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TAC 2013 Team Sparta’s Greek Team Thread | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5766 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes  Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 49 of 231 19 December 2012 at 7:55am | IP Logged | ||
I don't see why not either, as we have drawn on Ancient History for our team name. I have regretted for ages not seeing the film "300", which retells the story of the Battle of Thermopylae. Now I regret it even more. The film also stars Gerard Butler who Cristina mentioned above. I'd like to think of myself as somewhat of a laconophile one day. Usually I can think of lots of references to Sparta and its history, but now I've actually been asked to think of an image or a motto pertaining to Sparta, I can't think because there are so many fantastic ones I could suggest. I will look through my notes on Spartan and Greek history to see what I can dig up. Weirdly I brought my notes with me from previous history classes to China, but not my Greek grammar book. I guess I didn't want to tempt myself into Greek, because having the book with me would have been the only thing I needed to make me do it for the entire TAC. And now I need it! Jack 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4639 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 50 of 231 19 December 2012 at 8:45am | IP Logged | ||
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LanguageSponge, and the rest of the team as well, talking about Greek grammar books, which one(s) do you have and what can you recommend for a beginner? As my Greek resources right now are just limited to the Langenscheidt course, I would like to get a grammar, a dictionary and maybe some other learning material (Assimil being one).
Edit: By the way, thanks for the links to on-line resources. I will certainly explore that when I have a moment. This is not the best of weeks, lot of pressure at work and after work as well, getting ready for Christmas. Edited by Ogrim on 19 December 2012 at 8:46am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5766 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 51 of 231 19 December 2012 at 9:17am | IP Logged | ||
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The grammar book I use for Greek is definitely not beginner-friendly. Although I am a
beginner myself, I counted on the fact that I already know the terminology from when I did Attic in school - in any case, I use Greek, a Comprehensive Grammar of the Modern Language by David Holton, Peter Mackridge and Irene Philippaki-Warburton. My resources for Greek are restricted to the Internet right now and are not very impressive even when I am able to get what little I have from at home either. I have however ordered Assimil Griechisch Ohne Muehe - the book and the audio. I am very excited about receiving it. I have a digital copy of the audio and the book for Le grec sans peine but I prefer having a physical copy of the book. That will be my Christmas present to myself, as well as secretly going home for Christmas. I am not sure what to do about a dictionary. I have used online ones for the more mainstream languages I study for years, and I am not sure I own a paper dictionary for anything but Russian anymore. I am pretty sure I'll understand a fair bit of the Assimil once my brain wakes up to hearing Greek again. My Greek friend is over the moon that I'm finally taking Greek up. She's been trying to tempt me into it for years. So now our letter writing can be in Greek instead of English! Jack 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5334 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 52 of 231 19 December 2012 at 9:50am | IP Logged | ||
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I am getting slightly nervous by all the very advanced beginners here, but I'll try to defend the corner of "the true beginners" :-). Crush - please tell me you are on my level!
Anyhow, since I am a true beginner, I cannot recommend any grammar - I imagine that I will have more than enough just absorbing the grammar that I find in the courses that I plan to use. I am however extremely interested in tips about any beginner friendly grammars that anyone else could recommend. As for a dictionary I just have a pocket dictionary, so that is too basic for a serious student, but I am higly interested in recommendations also here. I just got an idea - the rest of you will tell me whether it could be a useful one: Greek is a language that very few people know anything about, unlike the more mainstream languages. How about we either here in our thread, or in a separate thread called "Greek for dummies" noted down anything that strikes us as new and different - anything from "Wow, they use the definite article in front of given names in Greek - that is really uncommon - to vocabulary that you recognize (that will be a popular category) or "I love the fact that they use an accent to show the stress - unlike Russian, where you just have to guess". You will probably find me weird, but in Russian one of the things I really loved, was to find words that had come into Russian from other languages, particularly the recent ones. When I managed to decipher from the back of a Russian example of "Twilight" the words "blockbastera", and "bestsellera" I was over the moon. And there is nowhere else in the world but here on the forum I could admit to that, without being put directly into a straight jacket. :-) Also it is something that everyone could contribute to, regardless of level, although the more advanced ones may smile with amusement by the enhusiasm of the newbies over things they learned years ago:-). The advantage of doing something like that here in our team thread is that it contributes to keeping this a vibrant place, and we have everything in one thread. The advantage of doing it in a separate thread is that then we can keep it "clean" and possibly more people would go to is as a resource. What do you say? Does the idea have any merit, and if so, should we create a separate thread, or do it here in our team thread? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5766 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 53 of 231 19 December 2012 at 10:13am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Cristina,
I have to write this really quickly as I'm teaching in 3 minutes, but I really like the idea. I am as yet undecided whether we should keep it here or whether we should do it in a separate thread. I am going to be thinking about this all the way through my (admittedly only two) lessons this evening now. Great idea! Jack 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5334 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 54 of 231 19 December 2012 at 11:33am | IP Logged | ||
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I have some great news, guys! Ellasevia has agreed to be our Godfather! Now I know this team will be a success!
Ellasevia was my team mate from TAC 2011, and he is one of my role models here on the forum. His wide range of languages, uncanny ability to write in all of them, wisdom far beyond his years and unfailing courtecy and kindness is an example to us all. My day just got better! Any progress on team mottos, songs or pictures anyone? Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 19 December 2012 at 11:33am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5766 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 55 of 231 19 December 2012 at 12:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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Funny Cristina, just after logging on here after my early evening lessons, I got a similar
message from Philip as you did. He has indeed agreed to be our Greek Godfather, and I could not possibly be happier about this. Ellasevia helped me a lot with my Greek during my period of dabbling in 2010. It did not last very long because I got ill - but I have an lot of written corrections from him when he did help - he always was and remains very enthusiastic about Greek and helping learners. Forgive me for singing your praises a bit, ellasevia, but there's no doubt that it's well deserved :) Jack 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| stelingo Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5832 days ago 722 posts - 1076 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Czech, Polish, Greek, Mandarin | Message 56 of 231 19 December 2012 at 4:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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Godfather? I didn't know I had enlisted in the mafia. I hope there aren't any painful initiation rites!
@Jack, my languages are listed under my profile name. Or are you asking about additional info? The only one not listed there is Arabic, with which I have an on/off love/hate relationship. PS I had to look up what a laconophile was. @Cristina I think that is a great idea, there are some Greek words I really love, and there are also certain (although small in number) aspects of the grammar which are reminiscent of Spanish and the other Romancelanguages. I think it should be a separate thread. @Ogrim I would recommendGreek: An Essential Grammar of the Modern Language by the same authors as the grammar recommended by Jack. I find it to be quite user friendly. Dictionaries: wordreference I was going to recommend Collins English-Greek Dictionary [Hardcover], but at the moment it's going for £300 on Amazon. Maybe someone could buy it you for Christmas? :-) Also useful, although maybe not as essential now we have a godfather is Greek language forum And finally a real life saver of a site, for when you start tackling Greek verbs is Modern Greek verbs Warning, if terms such as aorist, subjunctive and passive send a shiver down your spine, do not look at this site until you're a little more advanced. But it has hundreds of verbs, at least a third of them are fully conjugated. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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