Question about Koine and Ancient Greek

[Book Crazy]

I really would like for my ds, to start out with Ancient Greek, but as we all know there isn't anything out there yet for kids.

 

Will it be difficult for him to start out with Koine and later switch to Ancient Greek?

 

For those of you that use Koine but don't wish to read the bible, how do you go about it. Is Elementary Greek very preachy with the bible work, or is it just passages to memorize.

 

Apart from the bible, what else is written in Koine?

[yslek]

I really would like for my ds, to start out with Ancient Greek, but as we all know there isn't anything out there yet for kids.

 

Will it be difficult for him to start out with Koine and later switch to Ancient Greek?

 

This is my problem, too. I'd love for my dc to start with Ancient Greek, as it applies to more texts. According to my Dad (who has a degree in Classical languages) Koine Greek is easy to read after studying Ancient, so it would kind of "kill two birds with one stone" to learn Ancient first (as we would want to read the Bible.)

 

When we start Greek (probably in a year or two) I plan on using Greek for Children (Koine) and then moving on to Athenaze (Ancient). Maybe learning it in order of difficulty would actually work better for a child anyway. (I hope, anyway, as there's currently no other choice! :))

 

For those of you that use Koine but don't wish to read the bible, how do you go about it. Is Elementary Greek very preachy with the bible work, or is it just passages to memorize.

 

Apart from the bible, what else is written in Koine?

 

I don't have an answer to this, as I don't have firsthand experience with any Koine Greek programs out there. And I don't know what, other than the Bible, is written in Koine, either. :001_huh:

 

Kelsy

[Karenciavo]

Will it be difficult for him to start out with Koine and later switch to Ancient Greek?

 

So far it hasn't been for me.

 

For those of you that use Koine but don't wish to read the bible, how do you go about it. Is Elementary Greek very preachy with the bible work, or is it just passages to memorize.

 

No, it's not preachy at all, just memorize verses (or not.)

 

Apart from the bible, what else is written in Koine?

 

Many of the early church fathers wrote in Koine. Do you mean secular?

[Dawn E]

I recently tracked down my college Greek professor to ask a similar question. Here was his response:

 

Anyway, you have nothing to worry about concerning Koine and Attic. It is encouraging to think that some students might get to a such a level of Greek in high school that this could be a concern. I hope this is true! But in any case, Koine is based on Attic and is, generally, somewhat simplified. There are also, of course, some vocabulary differences, but these are easily manageable. As you found out, reading Koine after having learned Attic is more or less a breeze. So of course going the other way will be a bit more work. But I think under the circumstances, having any background in ancient Greek would be a boon for later on. If your daughter were 18 and wanted to read Aeschylus, I wouldn't recommend studying Koine, for sure. But if she--or another child--has a year or two or three of Koine and then moves on to Attic, s/he would still be at a great advantage compared to other students. And who knows, maybe she'll discover botany and jazz drumming and have no time for Greek! So I'd tell whoever might be interested not to fret about this at all.

 

HTH,

Dawn

[Book Crazy]

Thanks Dawn

 

Now to add Greek to our day. This should be fun.

[dands]

Hi everyone! I started my son on Koine Greek when he turned 5 with Hey Andrew Teach Me Some Greek and has worked wonderfully. He is now 6 and is almost done with Level 3. It has become his favorite subject. Is that easy!

[abbeyej]

Sarah,

 

I was involved with publishing Elementary Greek... We worked hard to make sure that there was no doctrinal content -- only the actually Biblical texts. We wanted families to have the flexibility to use EG whether they approached the New Testament as scripture or as a literary text. So yes, there's plenty of New Testament Biblical material, but no religious commentary. It should be useable by those who consider the NT the Word of God and by those who place it on par with ancient myth.

 

It's our goal for our kids that they will study Attic Greek as well, but after much thought, we decided that Koine was a better approach for younger students. It is *slightly* simplified from Attic (although not so much as one might think -- the dialects aren't all that terribly different), and there is ample familiar, kid-appropriate material to translate. Even non-Christian children in our culture must be familiar with Biblical stories, and reading already-familiar stories of Jesus or parables is much more approachable than philosophy or historical commentary. When children have finished EG, you can go directly on to one of the standard college Attic texts like Athenaze or JACT's Reading Greek -- and they're much, much more approachable with a Koine background. While it would need to be a very strong high schooler to begin Athenaze or Reading Greek cold, they seem to be very doable by kids who already have the foundation of EG. (In some cases even middle school students.)

[Laura Corin]

There is one book on Ancient Greek: it's a short book from Galore Park (check out their site). I am using it with Hobbes as a stop gap until Galore Park comes out with Greek Prep, sometime in the next year.

 

Laura

[Ian W]

Are there any recent additions to the list of resources for teaching Koine to children? I am specifically looking for something for my 5-year-old daughter, and I'm having trouble finding anything with child-friendly pictures like the Minimus Latin books. Everything I've seen is very text-heavy.

 

Ian

[...................]

I recently tracked down my college Greek professor to ask a similar question. Here was his response:

 

 

 

HTH,

Dawn

 

I've always wondered about this. Thanks for this excellent clarification!

[Hunter]

I recently tracked down my college Greek professor to ask a similar question. Here was his response:

HTH,

Dawn

 

Thanks. This is what I felt when choosing to teach Koine, even though I was being heavily pressured into using Attic materials that were beyond me as a teacher. Although I tend to do what I want anyway, it is nice to be affirmed by a "professional" sometimes.