Memorizing Greek - help!v Update.................

[Myra]

Update:  Thanks for allthe great suggestions!  My son just got his final grade B+ 

 

 

My son is a sophomore in college and taking Homeric Greek I.  He called last night and said he is in desperate need of some new ways to memorize the declensions and conjugations.  He says it just not "sticking".  Now we've studied Latin in high school and he didn't have trouble memorizing those endings and vocab....but this Greek has him stumped. 

 

So any general memorizing techniques?

 

 

And any specific memorizing techniques for Greek?

 

 

Thanks,

 

Myra

[Tress]

Bumping for you, because I also find Greek more difficult to memorize than Latin.

[Jyniffrec]

My dd is in her third year of Greek. What works really well for her is Quizlet and chanting every night. By the way, she started out really struggling and just last semester finally started making truly passing grades. I think Greek is just a lot harder than Latin for some people. She is in her first year of Latin and is finding it to be very easy compared to Greek.

[Kareni]

Perhaps this might be of help. This site was recommended by my daughter's Greek teacher. It's hosted by Eton.

Review site for Ancient Greek

 

Regards,

Kareni

[garddwr]

Is he already using chanting? If just chanting isn't working can he put the endings to a familiar song--Twinkle, or Frere Jacques, or something? Music is a big help for me. If he is visual he can try some of the more visual techniques, like visualizing each ending with an object that helps him remember it.

[garddwr]

One more thing, the information I have read about memory suggests reviewing every 4-6 hours or so to get something into permanent memory. Maybe he could try reviewing first thing in the morning, again around noon, again and dinner, and once more right before bed? Doing self-tests is also helpful. He could write up a quiz for himself to take each day.

 

[Myra]

Thanks everyone - I'll send your ideas on to him this afternoon!

 

Every bit helps!

 

Myra

[Jean in Newcastle]

I sang Greek conjugations to songs (Louie, Louie is really good for the conjugation Luo Lueis!).  I also did a lot of memorizing while walking.  For some reason, the repetitive movement of my feet helped.  I would do the endings by themselves and then do them with different roots.  

Chanting is good, as is writing out the tables of paradigms long-hand, over and over again.  If he doesn't have the chanting down, it can be useful to record himself reading the tables, and put it on an ipod, and listen to the worlds most boring playlist as he walks around campus.

[Nan in Mass]

There is getting the material into your head in the first place, and then there is keeping it there.  The first is a matter of finding the way you memorize best and then just making yourself do it.  The second is a matter of reviewing BEFORE you have forgotten the material and slowly increasing the interval.  The standard advice to review daily and then weekly was totally inadequate for me.  Once I managed to get something in my head (usually by sort of cheating), I had to review at about ten minute intervals for awhile, then could lengthen it to a few hours.  I had to rememorize it the next day and do that again.  After a few days, I started being able to lengthen the time between reviews out to a few times a day.  Then once a day.  Then a few times a week.  That assumed it was something I could use (like Greek endings or vocab).  If I couldn't use it for anything, I never really got past the reviewing it every day stage.  I have a really efficient forgettery.  I don't remember the Greek endings being a problem in college.  I think I wrote them over and over, which isn't usually the way I memorize things but I think that is what we were told to do.  I remember writing them out in other classes to review.  I memorized the vocab by writing out flashcards and having somebody quiz me orally.  I did (and do) better with foreign language vocab if I am not looking at the words.  Actually, having somebody quiz me is a better way for me to memorize anything.  And I have to move while I am memorizing.  My youngest has to write things out large on a whiteboard.  This requires moving/standing, seeing it all at once, colour, and using gross motor skills, all of which help him.  Sidewalk chalk would do the same thing.  Any glass surface will work with whiteboard pens, if you have no whiteboard.  Something else to try is visualizing it.  Shut your eyes and work on building a picture in your head of whatever it is you are trying to memorize.  You'll have to peek a ton at first.  Or you can think up a mneumonic (or however you spell that).  The sillier, the better.  Or put it to music, but I find I don't remember words to music very well so this isn't terribly helpful for me.  If you do it by chanting, try to use some sort of strong rythm.  You can write out the endings and then blend each row or column into one word.  (You might have to add letters or syllables to make this work.  Try to use the same one so you can extract it later.)  It isn't that hard to memorize a single word, even if it is a weird one.  We did that for some of the Latin tables.

 

HTH

Nan

[Kareni]

I have a really efficient forgettery.

 

So that's what it's called!  (I probably knew it at one time, but I forgot.)

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Nan in Mass]

LOL

 

Thought I might elaborate on the one-word out of a column idea.  Say you are trying to memorize a-e-i-o-u.  You can say them as one word, pronouncing the sounds - aheyeeowoo (as is ah ha, they, beet, snow, and food).  Or you can say the letters as one word - eyeeaheeowyou.  Or you can add a letter, like a hard g - gagegigogu - and say it as if it were one word, with the emphasized syllable on either the go (to force it into one word).  Or you can add a syllable between each, like ga - gahahgahegaheegahowgahoo, putting the emphasis on the ow.  Hmm... Clear as mud, right?  LOL

 

Nan

[flyingiguana]

http://www.wikihow.com/Memorize-Your-Lines

 

It's about memorizing lines for actors, so some of the suggestions would be silly.  But some might be useful.

 

When I was taking Chinese, the only thing that got me to learn the characters was writing them out -- over and over and over. 

 

This site also suggests writing lines out with the non-dominant hand.

[Myra]

Final grades in   B+  Thanks for all the suggestions!

[Jean in Newcastle]

Great!