Self-Teach Greek Resources

[Earthmerlin]

My 11 year old would like to learn Greek. I assume she’d study it leisurely and is interested especially in pronunciation. I cannot afford a tutor at this point. Therefore I’m looking for some decent self-study resources for a young beginner. Non-screen items are preferred. Thanks!

[Loesje22000]

Old Greek , Modern Greek or Biblical Greek?

[Earthmerlin]

1 hour ago, Loesje22000 said:

Old Greek , Modern Greek or Biblical Greek?

Good question! I’d say ancient Greek.

[bensonduck]

Ancient Greek stuff we’ve used:

1) Hey Andrew - the first few books in this series are a nice intro. Gets the alphabet and sounds down well and eases into vocabulary and cases. This is Koine (biblical) Greek but I haven’t had an issue starting a kid off with this and then having them move into Attic Greek later on.  The format is basically a black and white spiral bound workbook with big print and nice large blanks to write.
 

2) Elementary Greek - also Koine, moves a little faster than Hey Andrew. Nicely laid out with a short assignment each day and an optional quiz every 5th day. Gets into the noun cases earlier than Hey Andrew. 
 

3) Athenaze - it’s where you want to end up if she sticks with it. This is a college Attic Greek text. There’s little hand holding for the instructor. There are pages and pages of translation, with a hilarious and engaging story of a Greek family and their lazy servant. I work alongside DD in this book, it’s difficult but she really enjoys it. We take our time and do every exercise. We’ve had to go back several chapters at times and review. Greek is hard. But we are getting it! This text has made DD adore the language. 
 

4) Mastronarde - this is a second college text I picked up for reference for myself. It is much drier than Athenaze. I needed more background to be able to properly teach some of the more complicated stuff at the end of Athenaze. It helped me. I would never recommend giving it to an 11 year old though. Terribly dry. There is an excellent companion website to his book, though, and it’s all free. There are little matching games and printable drill sheets and stuff for each chapter. 

[Paige]

Greek For Children is pretty good for self study. You can get the textbook, answer key, and then video lectures that are like class recordings. I found the videos indispensable. 

[Loesje22000]

Elementary Greek is easy to self teach and written for elementary grades. I think it is a nice taster to start with.

We worked also with Athenaze but I think it is harder to self teach if you have no Greek under your belt yourself.

So you may start with a elementary program, and study ahead yourself the athenaze text.

It might be nice to know that as Elementary Greek teaches biblical Greek it has a focus on learning bible verses in Greek, not everybody is equally interested in that

[Slache]

Hey Andrew, Elementary Greek and Greek for Children are all Koine, whereas Athenaze is Ancient. I have never heard of Mastronarde.

1. Spend a significant amount of time mastering the alphabet. She will not progress unless that is second nature.

2. Read Greek in a Nutshell, free on Kindle. This can be read in a week and gives an excellent overview of the language. There are so many differences between Greek and English I find that a general overview helps all the little bits make sense.

3. Then use a curriculum. You either get to decide pronunciation is important or that you do not want a screen, you can't have it both ways. I pronounce my Greek as a combination of what's generally accepted as the proper pronunciation and Spanish and an ancient Greek has yet to be offended by that so I'm not concerned.

If you want a screen I would do Greek 101 by The Great Courses, followed by Athenaze. If you don't want a screen I would do Elementary Greek (Koine) followed by Athenaze. Another option would be Elementary Greek followed by a high school course taught by a professional.

I have no idea if this will copy well, so if not I apologize:

1. Koine

   1. Students

      1. Hey Andrew (K-8)

      2. Classical Academic Press (K-8)

      3. Memoria Press (4-12)

   2. Adults

      1. Learn New Testament Greek (a short, effective introduction, gets you reading quickly) and free audio

      2. Biblical Learning (free)

      3. Reading Koine Greek: An Introduction and Integrated Workbook

      4. Basics of Biblical Greek (video, text and workbook)

      5. Machen $ | Free

      6. Learn to Read New Testament Greek, Workbook, free video course & It’s Still Greek To Me

   3. Advanced

      1. Intermediate Greek Grammar

      2. Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics

   4. Readers

      1. Keep Up Your Biblical Greek in Two Minutes a Day Volume One and Two

      2. A Graded Reader of Biblical Greek (Mounce)

      3. Harry Potter And the Philosopher’s Stone

      4. Greek Bible $ | Free

   5. Auditory Resources

      1. New Testament Greek Vocabulary

      2. Sing and Learn New Testament Greek

      3. Readings in the Greek New Testament

      4. Koine Greek New Testament (modern pronunciation)

2. Classical

   1. Students

      1. An Introduction to Classical Greek

   2. Adults

      1. Thrasymachus

      2. TGC Greek 101

      3. Athenaze I & Workbook, Athenaze II & Workbook

      4. Ancient Greek A Literary Approach

   3. Advanced

      1. Reading Course in Homeric Greek (I’ve been told this text assumes you’re familiar with Latin)

   4. Readers

      1. Stephen Colvin

      2. Booklist

   5. Writing

      1. Libanius’s Progymnasmata

3. Additional Resources

   1. Oxford Grammar of Classical Greek

   2. Greek: A History of The Language & It’s Speakers

   3. Linguistics for Students of New Testament Greek: A Survey of Basic Concepts and

[Slache]

Not terrible. I should have mentioned that transitioning from Koine to Ancient is not a huge deal. I have never formally studied Ancient, but I can comprehend it. Let me know if any link you're interested in no longer works and I'll track down the product.

[caffeineandbooks]

16 hours ago, Paige said:

Greek For Children is pretty good for self study. You can get the textbook, answer key, and then video lectures that are like class recordings. I found the videos indispensable. 

I also like the look of the "X For Children" series, but note that for Greek they only have level A, and no further levels are currently in production.  That means if you pick this one you'll need to switch to something else after a single year.

[Paige]

We switched seamlessly from Greek 4 Children to Lukeion. It was probably too good of a preparation because DS cruised through the first semester of Lukeion/Athenaze and then wasn’t prepared for the workload of the 2nd semester! It was a shock when he had to study! 

 

 

Edited July 9, 2021 by Paige