Some have expressed the idea that teaching an ancient language communicatively implies not teaching grammar. This isn’t the case. In this video, episode 8 of Ancient Greek in Action, I demonstrate how even the weirdest aspects of basic Greek grammar can be taught in the context of the language itself, using hardly any verbs except for “to be” and “I understand.”
Why go this trouble? Why not just teach these ideas in English? Absolutely you can. In fact, it can be good to reinforce them in one’s native language. However, whatever can be first taught in the target language, ought to be, since the memory in the student will be more long lasting, and the student’s feeling of accomplishment will be far greater than if simply handed the answer.
Even in this dialogue, the teacher doesn’t give the answer away; instead, he leads the student to the right answer, based on his knowledge of the previous 7 lessons in this series. Enjoy!
THANK YOU so much for the wonderful youtube videos you are making! I just discovered your channel today, and you have already convinced me to adopt your pronunciation convention (I learned primarily with modern pronunciation, in seminary in the Orthdox Church) and probably to become a patreon supporter of yours in the very near future!
This kind of material is what I was dying to find a few years back, the last time I was actively studying Greek. I’ve just gotten started again, and it looks like the internet has proceeded at leaps and bounds to supply the missing communicative teaching material that was lacking.
I see that Latin is your primary focus, but PLEASE continue to make your Greek materials as well. There is so little of it out there, and so much need for it. It seems even our Greek teachers can barely read, much less speak, Greek these days. Simple, intelligible lessons that get people hearing, understanding, and speaking Greek with fluency are the ideal method to help us achieve our goal of actually reading Greek texts at a good clip. You are doing the Lord’s work, sir.
I’m sure I’ll be spending a great deal of time with your videos. I think you’ve even persuaded me to learn Latin.
Thanks so much for your kind words! It’s really a pleasure to make the videos. The Ancient Greek in Action series will eventually have enough material to teach all the same basics as in Athenaze, which will probably be over the course of 50 to 100 videos over the next two years. I also have a lot of free audio on this page: lukeranieri.com/audio — the shamrocks mark the free ones.
I’m also really happy you like Lucian Pronunciation! I’m delighted that many people have adopted it as a happy medium between other options.