Reading Greek: Text (Reading Greek)

Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable approach to learning Ancient Greek
Review: Although I've only been studying the "Reading Greek" course for two and half months, I didn't want to put off recommending it to the motivated self-learner. The books are elegantly and logically laid out, allowing the beginner to gradually accumulate a vocabulary and grammatical knowledge. I hasten to add that by "books" I mean that there are three vital, interconnected components of this course:

1) "Reading Greek" ( Text )

2) "Reading Greek" ( Grammar,Vocabulary & Exercises )

3) "Reading Greek" ( Independent Study Guide )

The first two mentioned should be understood as naturally complementary, but the third is just as important- it contains translations, answers to tests and many valuable ( and often subtle ) points about the language.

Two additional texts are also offered for students who have finished those outlined above:

1) "A World of Heroes" ( featuring excerpts from Homer, Herodotus and Sophocles )

2) "The Intellectual Revolution" ( featuring excerpts from Plato, Euripides and Thucydides ).

As a beginner, I can't vouch for the two volumes just mentioned, however, based on the three books I am familiar with, they should prove to be excellent.

I've worked only a half hour on average per day with this course and feel that I've made significant progress ( I'm sure those who have more time to devote will make phenomonal advances ).

For those who wish to explore the richness of Greek literature, I wholeheartedly recommend this course.

Rating:
Summary: Good reading selections, patchy grounding
Review: As other reviewers have noted, the series is ungainly and one needs to have a minimum of three of the books (text, grammar and vocabulary, reader's guide)and possibly a fourth (vocabulary alone)before going on to the intermediate reading selections, of which there are now three.

But more importantly the evident strengths of the series are mixed with equally important weakness. It's indeed exciting to begin to read simplified Greek text from the first lesson, within a very few to be reading only slightly adapted extracts from the great authors, and to end with original passages from Demosthenes, Euripides, Herodotus, and Homer. All the selections (quite a few from Aristophanes and Plato)and settings (adapted from Thucydides for the time of the plague in Athens) are fascinating and authentic.

On the other hand, there are at least two problems apart from the awkwardness of using three or four books together. After the first seven or eight lessons, the level of difficulty gets exponential not so much in absorbing, but in retaining the grammatical complexity. The exercises are just too few to be really helpful in this regard. By the time the student finishes the basic text, the base is insufficient to go on reading other texts with facility.

A second problem is the diffuseness of the texts: a smattering of many different styles and types of ancient Greek does not really provide focus. As the language kept evolving, with the simplest being the koine, it's perhaps a mistake not to start with grounding first in this form. Alternatively, much more emphasis on Homer could equally help provide a base from which to expand. The most difficult authors in some ways are in the classical Attic (Demosthenes, Aristophanes, Plato). Again, it could have been a better strategy, even keeping the focus only on these, to concentrate on say, Plato.

To sum up, my suggestion would be to use this series with some caution: It's quite effective to acquire some of the basics, and reading all the text in the first volume is certainly a satisfying experience. But for a more thorough base in ancient Greek, it may be better to: (i) master the koine of the New Testament; (ii) focus on Homeric Greek with Pharr's text; (iii) and, acquire depth in the Attic dialect with either of different texts which rely on a single author (Hansen's course uses extracts from Plato; in the older tradition, Mather and Hewitt provide the whole of Xenophon's Anabasis in an excellent, annotated version).

Rating:
Summary: Tough going, but valuable
Review: Before you buy into this book series, go clear off your desk. You're going to need a lot of space to spread out your Reading Greek library.

At a minimum, you will need two books: the "Text," which includes Greek readings with brief English introductions, and "Grammar, Vocabulary and Exercises," (GVE) which includes the actual pedagogical materials to guide you through the Text's readings. You'll need both books open at the same time to do your work.

Two books might not be enough if you're studying on your own. You will also want to pick up "An independent study guide to Reading Greek." This book gives slightly more in-depth discussion of the vocabulary and grammatical points covered in GVE, translations of the Text, and answers to the GVE exercises. And if you're teaching yourself, you can pick up "The teachers' notes to Reading Greek." This book gives tips on how to manage the materials in the two basic books. If you know a little Greek before you start, this book helps you figure out what strategy the authors are pursuing.

But you're not done. There's a thin "Greek vocabulary" that goes with the series. It provides all the vocabulary for the Text in one place. And there is a nice history of ancient Greece that complements the text, "The world of Athens." This book provides background on Greek culture, politics, and arts. The independent study guide cross-references sections in "The world" to chapters in the "Reading Greek" books. Very helpful when you come across a cultural reference and wonder what it means.

But wait--that's not all. If you can make it through all these books, there are two readers to continue your studies. One is an anthology of classic Greek texts, the other an introduction to the later, New Testament Greek. I hope someday to be in a position to make use of them.

One last thing. If you're like me and need to hear a language to learn it, you should listen to the audio tape that accompanies the series. Be warned that the audio quality is not so good. The recordings are rather noisy, making it hard to hear exactly how the speakers are pronouncing things. But since no one really knows how Attic Greek sounded, maybe you don't need to listen that closely.

Finally, concerning the value of the texts themselves: I find this series difficult to use, but worthwhile. In lesson one, the authors teach you the Greek alphabet and then drop you right into a seven page Greek story. (Perhaps the authors were inspired by that girl in Nabokov's Pnin who thought that, "once you learn the Cyrillic alphabet, you can read 'Anna Karamazov' in the original!") The vocabulary for the first lesson alone must number over 150 words. This approach makes for tough going at first. I can imagine many people give up half way through lesson one. I know I did. Then I spent a few months with a good Koine Greek program, one with better scaffolding for the beginner (William Mounce's,) before coming back to Reading Greek.

Bottom line: these books are well done, but dense and very demanding. If you're studying Greek on your own, you'll require either a lot of persistence--or assistance from other texts--to get you over the hump at the beginning of the course.

Rating:
Summary: the weak part of reading greek
Review: I like Reading Greek, because as an experienced language learner (Latin and/or other foreign languages) you can read really quickly and fluently. But if you're looking for a clear exposure to grammar, with nice charts etc., the book is not for you. And using the book, I'll need an additional reference grammar soon.