Modern Greek Study Group

An area with study groups for various languages. Group members help each other, share resources and experience. Study groups are permanent but the members rotate and change.
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Neurotip
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Re: Modern Greek Study Group

Postby Neurotip » Mon May 24, 2021 6:39 pm

kanewai wrote:I do miss having a single, condensed paperback grammar course to refer to, like the old Teach Yourself courses. Those were so common a decade ago, and in a lot of languages; now they seem to have all been replaced by bloated multi-book courses like Living Language's new series.

Hmm, 'bloated' is a good word for Living Language I'm afraid.

Have you come across the Routledge 'essential' grammar? It's not designed as a course, but I think it's readable enough to use it as such, particularly if you have a text to study and you're good at making up your own exercises.
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kanewai
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Re: Modern Greek Study Group

Postby kanewai » Mon May 24, 2021 8:00 pm

Language patzer wrote:Ανθολόγιο για τα παιδιά του Δημοτικού, Μέρος τρίτο ...

You may enjoy this. It has original texts by writers and poets, and a dictionary in the end.
Thanks, I'll keep that bookmarked.

Neurotip wrote:
kanewai wrote: Have you come across the Routledge 'essential' grammar? It's not designed as a course, but I think it's readable enough to use it as such, particularly if you have a text to study and you're good at making up your own exercises.
That might work; I'll keep an eye out for an affordable copy. I liked the old Teach Yourself / Colloquial / Living Language books because they were so easy to carry around, even if they weren't always the best courses. I had one of them in Turkey (I forget which book), and I kept hearing this 'r' form of the verbs. It was nice having a book I could flip through to help figure out what I was hearing. Assimil has a lot of charts in the appendix, so it will work in a pinch, but it's not the same as having a short book where one chapter covers one grammar point.
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kanewai
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Re: Modern Greek Study Group

Postby kanewai » Fri Jul 02, 2021 12:00 am

Six months in, and I figure I have maybe 150 study hours under my belt, though that's a guess. I feel like it's been a lot, and I wonder why I feel like I'm stuck at the early beginner's stage. Then I look at the data from FSI, which estimates that you need over 350 hours of class study just to reach "elementary proficiency" in Greek. And I realize I am doing alright, but still have a long way to go.

Greek.JPG


The combination of Language Transfer, Assimil, and Pimsleur seems to be working. I won't be able to do a proper self-evaluation until I actually get to Greece in mid-September. I'm currently on my second run-through of LT, and it helps me identify the patterns I see in Assimil. I'll start the second level of Pimsleur next week, and anticipate that that will help push me to the level of "talented tourist." I use Memrise as a back up; it doesn't feel like a solid learning tool to me, but it helps on those nights where I don't have the energy to hit the main courses & just want to do something, or when I have extra energy to do just a little bit more.

I can't imagine that I will be reading The Little Prince or Harry Potter by the end of the summer. Both look too daunting. The final sections of Assimil are at a B2 level, and it takes me many attempts, and many evenings, just to understand a twelve-line dialogue.

Assimil's Le Grec is a solid course, but it doesn't have the humor or silly jokes that you find in the Romance Language courses, and it doesn't have the interesting content you have in their Ancient Greek or Latin courses. The story line revolves around a group of friends voyaging to a small village. It's fine for what it is, but I wish it were more engaging.

In my mind I divide my languages up into first-tier languages (I can read books, or listen to podcasts, and incorporate them into my daily life; the Romance languages fall here), second-tier languages (I learned them to a basic level, but would need to study hard to speak them again; Turkish, Arabic, and Indonesian fall here), and third-tier languages (I've flirted with them in the past, but never progressed far & just remember basic ideas about their structure; German and Japanese fall here). It would be nice to bring Greek up to the first level, but I don't know if that's realistic.

Or rather, it's realistic, but I don't know if I would be able to keep up the intensity needed for another year or two. We will see.
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Language patzer
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Re: Modern Greek Study Group

Postby Language patzer » Fri Jul 02, 2021 5:09 am

Maybe you are already doing this, but in case you didn't: why don't you try to read actual greek texts instead of translations like the little prince? Try news blogs, or greek children's books, or an actual newspaper. I understand the value of reading something you already know, but maybe diving in original greek texts will do the trick. And how about series and old beloved movies? Or new ones!

Not only will it help with the language, but it will give you cultural insight without ever trying.
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kanewai
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Re: Modern Greek Study Group

Postby kanewai » Fri Jul 02, 2021 9:40 pm

Language patzer wrote:Maybe you are already doing this, but in case you didn't: why don't you try to read actual greek texts instead of translations like the little prince? Try news blogs, or greek children's books, or an actual newspaper. I understand the value of reading something you already know, but maybe diving in original greek texts will do the trick. And how about series and old beloved movies? Or new ones!
I wish I could do this already! Every once in a while I'll look at a newspaper, but the best I can usually make out is This morning in Athens something something really-long-word is going to something another-long-word and oh my god that word is so long what is this Russian?

Still, it would be worthwhile to struggle through a few articles, just to push myself. Are there any blogs or newspapers you'd recommend? I tagged a few alternative weeklies, but not sure where to start: Athens Voice, Lifo, or Free Sunday. I'm definitely more interested in culture, science, and the environment over politics these days.

At my actual level I still need bilingual texts, and recordings when I can find them. There's not much out there. And so my first book is going to be something that looks so bad that it might be good:

cleopatra.jpg


Here are the opening lines:

η ζωή της Κλεοπάτρας
The Life of Cleopatra

ο δρόμος προς το στρατόπεδο του Ιούλιοu Καίσαρα ήταν γεμάτος λακκούβες ...

The road to Julius Caesar's camp was rough and full of potholes.

I was bouncing around in the back of the wagon like a bag full of rags.

How in the world could the Queen of Egypt, ruler of the most advanced civilization of our times, find herself in such a fix?


It sounds like a wacky girl's adventure story. I don't know how the author plans to handle the queen's tragic end.
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Re: Modern Greek Study Group

Postby Language patzer » Fri Jul 09, 2021 9:31 am

Whatever works for you is fine! You could find some old greek school texts online (παλιά σχολικά βιβλία), or some news sites like skai, ant1, mega, protothema, ert, vouli channel. Or maybe google some of your interests in greek and see where it leads, or get into museum sites etc. Just play around the web googling your interests in greek.

Try watching a documentary about something you know.

I completely understand you being confused with articles, sometimes the language is so wooden...

I think you are doing a great job by the way. Εύγε! Well done!
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Re: Modern Greek Study Group

Postby Language patzer » Fri Jul 09, 2021 9:40 am

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DseIERK5kXA[/youtube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DseIERK5kXA

This is an old comedy, but a very favourite one. I think you can understand it, it's colllquial greek.
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Re: Modern Greek Study Group

Postby Language patzer » Fri Jul 09, 2021 9:42 am

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Re: Modern Greek Study Group

Postby Language patzer » Fri Jul 09, 2021 9:44 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vsizbar_0NU

This is a recent one, but set in the 1980s, a bit of a melodrama but still ok.
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Re: Modern Greek Study Group

Postby rdearman » Sat Aug 21, 2021 3:27 pm

Hello Everyone,

I have updated the Master list of resources for Greek with all the links I could find and links to the work Speakeasy did on HTLAL. I would like to try to find someone who wants to maintain the Greek resources page? If someone is willing to volunteer, then I will reassign the first post to you, and you can keep and maintain the page as you wish.

Anyone who is interested, please send me a PM, and we'll talk about it.
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