For those who study Greek.

[MorganClassicalPrep]

So one of the reasons (on my long list of reasons!) for homeschooling is the desire to teach my daughter languages. We've already introduced French, and will be continuing that, but I was looking at what other languages we might do.

 

I know many of you study Greek, why? Do you study biblical Greek or modern Greek? If you study biblical Greek, what reasons are there for doing this, especially if you aren't religious? How hard is it to switch to modern Greek after learning biblical Greek?

 

I was planning on doing French, German, and Latin, but I think it would be kind of interesting to do a language with a different alphabet.

Thanks for any input!!

[Ester Maria]

We study Greek because it's a part of the "standard package" at our home, as we incorporate classical languages and literature studies into our curriculum. I had 6 years of (Attic) Greek at school myself, so I'm quite comfortable teaching it. During and after my university studies I had some more extensive contacts with Greece, so I learned modern Greek as well - but nowadays I don't speak it, I only retain a relatively solid level of reading knowledge.

 

I teach Attic Greek to my daughters (actually, we're slowly getting past the teaching stage so now they're mostly working on texts and I come as a sort of subtle guidance / mentor more than an actual teaching), because that's the default form studied in classical schools, from which you can switch to Koine without any further study (in fact, Koine is very EASY after Attic, and you find that you can read NT prima vista most of the time). It also provides with a solid base for general Greek language studies, with dialectal differences covered as they appear, in case they get interested in learning more modern forms of Greek later.

 

Switching to modern Greek after having learned Attic, for me, was pretty much like learning French from an Italian background - everything you come across is so familiar, yet so different. With time you do come to realize it's all one language in its historical development and complexity, but it takes a while for it to "click" why in modern Greek you have some forms which seem illogical to you. On the whole, modern Greek is a lot simplified and the orthography is significantly easier due to one-accent system.

 

I don't intend to teach modern Greek to my daughters, but I do use Greek-in-Greek materials with them so as a "side effect", they learn some of it (because Greeks have such awesome materials for learning Ancient Greek).

[Jean in Newcastle]

Both my dh and I learned koine Greek. He uses it almost daily (as part of pastoral study), I don't. I do understand him when he's waxing eloquent about a certain verb form;) I would say that learning Greek provides the same benefit as Latin does as far as word roots goes. Greek grammar is fairly similar to Latin also. If I didn't specifically want to know koine Greek for NT study, I would study classical (Attic) Greek as Ester Maria did. There is such a rich heritage of plays and poems from classical Greece.

[MorganClassicalPrep]

Well then. I didn't realize there were more than just koine and modern! I've never heard of attic Greek. I would *love* to be able to study the literature from classical Greece, (I mean... I would love for DD to study it... :tongue_smilie:). Hm. Might have to make some changes to the language schedule! French now.. a classical language next year.. German the year after, then another classical? So many choices!

 

What are the good attic Greek sources out there? I'd be teaching with absolutely no knowledge of the language, and unless I wait another 10 years (which would put DD in high school, and able to teach herself!) I won't have much time to invest in learning before my daughter, since I am currently in school myself, and learning the languages I need for my chosen career.