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Rating: Summary: A Decent Resource, But Not Great Review: Being a self-studier of Greek using the Reading Greek series from Cambridge Univ. Press, I heartily welcomed this tape which corresponds to the reader from the series with an excellent introduction to the individual sounds. The only serious bone I had to pick with the tape is its brevity. The 65 minute duration of the tape went by all too quickly and I would have liked to have had perhaps a more in depth introduction (which is basically a vocalized version of the alphabet's explanation in Reading GreeK). Also, maybe an introduction of iambic meters would smooth the transition to the JACT's greek readers to be read after the completion of the course, I believe most of which include excerpts from the dramatists (who mainly use iambic meters). Unlike the other reviewers, I didn't find the sound quality to be at all lacking. Even though the second section (featuring dramatized readings of a simplified text of Aristophanes' Clouds) does not sound quite as good as the introduction, I was able to hear every sound. All in all, the tape could have been a bit longer for the price. But for self-study, I find the Reading Greek system to be nonpareil, mainly because it offers resources such as this one as well as introductions to history and texts in the original.
Rating: Summary: like a play you could not hear Review: The actual reading is like listening to a shakespearean play given in a theater with a single microphone in the circle of speakers and each speaker being at least ten feet from the microphone. Terrible for learning anything.
Rating: Summary: Very good, but not perfect Review: This is a very good source of information on how ancient greek is thought to have sounded. But it is not perfect. The first part of the tape covers pronunciation rules in general by W. Sidney Allen (author of "Vox Greaca"). This is very clear, but short on examples. The second part of the tape contains readings from "Reading Greek Text". This is good, but unfortunately I found the audio clarity here to be marginal. This is very maddening when you are trying to listen clearly to the subtle details of a foreign language you would like to be able to mimic. This complaint aside, it remains that this is one of the few sources of examples of ancient greek pronunciation that I have been able to find. It has proven to be very valuable to me. For this reason I gave 4 stars instead of 3. I would strongly recommend this tape as well as the entire JACT "Reading Greek" system, of which this tape is an integral part.
Rating: Summary: Very good, but not perfect Review: This is a very good source of information on how ancient greek is thought to have sounded. But it is not perfect. The first part of the tape covers pronunciation rules in general by W. Sidney Allen (author of "Vox Greaca"). This is very clear, but short on examples. The second part of the tape contains readings from "Reading Greek Text". This is good, but unfortunately I found the audio clarity here to be marginal. This is very maddening when you are trying to listen clearly to the subtle details of a foreign language you would like to be able to mimic. This complaint aside, it remains that this is one of the few sources of examples of ancient greek pronunciation that I have been able to find. It has proven to be very valuable to me. For this reason I gave 4 stars instead of 3. I would strongly recommend this tape as well as the entire JACT "Reading Greek" system, of which this tape is an integral part.
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