contrary, when writing or translating, the guess is not helping so much; you should really know. So I was feeling that translations were helping me to develop better command of the language, especially of grammar. With vocabulary, however, I find reading more useful to learn new things. Translation and active use didn’t help so much to develop a sense of language and a better understanding of collocations because you repeat the words you know. I would say it helps me to memorise more thoroughly the words I have already encountered and to keep them in “operative memory” (which is also very useful). I also agree with Joel and am very enthusiastic about translating from Greek and back exercises.