Colloquial Greek

Rating:
Summary: really awful
Review: I guess this book would rate one star because the cover is pretty. Otherwise it is so sloppily written and disorganized as to be unusable. Not only do words appear in the exercises that are not in the glossary in back, there are English to Greek exercises where the necessary Greek words have not been provided. More than once an English-to-Greek translation requires a grammatical construction (i.e., different case endings or different tense/mood) that has not been introduced. The tapes devote about four times as much airtime as necessary to the Greek alphabet (which is not at all difficult to learn) before they, too, wander off into the ozone. Many important questions of usage and grammar are dismissed as being "beyond the scope of this book." Almost anything beyond the Greek alphabet seems to be beyond the scope of this book.

I know this is harsh, but this book could be a real confidence-destroyer for some who hasn't had much experience with languages.

Rating:
Summary: Needs a teacher
Review: I was baffled by the way the vocabulary for the reading pasaages was arranged. A list at the beginning and list at the end in no particular order. Not all the words are glossed, even in the vocabulary at the back of the book. The book gives no indication which passages are on the cassette. The cassette contains too much irrelevant English filler.

Rating:
Summary: OK if have Greek bckgrd
Review: Personally, I purchased this book & cassettes because I am going to Greece this summer and wanted to brush up on my skills. (I already know Greek somewhat well) I found the book to be useful for some things but quite disorganized in others. I bought this book primarilly because of the tapes. However, sometimes the lessons aren't very informative or helpful. I think the only reason I am understanding the book is because I already know Greek a little. If I was just starting out with Greek I would have no idea what was going on...

Rating:
Summary: A challenge
Review: Personally, I purchased this book & cassettes because I am going to Greece this summer and wanted to brush up on my skills. (I already know Greek somewhat well) I found the book to be useful for some things but quite disorganized in others. I bought this book primarilly because of the tapes. However, sometimes the lessons aren't very informative or helpful. I think the only reason I am understanding the book is because I already know Greek a little. If I was just starting out with Greek I would have no idea what was going on...

Rating:
Summary: A challenge
Review: This book needs some work if it's going to be useful to anyone just beginning Greek. I gave up after about 5 lessons...and I'm fairly adept at learning languages.