Athenaze or Elementary Greek?

[JadeOrchidSong]

Ds9 begs to learn Greek. I just ordered Greek Alphabet Code Cracker, great deal on Amazon by the way, for him. If he continues to be interested, which of the two is good for him?

I looked at the sample of Elementary Greek and like that it has a manageable daily plan while Athenaze is more integrated with words, grammar, translation, and reading.

Thanks for your input.

[Kathryn]

My 8yo went from GACC to Elementary Greek. We are almost done with Year 1. I've found it to be just the right level of work for him AT&T his age. I don't think he could do Athenaze for another few years. We will be moving on to EG2 next year.

[JadeOrchidSong]

Kathryn, thanks! I think we will start with GACC and then go on to EG 1.

[Corraleno]

Which "flavor" of Greek is your DS interested in? Elementary Greek is koine (Biblical) and Athenaze is Attic (classical). If you want classical, and you think he's not ready for Athenaze, you might look at Galore Park's Introduction to Classical Greek. They also sell an answer key.

[JadeOrchidSong]

Which "flavor" of Greek is your DS interested in? Elementary Greek is koine (Biblical) and Athenaze is Attic (classical). If you want classical, and you think he's not ready for Athenaze, you might look at Galore Park's Introduction to Classical Greek. They also sell an answer key.

What is the difference? Can one switch to the other easily, say you start with Elementary Greek and switch to Athenaze later? Thanks ,

[Calm37]

We went through two years of Elementary Greek and then I tried Athenaze. I was not able to get too far with it. It is not a homeschool curriculum but a college course. I would think you would need a Greek teacher to do well with it.

 

 

[Corraleno]

What is the difference? Can one switch to the other easily, say you start with Elementary Greek and switch to Athenaze later? Thanks ,

 

Attic Greek is the dialect spoken in Athens during the Classical period (500-336 BC); it's the language of Greek drama and philosophy. Koine is the greatly simplified version that was spoken as a lingua franca from the time of Alexander through the Roman period; the grammar and syntax are less complex than Attic, and there were many shifts in vocabulary.

 

Generally, if you can read Attic, you can read koine, but the opposite isn't true. If your primary goal is reading the NT, then koine is fine. If you want to be able to read Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus, Artistophanes, Thucydides, Xenophon, Plato, or Aristotle, you want to learn Classical/Attic. Homeric Greek is older (~7th-8th centuries BC) and is an Ionian dialect. It differs somewhat from Attic in grammar & vocabulary, but someone who knows Attic can read Homer with a bit of help. The American Classical League, which offers the National Latin Exam, also offers a National Greek Exam, with 5 levels of Attic and 1 of Homeric. (There is also a National Biblical Greek Exam, which is offered by Logos Biblical Software.)

 

It's certainly possible to start with koine and later switch to Attic, but you'd have to relearn the grammar & syntax, whereas if you start with Attic, you can also read koine (in fact, Athenaze includes many NT passages for translation, along with Attic passages).

[JadeOrchidSong]

Corraleno,

Thank you so very much. This is really brand new knowledge to me. So Athenaze is the path to go. I will let him do GACC and then decide how much efforts he wants to put in. I love to learn about new things from scholars like you on WTM.

What languages are your dc doing?

 

I hope Embassy aka wehomeschool would chime in.

[Diviya]

My two cents:

I'd encourage you to start with Elementary Greek. We are partway through Book 3 with my 9 and 11 year olds. We will have taken about 2 years to go through the whole program. The program is very well done and easy to manage with elementary age kids. It offers a lot more than most elementary age language programs.

My goal has always been Attic Greek, but there is really nothing appropriate for the younger kids. Elementary Greek is extremely user friendly and the workbook format is great for the younger kids. It is mostly basic grammar and vocabulary.

I have looked at several Attic Greek programs, and so far, I have not found anything that will be different when we switch. I'm assuming the differences would emerge as one got further into Koine Greek. So no, you wouldn't be wasting time by doing this first. I think we will end up with a nice solid base from which to go forward. I'm hoping to move into Athenaze next.

I have the Galore Park book also. I think it would be a good intro for an older kid. It moves faster; it's not a workbook; the declensions are in the British order (which always makes my head explode!). If we have to, we will go through that first before Athenaze.

Just watch out for errors in the Elementary Greek books.

 

Hope that helps.

[mumto2]

You might want to look at Galore Park before you order.  We used elementary Greek but I love the look of Galore Park which has recently been updated.

[Carolyn in Ohio]

My daughter started with Elementary Greek, loved the book and absolutely fell in love with the language. She did 2 years of EG, and the 3rd book over the summer (for fun!) and and I signed her up for Greek at Scholars Online (Attic Greek)in 8th grade. She took 5 years of Greek online, including a year Homeric Greek,and won the National Greek Exam Scholarship - almost 2 years ago and I am still bragging :) . She is now majoring in Classics. I think Elementary Greek is a good start for your child's age.

 

Carolyn

[Corraleno]

Thank you so very much. This is really brand new knowledge to me. So Athenaze is the path to go. I will let him do GACC and then decide how much efforts he wants to put in. 

 

FWIW, DS jumped into Greek 1 with Lukeion in 7th grade, with no prior language experience, and aced it. There was also a 9 yo in his class who did very well. He (the 9 yo) is gifted, but the pace of the Lukeion class was pretty intense. If you're working at home, you can go much slower, at half the pace or even less. Although Athenaze is occasionally used in college classes, it was really designed as a high school text — the co-authors also wrote popular high school Latin texts (Ecce Romani and Oxford Latin), which are sometimes used in middle school as well. I would say that Athenaze is most similar to Ecce Romani. There is a workbook for extra practice and a teacher's guide with answer key and teaching helps.

 

ETA: Galore Park's Introduction to Classical Greek, was designed for middle school or early HS level. You can see sample pages on their website. There is also an answer key available.

 

 

What languages are your dc doing?

 

DS (9th grade) does Greek & Latin with Lukeion, and self-teaches Turkish & Old Norse. After we move (this summer), he'll be adding a Mongolian class. He wants to be a linguist, specializing in the Turkic/Mongolic language group.

 

DD (6th) does Latin and a little Japanese; she'll add a Japanese class in the fall and probably start Latin with Lukeion in 8th. I'm hoping she'll at least get through Latin 3, then she could do four semesters of DE Spanish in 11th & 12th. I'd also like for her to have at least one Asian language (she's Asian and she's interested in international business).