I have started using JACT’s Reading Greek and am almost finished with part one. It’s been great and so far I feel confident that I’ll be able to make good progress using this system. My method of learning, however, has been a bit sporadic. I was wondering if anyone who has used this method could recommend a program for using it. Specifically, I has wondering whether you would recommend learning the “vocabulary to be learned” and learn the grammar before attempting to read the assigned text or is it better to struggle with the text before even opening the “grammar and exercises” book?
My tentative plan is to:
1.) Read the grammar section and work towards learning the vocabulary and paradigms for the section
2.) Work through the reading text until I can read it fairly easily
3.) Work on the exercises and revision work
Would this be the best use of the books or would you all recommend a different course of action?
The real question is does this method work for you? This is the way I would do it, but some people find working through the text first, or working on the text while at the same time doing the paradigms and vocab, is better for them. It all depends on your “learning style.” The general principle is that the more you interact with the language, the better off you are.
I agree with Barry that you should choose whatever method suits your own way of working and language acquisition.
The Independent study guide advises the following:
"Reading Greek: Text and Vocabulary (RGT)
Reading Greek: Grammar and Exercises (GE)
The first two books, RGT and GE, were designed to be used together so that
You read the passage in RGT with the aid of the running vocabulary for the section.
Then you look at the explanations of the grammar in GE.
Then you learn the grammar and the lists of ‘vocabulary to be learnt’ in GE.
Then you do the exercises for the section to make sure that you have understood the grammar. You may want to do each section of the exercises as you study the grammar in GE, so that you get immediate practice in a new feature of language. It is not essential to do all the exercises on morphology and syntax, but they will help you to practise the language and to make sure that you understand the grammar. However, you should always do the final ‘Test Exercise’ in each section, as it is an important check on your grasp of the section."
I think there is a great benefit to following this. Trying to work out (with the aid of the running vocabulary) the meaning of the text first is good practice for what comes later after “Reading Greek”. You will develop a valuable skill of approaching a text as a text rather than something to which you apply some grammar rules and vocabulary. Figuring out what something means with only partial information (words you dont quite understand or grammar you haven’t fully grasped) is something most of us have to do to all the time.
It is of course vital that you learn the vocabulary “to be learned” and the grammar. There are no shortcuts. But if you learn vocab and grammar and then read the text, the grammar seems a bit “abstract” as opposed to arising from something you have read.
My approach would be to make what you can of the text (trying to read it several times) using the running vocabulary and then look at the grammar, then re-read the text. In reading the text it’s best, I think, to concentrate on understanding and forget about translating. If you can develop the habit of reading Greek as Greek without translating in your head as you go you will acquire a deeper understanding. (By all means do all the translation exercises, English into Greek is especially helpful).
Thanks a lot for the replies! I appreciate it. Can I follow up with a question?
How should I view the English to Greek exercises? I know they are valuable, but how accurate should my translations be before moving on? If I’m making mistakes in my English to Greek exercises, do I linger in that lesson or move on if I’m doing well in the Greek to English translations?
The answer to your question will depend on the type of mistake you are making and whether you understand why what you have written is wrong.
Think of the English to Greek exercises as diagnostics.
In the early stage dont bother too much about word order as Greek can be flexible. Nevertheless ask yourself why you chose your particular word order and whether it conveys a different sense or emphasis from the book’s answer. Always use the model sentence to write your answer, being creative at this stage will lead to problems.
Accents are difficult to get right at the beginning and people vary about how much effort they are prepared to put into them. Dont festoon your answers with randomly placed accents. If you are fairly sure you know where the accent is put it in and try to work out what went wrong, if it does. Otherwise omit them and try to learn from the answer how the accents should have been written. Always try to learn the accent with a word when you learn it.
Did you make a mistake in cases ie you didnt put the object in the accusative or used the wrong case with a preposition? In verbs did you use the right person, was it the wrong tense? Mistakes here can tell you important things which you might be unsure about.
English to Greek is harder than Greek to English, because in the latter you “merely” have to recognise forms. This isnt so difficult, especially if you have just read a text, because when you read you are practising that activity of recognition -something that is essentially a passive activity. When you have to translate into Greek you have to actively think of forms and how you would express the English idea in Greek. This requires practice and so at first will be much harder.
If you make no mistakes in English to Greek you get no feedback on what you might not have understood in the lesson. So look on your mistakes as telling you something useful. If there is a pattern in the mistakes that’s also helpful and could point you to areas you need to work on.
Whether you linger on a lesson before moving on depends therefore on the type of mistake you are making. If its a slip you can usually see that (misplaced letter etc) but if you get something completely wrong it may point to something in the grammar you haven’t understood and you may need to revise it.
I assume you are using the second edition of reading Greek. You might like to read again “Introduction to writing in Greek” on page 365-6 which gives hints on how to tackle English to Greek.