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Latin + Ancient Greek at the same time | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| zanoni Pentaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5854 days ago 262 posts - 262 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: Latin, Russian, German | Message 1 of 9 11 July 2009 at 6:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've reached a stalemate in my language studies.
I'm currently studying full-time Latin (A2/B1), Spanish (by Italian, B2/C1) and French (B2). I'm going to France to a 6-month exchange (Sept-Febr) at the Université de Nantes, and so I intend to stop studying French (I'll take advanced conversation classes 2 times a week there) in September. I'll keep then Latin studies full-time and improving Spanish-italian vocabulary with flashcards and I'll start another language or two another languages. As I have 2:30h more or less/day to study languages (about 150 min) and I use 1h of it to study latin, I intend to keen on these following languages in the next years, without order of preference: - Ancient Greek (literature, lexical) - Greek (communication, self-interest) - German (literature, communication) - Russian (literature, communication) The university has classes and teachers of all these instead of Modern Greek, I think. My next target language was Ancient Greek, but I've remeasured it, and here rests my doubt. What are the pros and counters of studying those two "dead" languages at the same time, and only them? Wouldn't the study get boring, as we can't use them for communicating? We can't forget that Latin and Ancient Greek take a long time to get mastered, so it can signify that I'll only start studying one of the other languages at 2011 probably. My practical reasons, of literature access mainly, wouldn't it be more useful NOW to study like German of Russian? And would it be profitable or too much difficult to take a journey of 45min/latin + 45min/ancient greek + 45min/german or russian? (I can take weekly classes of latin, ancient greek, German and russian too; a teacher almost always helps) Some others may reach the same stalemate. What can you tell me about it? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sprachbund Octoglot Newbie Denmark Joined 5640 days ago 15 posts - 15 votes Speaks: English*, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, German, Spanish, French, Dutch Studies: Italian, Latin, Arabic (classical), Russian | Message 2 of 9 12 July 2009 at 3:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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Latin is hard, Greek even more so ... is it even humanly possible to do both?
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| rad Newbie United States Joined 5622 days ago 18 posts - 23 votes Speaks: French | Message 3 of 9 12 July 2009 at 5:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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But you have already studied Latin, so that makes Greek a tiny bit easier. I think there are advantages to studying them together since there are similarities in grammar and syntax. Plus a very welcome benefit is that now I find German and Russian a whole lot easier.I just wish I had the time to devote to keeping them all afloat.
rad 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| minus273 Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5773 days ago 288 posts - 346 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Ancient Greek, Tibetan | Message 4 of 9 13 July 2009 at 1:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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Ancient Greek is difficult, but not exceedingly so. Do any textbook for one or two months, ~one hour every day, and you are surely going to understand the correspondence between English forms and Greek forms. Then, you can go to Perseus and read authentic texts with pop-up dictionary and English translation and commentaries. Edited by minus273 on 13 July 2009 at 1:44pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Sprachbund Octoglot Newbie Denmark Joined 5640 days ago 15 posts - 15 votes Speaks: English*, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, German, Spanish, French, Dutch Studies: Italian, Latin, Arabic (classical), Russian | Message 5 of 9 13 July 2009 at 2:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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Four cases, three genders, massive amounts of different tenses and verb aspects, hundreds of irregular forms, complex sentence constructions, syntactic particles with subtle distinctions of meaning... I would say Ancient Greek is very difficult indeed. After a month or two, my hunch is that "reading" with Perseus is really a matter of looking up most words and getting a feel for how an available translation corresponds to the original.
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| minus273 Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5773 days ago 288 posts - 346 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Ancient Greek, Tibetan | Message 6 of 9 13 July 2009 at 2:43pm | IP Logged | ||
Then it's the beginning of Schliemanning or L-Ring (if some day in the remote future, authentic-sounding Greek recordings are available). The biggest problem in Schliemanning Greek is that in the best writers, Greek word order isn't too straightforward and regular. If one can be trained to recognize the case endings and basic verbal forms, they can start accumulating vocabulary and patterns in a natural way. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| zanoni Pentaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5854 days ago 262 posts - 262 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: Latin, Russian, German | Message 7 of 9 15 July 2009 at 8:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't think it's that difficult to study both, but what's the possibility of maintaining a good rhythm of studies without getting bored of them, since both languages require more than a year or two of full-time dedication? I thought, though, about conciliating latin + German or russian + ancient greek (probably in this order, in a 2:30h+- studies sequence, daily).
or why, for reasons of adaptability with the alphabet (actually it isn't any problem to me), couldn't I start studying Modern Greek, a lot easier than Ancient Greek and also in my next-future-language-learning-list, for then after having mastered it start Ancient Greek? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Belardur Octoglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5619 days ago 148 posts - 195 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2, Spanish, Dutch, Latin, Ancient Greek, French, Lowland Scots Studies: Biblical Hebrew, Italian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Korean | Message 8 of 9 16 July 2009 at 3:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, I can give testimony to the idea that it is, in fact, possible to study Latin and Ancient Greek (or at least koine) concurrently, and along with other languages. But it may depend on your motivation for doing so, also, as I can take in far more than I can produce in Greek, and am quite happy with that situation. There's a discrepancy between input and output in Latin also, for me, but it's not something that urgently needs to be remedied, therefore I can take that aspect slower without having a problem.
Personally, as the two are primarily passive for me, I almost don't count them as a part of my daily language study (it feels somehow different), and they don't interrupt the others - plus it makes for a less-stressful learning situation. This being said, I don't have to take tests in either language, either, merely understand what I read, so that may be the reason for the lesser pressure. I think your alternating plan will work well, actually, even with the two "dead" languages, though the modern Greek is reasonable as well. Coincidentally, I would say to keep Latin with German, as I found that there were a surprising number of cognates (at least to me), and between your romance languages and German you should have quite a jump up on passive skills, at least. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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