|
 |
Ancient Greek and Latin: study strategy | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| lingoleng Senior Member Germany Joined 5289 days ago 605 posts - 1290 votes  | Message 17 of 48 27 April 2011 at 1:06am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
Why not use the experience of some experts and just use a course book? These people know or knew what they are doing, what can hardly be said about a first time language learner, and have invested a lot of time and effort in creating a useful and usable teaching instrument. Literally all the courses in English language I had a look at (Athenaze, Hackett, Mastronarde, Teach Yourself, the material available at Textkit.com) look good, I would use any of them for learning Ancient Greek, it makes an easier start than trying to analyze on your own from the beginning. I have a slight feeling that not even an experienced linguist would want to do such a thing if avoidable ... While teaching the language these courses serve as introductions to elementary linguistics, too, what is something the OP wanted and may get this way without additional work. I would recommend Attic, it makes Koine accessible without much effort, knowledge for reading Homer can be gained later on, while starting from Homer makes the start harder, Homer is not prose, as cmj pointed out, many people don't become fervent fans of hexameters even after several years of solid instruction. Now, how many weeks, months or years it takes to get scholarly expertize in both Greek and Latin I don't know, but for the (not so rare) case that it takes a little bit longer than some weeks, and even then, I recommend bilingual editions, or just editions both in Greek and English. Reading the originals may turn out to be slightly more difficult than expected, and for such an unlucky case it is comforting to be able to take a short glance at the translation (or even to read it beforehand). This is an excellent method, no matter how things go, for any language, and if there were more audiobooks in Ancient Greek I could even recommend doing some or intense L-R, and some audiobooks there are, e.g for the New Testament, or for Platon's Apology, but I don't know if there is enough recorded material to make it more than a good supplement for completing your abilities. L-R may work best for intermediate learners and better, so going through at least the first half of one of the above mentioned courses will certainly increase its efficiency. Edited by lingoleng on 27 April 2011 at 1:21am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| sofi Newbie United States Joined 4953 days ago 7 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English* | Message 18 of 48 01 May 2011 at 9:21am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
|
More /(information is|perspectives are)/ always welcomed.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5311 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 19 of 48 01 May 2011 at 9:42am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
|
If you just want to be able to honestly say that you read some of the Greek and Latin classics in the original, check out the following two books:
Learn Ancient Greek: A Lively Introduction to Reading the Language by Peter Jones Learn Latin: A Lively Introduction to Reading the Language by Peter Jones They teach just the bare minimum of grammar and vocabulary needed to read some selected authentic Greek and Latin texts. Both books are written in a funny and informative way, and moreover used copies can be found dirt-cheap on B&N, Amazon and elsewhere on the Internet. Edited by Doitsujin on 01 May 2011 at 9:51am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| sofi Newbie United States Joined 4953 days ago 7 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English* | Message 21 of 48 01 May 2011 at 11:23am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
That is not my goal at all. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| sofi Newbie United States Joined 4953 days ago 7 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English* | Message 22 of 48 01 May 2011 at 11:26am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
Probably 2 hours a day. I have other things which take up significantly more time (programming, mainly). I'm confident in my speed of learning because my subconscious just soaks up information and organises it for me with very little effort on my part. All I have to do is actually force myself to look at the material and focus a bit. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| eXtreme Newbie Australia Joined 4966 days ago 20 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English* | Message 24 of 48 01 May 2011 at 12:35pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
LOL 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
