Embici's slow road to Greek

[embici]

Hello and welcome to my log.

I have not been very active on this forum but I did have a log some years ago on HTLAL:
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/fo ... 34790&PN=1

After a break from studying Greek I have decided that I should refocus my energies on studying that language once again.

My post on HTLAL explains my motivation for studying the language in the first place but I will provide a condensed and updated version here:

I travelled to Greece many years ago and absolutely loved the place, and the language. My partner--who happens to be Canadian-born to Greek parents--our daughter, and I, are thinking of taking a trip to Greece this coming summer. We first had the idea a number of years ago around the time when I started my old log (2012-2013).

My Greek studies started with Michel Thomas’ Foundation Course (loved it!); then I used Assimil's Le Grec sans peine (boring), Teach Yourself and Language Transfer. I would spend maybe an hour a week studying on my own. Not a lot of time but it was the right amount for me at the time given my other commitments and level of interest/motivation. I carried on like this for about a year until I started studying weekly with a tutor (via Skype). When we started, I could manage about 5-10 minutes in Greek but after about a year we could chat for the whole hour, rarely resorting to English. What a sense of accomplishment!

But then my tutor took the summer off and couldn't teach on weekends anymore (darn time difference!), our family trip to Greece never materialized (for a variety of reasons) and I never got back to the language. I think it might be two years already since I stopped studying Greek, but I'm ready to get back at it. Well, almost. I started Esperanto on Duolingo a few months ago and I'm hooked. When I finish the tree I will focus on Greek.

While I work on Esperanto I need to devise a plan of action for Greek. What materials should I use? Should I review on my own for a bit before finding a new tutor?

Some ideas:
Language Transfer has updated the Greek course so I will do that for sure because Language Transfer is awesome.
Work through Spoken World Greek which is very good and has lots and lots of audio.
Finish Ελληνικά Α'. It's the book my tutor had me use and I'm nearly finished it.

A question: Is there a TAC 2017 for Greek? I can't seem to find it here.

That's all for now. I hope to update this soon.

Happy 2017!

[Brun Ugle]

I can't help you with Greek, but I can tell you the TAC never really got off the ground on this forum. There had always been a tendency for many teams to fall apart after the first couple of months of the year. So, instead of TAC teams this year, we've been mostly going over to study groups. They are much more flexible and people can come and go as they wish. The flexibility seems to help them hold together better, perhaps because no one feels bad about disappearing for months at a time. There isn't any group for Greek, but you could always start one. And if you prefer the idea of a traditional TAC over a study group, you can organize it that way. The East Asian group did. But there is no main sign up sheet. Groups organize themselves if they want to do a TAC or a study group.

[Ogrim]

Hi Embici, welcome back! I remember you from our not so successful Greek TAC team some years ago at HTLAL. I gave up my Greek studies shortly after that, but who knows, maybe I will be tempted to take it up again in the near future. Anyway, I will be following your log with interest.

[embici]

Thank you for that clarification, Brun Ugle. Study groups make a lot of sense.

Nice to see you here, Ogrim, and thanks for checking into my log. I remember you from our TAC. It was a friendly and supportive group, even if we didn't achieve much.

I was thinking about other activities that can support language-learning. For example, a colleague of mine (whose language-study inspired me to take up Greek) was about to embark on studying Italian. After doing extensive research on methods and finding the materials he would use he then booked an appointment at a "listening centre." I'm not sure there is a generic name for the place and I don't want to advertise for them but it's a sort of clinic where they use the Tomatis method. My colleague wanted to expand the range of frequencies that he could hear to include the range that Italian is spoken at. Or at least that's how I understood it. Apparently languages are spoken at different frequencies, some with a wider range than others, and this affects ones ability to learn other languages. Or so the theory goes. I haven't done any research of my own on this but it's an intriguing idea.

There is no listening centre in my city and I'm not interested enough to spend thousands of dollars on travel, accommodations and "listening therapy" to test this for myself. I would be interested to hear if anyone here has used the Tomatis method.

An activity that I thought I might pursue to support my language-learning is mindfulness. I have found that in the last 10 years I have lost my keys more often than in the previous 30 years. I used to pride myself on my good memory. Not anymore. Is it age, stress, parenthood, my attachment to electronic devices? Whatever the reason, I will give mindfulness a try. Hopefully I will see improvements in focusing my attention and retaining information.

[tarvos]

Greek is a lot of fun. Good luck!

[Ogrim]

Nice to see you here, Ogrim, and thanks for checking into my log. I remember you from our TAC. It was a friendly and supportive group, even if we didn't achieve much.

It was a nice group indeed, but unfortunately I think most of the participants from back then are no longer active members of the forum.

[embici]

A list of all the materials I have used or plan to use

Language Transfer Complete Greek
Spoken World Greek
Vocabulearn Greek
Greek: An Essential Grammar of the Modern Language by David Holton and Peter Mackridge
Ellinika A
Ellinika B
Book 2 Greek
Assimil Le nouveau Grec sans peine
Michel Thomas Greek
Duolingo
Teach Yourself Greek
Podcasts by the Hellenic American Union

(I am on the computer a lot for work so for my language study I prefer to use materials that do not involve sitting at a computer.)

This list will be updated.

[Edited for a typo]

[tarvos]

That is a lot of books. I would go bonkers if I'd used that many books to learn Greek.

[embici]

While checking out Greek on Duolingo and not being too satisfied with it I decided to explore Esperanto. Obviously that Duolingo project is much more developed than the Greek one which I found to be full of errors.

I spent about a month learning Esperanto using the Duolingo app on my phone before I realized that the web version has "tips and notes" in addition to the lessons. I really could have used those.

I've started reading The Esperanto Teacher: A Simple Course for Non-Grammarians by Helen Fryer to complement the Duolingo course (and to have time away from typing and mousing). It really is for the non-grammarian as she even avoids words like noun and verb.

The book teaches a pronoun that I hadn't learnt in Duolingo: ci which Helen tells us means "thou". Google tells me that ci is not used much in Esperanto so I shouldn't sweat it.

Can you imagine saying Ĉu ci scias... 10 times fast?

[tarvos]

No one uses ci, ever. You can see it in certain translations.