When should I start Assimil Greek?

[Expugnator]

Hey fellow LLorgers,

I've started learning Modern Greek in February and I've been through 20 lessons from the Kypros course and I'm about to finish the book 40 leçons pour parler grec moderne. I can't wait to start native materials and I'd like to prepare for it with Assimil, but I'm not sure if I will be able to get hold of audiobooks. In case I don't, then Assimil will basically remain my only listening-reading resource.

Right now I'm already a false beginner, with some basic vocabulary waiting for consolidation but definitely a headstart from the Greek prefixes, from some Russian cognates and a genuine interest in the language. I'm learning Greek mostly for using it later as a tourist, but I actually expect I will be able to read it much sooner than totally opaque languages such as Estonian and Georgian, but still later than a Germanic language, for instance.

So, my question is to those who are further in the language: should I pick another false beginner, enhanced-phrasebook (TY, Colloquial) or grammar-translation method before going for a more audio-intense/graded-text one like Assimil? I don't want to waste Assimil at a stage where I won't benefit much from it. I've done this with Russian and it slowed me down considerably.

There is a critical factor that Linguaphone or FSI or many other comprehensive methods aren't elligible for Modern Greek because they are embedded with Katharevousa. Even the first edition of Assimil has katharevousa, though I'm going to use it anyway, only after the first one.

Maybe there are similar good resources I'm missing out. I know there's Languagetransfer but that's a further stage, as there are no transcripts. Kypros is a bit too intense on vocabulary at this stage, while Assimil is graded. And the monolingual textbooks are still a stretch. Maybe there is something in Russian I'm missing out?

Thanks in advance.

[reineke]

Hey fellow LLorgers,

I've started learning Modern Greek in February and I've been through 20 lessons from the Kypros course and I'm about to finish the book 40 leçons pour parler grec moderne. I can't wait to start native materials and I'd like to prepare for it with Assimil, but I'm not sure if I will be able to get hold of audiobooks. In case I don't, then Assimil will basically remain my only listening-reading resource.

Free audio plays etc (audio and video)

http://www.isobitis.com/theatro.html

You can find things like 2-hour dramas based on Dostoyevsky's novels.

I believe you need to subscribe here for full access to audiobooks:

http://isobitis.com/

You're likely aware of librivox

https://librivox.org/search?primary_key=26&search_category=language&search_page=1&search_form=get_results

[vonPeterhof]

Maybe there is something in Russian I'm missing out?

For reading practice there's always Ilya Frank's books. On the site you can check out sample chapters and buy e-book versions, plus there's one full short story available for free. The fairy tales book is advertised as the beginners one, but the one with the jokes (анекдоты) might be more immediately useful in terms of practical vocabulary, while the Theotokas book has the benefit of audio materials for shadowing.

Incidentally, IIRC the FSI course doesn't go full Katharevousa until around the middle of volume 2, and before then all Katharevousa forms are explicitly introduced as such and contrasted to the more colloquial forms.

Ἀγαθῇ τύχῃ! (yeah, I know it's Ancient, but that's what I got on my plate right now )

[mercutio]

Why do you need transcripts? I did language transfer entire course and was great

By the way they are actually soon releasing transcripts but you don't need them

[Ogrim]

Personally I tried to use Le nouveau grec sans peine (newest edition) a couple of years ago, but I did not like it and gave it up very soon. Throughout the first 20 lessons or so, the audio is terribly slow, which I found very annoying. I don't say one should start with native-speed listening as a beginner, but at least there should be a more or less normal rythm and intonation, something I do not find in most Assimil courses. It is also a rather dull course, the dialogues and texts are not very inspiring in my view. I rather recommend the German-based Langenscheidt course Griechisch mit System if you can get hold of it. All lesssons are recorded, and there is one "slow" recording and one "native-speed" recording of each lesson. It also sells at a lower price than the complete Assimil course (here in Europe 40 euros compared to 70 euros for Assimil).

I am not saying you won't benefit from Assimil, I know a lot of learners like their courses very much, but personally I have come to the conclusion that their method just isn't for me. The only Assimil course I have had some benefit from is the one in Russian - but I basically used it as a listening tool skipping the first 30 lessons or so to get to the audio where they finally started to speak at a somewhat normal speed.

[DangerDave2010]

Delaying might not be a good idea, Assimil is long.... I worked with Assimil Persian together with other materials, and by the time I got the lesson 40 of Assimil, I was already understanding too much of native media to be bothered with doing lessons, which caused me to miss important points from the course.

I tried the same work with Assimil Arabic, but dropped it by lesson 20, for the voice acting was unbearable.