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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Arashjoon Bilingual Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6334 days ago 31 posts - 32 votes Speaks: English*, Persian* Studies: French | Message 1 of 9 03 August 2007 at 3:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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From what I heard, the language has changed noticeably since the FSI course was made. Is this true? If so, are there any other Greek methods that work as well as FSI does?
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| awake Senior Member United States Joined 6638 days ago 406 posts - 438 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, Spanish | Message 2 of 9 03 August 2007 at 8:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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If your french is at a high enough level, you might try the assimil's Le
Nouveau Grec sans Peine. It might also be worthwhile to check out the courses at http://www.kypros.org/LearnGreek/ 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cage Diglot aka a.ardaschira, Athena, Michael Thomas Senior Member United States Joined 6626 days ago 382 posts - 393 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Portuguese | Message 3 of 9 03 August 2007 at 9:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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That greek course is about 40 some years old isn't it? Let me ask you a question. Have you ever watched an english language movie 40 years old or older? If so did you have any problem understanding what was said any more that you do a more recent movie? Though I think I have heard there have been some major changes in Greek writing? Edited by Cage on 03 August 2007 at 9:15pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| awake Senior Member United States Joined 6638 days ago 406 posts - 438 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, Spanish | Message 4 of 9 04 August 2007 at 12:55am | IP Logged | ||
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During much of the last Century, there were two major dialects,
Katharevousa which is a sort of formal, pure greek (closer to older varieties) that was used in government documents and political situations, in newscasts, etc... and Demotic Greek which is what we would call Modern Standard Greek today. Demotic Greek was the "common" dialect most used in daily life. In the 1970's the Katharevousa variant began to be officially phased out, and it is essentially dead now from what I understand. Then in the 1980's, Greek orthography had a major reformation, doing away with a lot of diacritic marks and simplifying/ streamlining the system of spelling. Given that the FSI courses are designed for diplomats, the Greek course may focus more on the Katharevousa variant than a course built today would. Also, it likely teaches a more complex orthography than is necessary to learn. I haven't looked at the FSI Greek course specifically, but those would be my concerns if I were going to use it. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cage Diglot aka a.ardaschira, Athena, Michael Thomas Senior Member United States Joined 6626 days ago 382 posts - 393 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Portuguese | Message 5 of 9 04 August 2007 at 12:58am | IP Logged | ||
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Awake, thanks for the info...Greek is kind of on my hitlist. I will take what you have said into consideration. I think FSI at audioforum.com has three different types of Greek programs. Edited by Cage on 04 August 2007 at 12:59am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LilleOSC Senior Member United States lille.theoffside.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6693 days ago 545 posts - 546 votes 4 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 6 of 9 04 August 2007 at 11:40am | IP Logged | ||
Thanks for the information. How different are Katharevousa and Demotic Greek? Are they pretty close or did people have trouble understanding Katharevousa? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Zetko86 Heptaglot Newbie Italy Joined 4511 days ago 18 posts - 33 votes Speaks: Slovenian, Italian*, English, Serbo-Croatian, FrenchB1, GermanB2, Russian Studies: Japanese, Hungarian | Message 7 of 9 04 February 2014 at 1:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would like to point out that the first two volumes of the FSI Greek Basic Course focus on dhimotiki and not on katharevousa (which can be found extensively only in the last volume). After having done Assimil's course (which I do recommend if you can read French, German or Italian; there is no English edition of the course as far as I know yet) I started the first volume. I really like this course (I like the FSI drill style) and I'm currently studying from the second volume and I think that the fact that it teaches also katharevousa should be considered as an advantage if you are also interested in learning how to read Greek and not only in learning just how to speak it (in the latter case you should concentrate on speaking after finishing Assimil or another similar course). and yes there are some differences in terms of writing but my focus lies in reading and listening not that much in writing. Edited by Zetko86 on 04 February 2014 at 1:01pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Γρηγόρη Tetraglot Groupie United States Joined 4457 days ago 55 posts - 154 votes Speaks: English*, Greek, Latin, Ancient Greek Studies: German, French, Russian | Message 8 of 9 04 February 2014 at 5:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am a fluent speaker of Greek and have used the FSI course over the years for review and practice. Despite the
age of the course, it is basically sound. The authors explain at the beginning of the course that they will teach kathomiloumeni (standard spoken Greek), which is neither extreme Demotiki nor extreme Katharevousa, but the language used by most educated speakers in everyday situations. Since Katharevousa lost its official status, this form of Greek has become the language of Greece. There are some times in FSI where the lesson will teach some katharevousa elements, but it is always clear that they are such, and the demotic elements are presented simultaneously. And these are worth learning, anyways, since one still encounters them from time to time in Greece, especially in writing, e.g. the older genitive ending - εως for nouns like πόλη. Sometimes the authors even have a little fun with it, such as one lesson where the American asks for directions to the butcher, fishmonger, greengrocer, etc., using all the katharevousa terms, and the Greek replies, "You mean the …" and gives the demotic terms. This, again, is helpful because, in Greece to this day, nearly every one of these types of shops will have the katharevousa term on its sign, but everyone refers to it by its demotic name in speech. Somewhere in the second volume, FSI begins introducing more and more katharevousa for the purposes of reading newspapers, etc. At that point, you can decide whether or not you want to keep on going with it or switch to other materials. But again, that can all be very useful if you want to attain a high level of fluency in the language, since educated Greeks still pepper their speech with katharevousa elements. The short of it is, at least the first volume of FSI and the first half of the second volume are perfectly viable programs and, to be honest, some of the only rigorous materials out there for self-study. 9 persons have voted this message useful |
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