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My crazy 30 day challenge to learn Greek | ||
Tags: Greek | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| sarahgirl23 Triglot Newbie United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5229 days ago 10 posts - 35 votes Speaks: English*, French, German Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 1 of 25 25 October 2011 at 2:18am | IP Logged |
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Hi all,
Although I have enjoyed reading other people's logs, I have never considered writing one myself. Firstly, because I didn't feel I'd have anything particularly interesting to write in it and secondly, because I never had any specific goals other than 'improve my French'. However, the day has finally come for my fingers to take a dance across the keys as, being the obstinate person that I am, I found myself facing a colossal language learning mountain. Earlier this evening, I was chatting with my boyfriend, when we got onto the topic of languages. He is Greek, you see, and, although his English is very good, he sometimes fails to understand everything that I am saying. I, jokingly, said that I would have to learn Greek to be able to explain everything to him. He laughed at the idea, saying it would take years before I would even be able to hold a basic conversation. Now, I have always been a rather headstrong girl, and immediately jumped to the challenge. The terms were set; the stakes were high. I have 30 days (from the 1st-30th November) to learn enough Modern Greek to be able to converse about: 1)What I did the previous weekend 2)My likes and dislikes 3)What my future plans are Whoever proves to be correct will receive a visit next Easter (usually, I live in France and he lives in Greece). This means that we're talking about 200 euros worth of flights. Did I accept? Being the cocky young chick that I am, you bet I did. But, by the time I really sat down and thought about, it finally dawned on me how much of a challenge this will be. I know NO Greek (or, only the words that should be written in symbols). I also don't believe I know any related languages. How am I supposed to learn that much Greek in 30 days?! Being the practical sort of girl that I am, I immediately checked the local library for resources. Tomorrow I'll be able to pick up Assimil Grec sans peine and Pimsuleur Quick and Simple. Presumably I should do the Pimsuleur first, before moving onto the Assimil? I have also found the LR method very useful for picking up a lot of passive vocabulary, but I don't feel I will be able to do that until I have completed the Assimil. Can anyone offer any advice? Have I bitten off more than I can chew and should just start saving now? 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| jasoninchina Senior Member China Joined 5230 days ago 221 posts - 306 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Italian | Message 2 of 25 25 October 2011 at 4:31am | IP Logged |
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Assimil is a great start. I would also add some vocabulary learning and basic grammar. In fact, since you already know what you'll be "quizzed" on, a phrase book would be handy as well. Since you will need to speak in past and future tense, be sure to study the various verb conjugations.
I studied ancient greek in graduate school and I'm gonna assume it pretty similar to modern greek. The hardest part for me was declining nouns and conjugating verbs. In addition to this, you'll probably need to know the 500 most frequently used words. I don't think you have bitten off more than you can chew as long as you have the time to study. good luck. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5008 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 3 of 25 25 October 2011 at 10:22pm | IP Logged |
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That is a challenge!
I really like your log. Your goal is time limited, specific and you have great motivation which is a wonderful combination (I wish I could ever stick to similar one). I am looking forward to reading about your progress. As I read the date where your challenge is situated, I wondered whether you wouldn't like to join the 6 week challenge as well. It starts on 1 November :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5261 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 4 of 25 25 October 2011 at 10:37pm | IP Logged |
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Great challenge @sarahgirl23. We're all rooting for you to succeed!
Don't know if you saw this thread recently, but there's a new, free, Michael Thomas-like Greek audio course available. I'm not a fan of the method but some people swear by it:Language Transfer: the Cypress Project. Scroll to the bottom of page 1 for the link to download the audio course. There's also from Cypress Greek by radio with audio totally free, book for $20. Basic Greek Grammar free pdf and 207 common Greek words: Swadesh List Greek I am really looking forward to following your log! You rock! Edited by iguanamon on 26 October 2011 at 12:30am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5333 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 5 of 25 25 October 2011 at 11:27pm | IP Logged |
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Greek is a lovely language! I'll cheer for you!!
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5923 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 6 of 25 25 October 2011 at 11:53pm | IP Logged |
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No, I don't think you have bitten off more than you can chew with this project and I will definitely read this log to see how you progress. I have no advice to give, but I also wish you all the best! Edited by mick33 on 27 October 2011 at 1:42am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6469 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 7 of 25 26 October 2011 at 11:28am | IP Logged |
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"Greek by Radio" is free and better than Pimsleur, because Pimsleur is agonizingly
slow. And the Assimil is just awesome, start on that as soon as possible. You could also try the "Filoglossia" online course, nice multimedia approach, but Assimil is better imho. Since your goal is conversational, you cannot rely on these courses alone though; you have to also practice conversation as often as possible. Booking a 30-day "Immersion" package with a private teacher at myngle.com would help. They can prepare you for your specific kind of conversation really efficiently. For example, I worked with teacher Rania and due to my fields of interest, I learned to discuss the news before I knew all the tenses ;-) At the very least, you should find some language partners so that you get to speak Greek every other day, no matter how little Greek you know. I'd be happy to give you some specific advice about the language via Skype; explain things that confused me when I learned the language. My Skype user name is realjunesun. Edited by Sprachprofi on 26 October 2011 at 11:29am 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| sarahgirl23 Triglot Newbie United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5229 days ago 10 posts - 35 votes Speaks: English*, French, German Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 8 of 25 26 October 2011 at 5:04pm | IP Logged |
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Afternoon everyone,
First things first, I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone for their support. It is most reassuring to know that there are people there rooting for me, who will have been through the exact same things that I will be going through. So, as I said, thank you! Things have developed slightly since I last posted. I'm not sure if this is better or worse. Daunting is definitely the word that springs to mind. We were unsure how we were going to test this, as he was clearly going to be biased in his assessment. So his dear, dear sister suggested that his mother test my progress. She speaks neither English nor French and at the moment my boyfriend must translate everything for us. I can see the logic, as his mother is always keen to say things to me, however, this could go disastrously wrong. Therefore, not only do I have to learn Greek now in 30 days, but I also have to have a conversation with my boyfriends mum for the first time, which will be over the phone, thus rendering my magnificently communicative hand gestures ineffectual. It's going to be grand. Anyway, I toddled on down to the library yesterday to get some learning materials. I have been to the library before, but only for my studies, so I was pleasantly surprised as to how large the language learning section is. The language section in the library, where I grew up in England (although I feel "shelf" would be more appropriate), held a couple of old French and German dictionaries and then a handful of Quick Fix tourist travel guides for things like Spanish and French, and some obscure north African dialect of a nomadic tribe. French people clearly consider language learning to be of greater importance, as the library offers resources for more than 100 languages (well, I didn't actually count, but the poster looked trustworthy enough). Greek resources were privileged to two whole shelves: one for ancient and one for modern. I'm not going to lie, but they were all covered in a nice layer of dust. However, this should mean that I shouldn't be cursing anybody for hoarding any items during November. I picked up Assimil, which looks to be very new, and Pimsleur. I've never used the latter before, but we'll give it a whirl. I know some people hate it and some people love it, but it might just be useful to help getting my ear used to the sound of Greek. I did peruse the rest of the shelf, but it was mostly 1960s grammar books, thick enough to prop up the Leaning Tower of Pisa. @Cavesa although I see your point about the six week challenge, and I would love to participate, I have exams in December, so I'm going to have to decline. @iguanamon thank you for the links, I shall be investigating... @Sprachprofi thank you for the tips. I took a sneaky look at your website and found it all very interesting and am very much in awe of your linguistic ability! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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