Spoonary wrote:I'm happy to see that you're learning Greek Gary! You're learning it, Clare is learning it, I'm supposed to be learning it and am now very motivated to get back to learning it. Maybe we need a Greek study group where we can put all of our resources in one place?
A group could be a good idea! There have been some great recommendations in here and the linked threads but it would be nice to have them in a place where others might also be able to benefit.
Greek: Language Transfer is just becoming too hard to keep up with. I keep mixing up all the pronouns and articles for all the genders, numbers, and cases, and the vocabulary won't stick easily. I need something supplementary with text and more traditional grammar explanations and charts. Of the recommended resources, I've chosen Greekpod101 by a kind of process of elimination: Colloquial doesn't have great reviews (seems to be considered at best an accessory to other studies), I can't find Spoken World for a sensible price, Assimil would probably be more useful once I'm more familiar with the basics than now, and something online just suits me better than a book at the moment (yes, work's been quiet recently). So far so good, with nice if simplistic explanations of pronunciation and grammar. The first few videos feel long-winded since I'm not an absolute beginner (I chose that level as the next one up still sounded way beyond me), but I imagine it'll get up to speed quickly. I'm not too keen on their advertising, it seems all about trying to sell me "secrets" and "shortcuts", but as I always say even good resources have misleading marketing.
Spanish: I've got enough podcast and video recommendations to keep me going for years - huge thanks to Jaleel 10, NoManches, and Spoonary! Now I just need time for them all. I'm getting back into the habit of regularly reading Asco de vida and other online sources and writing a diary, and I've finally finished Breaking out of beginner's Spanish although I think I'll need to go through it several more times over the course of my learning journey before it all sticks.
I've booked a lesson for tomorrow to get back into speaking, but I'm wondering whether to continue since almost every time I book one the price has increased by one dollar. I get on really well with this tutor, and the conversations and corrections are useful for sure, but I'm asking myself how much it's worth. Probably still better value than trying to find an exchange partner and speaking English half the time, or spending less on a community tutor but having to find a new one every month or two, and one lesson every couple of weeks hardly breaks the bank.