A language learners’ forum

tarvos wrote:There aren't so many people studying Modern Greek here I think. There were on the old forums, I suppose, but where they went, the Invisible Pink Unicorn only knows.

Maybe they moved to Melbourne (Australia) and fell in love with the multitude of Greek speakers available here! (fyi - apparently 2nd most Greek populated city in the world after Athens). I should be learning it! I have toyed with the idea, even owned some Greek courses once. Would you believe I donated them to someone who was potentially going to use them (but didn't unfortunately). Still, that's a rarity for me, giving away courses of any language! I will get them again one day, IF I need them Good luck Greek learners! I'm somewhat envious

embici wrote:Χαίρω πολύ !

I see you are using FSI. How are you finding it? It gets such great reviews. I was intimidated by the diacritics so opted for more recent materials.

I will be following your progress.

Καλή τύχη !

I don't find the audio of the FSI too wonderful (the diacritics are not really a problem) but I plan to stick with it until at least lesson 25, which is part 1.
As far as materials go, I have a rather beaten-up Oxford Greek-English learner's dictionary by D.N. Stavropoulos which is good for English-speaking learners, an even more battered Oxford Mini Dictionary (my pocket dictionaries tend to get highlighted, marked with pen or pencil, the bindings start to come loose and they generally suffer the torments of the damned - I carry them everywhere). I also have ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ ΤΩΡΑ 2+2 by Dimitra and Papacheimona, published by Nostos Editions, Athens 1992, which is pretty good.
I finished a Memrise course in modern Greek and have started another, more ambitious one.
Ultimately I want to start learning Classical and/or Koine Greek but at this stage it would just cause confusion.

Has no one mentioned Language Transfer yet? I haven't done the new course yet, but the old course was great! The new course has apparently been completely recorded, they're just waiting to be edited. I've been waiting for it to be fully released before continuing my Greek studies (and waiting for several years ).

Not yet, but I definitely want to learn modern Greek at some point in the future. I'll second the recommendation for Language Transfer. I have done a handful of lessons in both their old and new Greek courses and I thought they were great!

Although Greek is not amongst the languages that I am ever likely to study, it seems that I saved a few links to a number of discussion threads on this topic, the most recent of which seems to have covered much of the ground being discussed here. If mention has already been made of it, please forgive my untimely intrusion.

A Path for Modern Greek
http://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=2115

Although I'm not actively studying at the moment, with my 350 hours devoted to listening and reading I've managed to develop quite good passive skills (although audiobooks are still more difficult than lectures/podcasts). I've been helped by my Ancient Greek though.

I did 20 or so tracks from Language Transfer and I would recommend it as a free alternative to Michel Thomas (the fact that it is free is by far not it's biggest advantage).

Modern Greek is definitely on my list, and it got a boost with my participation in the Polyglot Conference in Thessaloniki last year. For me the biggest problem with this language has always been that I hardly ever hear it spoken, but luckity it is quite easy to get there on holiday - although most of the cheap flight connections go either to Athens or to the islands.

During the two days of the conference I was at the conference venue most of the time, but before and after the two days there I tried out the elements of Greek I have learnt by studying the written language, and I got the impression that the native Greeks I spoke to understand what I said - and then they mostly responded with Greek spoken at fuill native speed, where I had to concentrate a lot to latch on to the maelstroem of words. In a few cases they said some sentences in Grek and others in English, but I didn't experience the humiliation of being answerwed in English if I asked in Greek - maybe because Thessaloniki isn't really dominated by mass tourism.

Sicne October I have studied regularly, albeit somewhat less intensily than before the event. The last thing I read in Greek was part of an airway magazine in Greek and English, and there I found that the two versions differed so much that it was easier just to use the Greek one and look up the missing words.

Iversen wrote:Modern Greek is definitely on my list, and it got a boost with my participation in the Polyglot Conference in Thessaloniki last year. For me the biggest problem with this language has always been that I hardly ever hear it spoken, but luckity it is quite easy to get there on holiday - although most of the cheap flight connections go either to Athens or to the islands.

During the two days of the conference I was at the conference venue most of the time, but before and after the two days there I tried out the elements of Greek I have learnt by studying the written language, and I got the impression that the native Greeks I spoke to understand what I said - and then they mostly responded with Greek spoken at fuill native speed, where I had to concentrate a lot to latch on to the maelstroem of words. In a few cases they said some sentences in Grek and others in English, but I didn't experience the humiliation of being answerwed in English if I asked in Greek - maybe because Thessaloniki isn't really dominated by mass tourism.

Sicne October I have studied regularly, albeit somewhat less intensily than before the event. The last thing I read in Greek was part of an airway magazine in Greek and English, and there I found that the two versions differed so much that it was easier just to use the Greek one and look up the missing words.

I have been examining the Greek-language sections of your "multi-confused" entries, sometimes writing them into my notebook.

crush wrote:Has no one mentioned Language Transfer yet? I haven't done the new course yet, but the old course was great! The new course has apparently been completely recorded, they're just waiting to be edited. I've been waiting for it to be fully released before continuing my Greek studies (and waiting for several years ).

I gave it a shot, it might help my ability to speak and understand basic Greek. It seemed to be spoon-feeding, but in a good way. The method opposed writing stuff down, whereas I tend to write a great deal, but I am prepared to vary my methods a bit.

It's relatively short (and not completed yet, though the rest of the tracks should be ready soon) so it's not all you'll need, but it does cover quite a lot of the grammar, much more so than a comparable MT course would. I think a full course is generally supposed to be 15-20 hours. It's also relatively painless, you can do it anywhere. It's a nice excuse to go for a walk in the park, for example. And it's put together by someone who's really passionate about languages and basically dedicated their life to being able to create these language courses for free