Intro - Stuart

Please introduce yourself here, if you haven't already.
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SGraham
Posts: 6
Joined: November 24th, 2017, 7:30 pm

Intro - Stuart

Post by SGraham »

Hello all,

I'm a complete noob to Greek, though I've been trying to learn since the 90's so I'm here trying to find resources on how to learn. I can't go to college or university for a whole host of reasons (e.g. lack of money, children, work, and I'm already currently studying a certificate in programming). Apart from the programming, I'm a struggling 3D artist with a bachelor's in animation.

I've got a sizeable collection of books to teach me both in print and in Accordance and Logos. I've tried watching lectures by Danny Zecharias (Greek Stripped Down and The Singing Grammarian), reading Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek, and Reading Koine Greek but haven't been able to find a method that works for me, especially with all those paradigms and stuff that I just cannot get my mind around. I've also been learning German and Spanish through Duolingo and doing quite well. It has only recently struck me that the only method that seems to work is that Duolingo type of teaching.

I'm a bit slow on the uptake, apparently.

I've found Ginoskos on Android yesterday and it seems good, but I'd also love to find something similar to Duolingo, Memrise, or Ginosko that would help me learn Koine Greek on my PC. I've always wanted to be able to read the NT and LXX comfortably and can do so with a struggle. So here I am hoping to find something like that and to find other people to bounce my poor Greek off.

It's nice to meet everyone,
Stuart.
Barry Hofstetter
Posts: 2159
Joined: May 6th, 2011, 1:48 pm

Re: Intro - Stuart

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

Welcome aboard, Stuart. Feel free to post questions anytime. Perhaps you could repost your questions here in the "Teaching and Learning Greek" subforum. We have several very accomplished autodidacts who could perhaps make suggestions. My own experience learning at the beginning level was all classroom (and very glad of my professor at the time), but I will suggest that sometimes the only way out is through. It may just need some good old fashioned memory work: say the paradigms over and over again until you can say them without looking; write them over and over until you can write them without looking. Then review that paradigm at least once a day for 6 weeks. Rinse and repeat. Do the same for vocabulary. And of course the more you read and see the forms and vocab in context, the better.
N.E. Barry Hofstetter, M.A., Th.M.
Ph.D. Student U of FL
Instructor of Latin
Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy
καὶ σὺ τὸ σὸν ποιήσεις κἀγὼ τὸ ἐμόν. ἆρον τὸ σὸν καὶ ὕπαγε.
SGraham
Posts: 6
Joined: November 24th, 2017, 7:30 pm

Re: Intro - Stuart

Post by SGraham »

Thanks Barry, I'll go and ask on that board. I'll also take up your suggestion on writing out the paradigms until I can recite them from memory. At the moment I'm relying on Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek study sheet to get me by. It's a great resource, but it's not helping me memorise the paradigms.

Thanks for those suggestions, I'll go and ask on the other subforum.
Jonathan Robie
Posts: 4158
Joined: May 5th, 2011, 5:34 pm
Location: Durham, NC
Contact:

Re: Intro - Stuart

Post by Jonathan Robie »

SGraham wrote: November 24th, 2017, 9:25 pm I've found Ginoskos on Android yesterday and it seems good, but I'd also love to find something similar to Duolingo, Memrise, or Ginosko that would help me learn Koine Greek on my PC. I've always wanted to be able to read the NT and LXX comfortably and can do so with a struggle. So here I am hoping to find something like that and to find other people to bounce my poor Greek off.
There are a lot of Memrise decks for Greek, including paradigms and vocabulary, some of it keyed to specific books, so if this is how you learn, check them out.

I'd love to have a Duolingo for biblical Greek. I don't think it exists. Several people have played with this, Dave Burt seems to be working on this now. That would be a great thing to have.

Barry gave great tips. Whatever else you do, read every day. Use an environment that displays Greek only, but allows you to ask about the vocabulary or grammar if you need to. For each verb, ask what the subject, objects, and adjuncts are. For each conjunction, ask what it coordinates or subordinates. If you have questions, ask in the beginner's forum.

As you learn, try rewriting sentences to be just a little different. What if this were present instead of aorist, how would you write it? What if it were a different noun? Or a different verb?
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/
Shirley Rollinson
Posts: 415
Joined: June 4th, 2011, 6:19 pm
Location: New Mexico
Contact:

Re: Intro - Stuart

Post by Shirley Rollinson »

SGraham wrote: November 24th, 2017, 9:25 pm Hello all,

I'm a complete noob to Greek, though I've been trying to learn since the 90's so I'm here trying to find resources on how to learn. I can't go to college or university for a whole host of reasons (e.g. lack of money, children, work, and I'm already currently studying a certificate in programming). Apart from the programming, I'm a struggling 3D artist with a bachelor's in animation.

I've got a sizeable collection of books to teach me both in print and in Accordance and Logos. I've tried watching lectures by Danny Zecharias (Greek Stripped Down and The Singing Grammarian), reading Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek, and Reading Koine Greek but haven't been able to find a method that works for me, especially with all those paradigms and stuff that I just cannot get my mind around. I've also been learning German and Spanish through Duolingo and doing quite well. It has only recently struck me that the only method that seems to work is that Duolingo type of teaching.

I'm a bit slow on the uptake, apparently.

I've found Ginoskos on Android yesterday and it seems good, but I'd also love to find something similar to Duolingo, Memrise, or Ginosko that would help me learn Koine Greek on my PC. I've always wanted to be able to read the NT and LXX comfortably and can do so with a struggle. So here I am hoping to find something like that and to find other people to bounce my poor Greek off.

It's nice to meet everyone,
Stuart.
Welcome to B-Greek - the way to learn to read the GNT is to read the GNT :-) (start with the GNT, try the LXX later - it has a wider vocabulary, so takes more work) The way I've found to work for me is to read some each day - aloud - even if you don't understand what you're reading. Try the "begats" of Matthew 1 for repetitive drills. Then, after you've read a few verses, stop and try to translate them. Keep a notebook of each day's section, and read through a whole book (eg. Matthew or Mark for starters) in sequence. Make notes of new vocabulary, new bits of grammar, idioms, just write something each day. It also helps to have a copy of the King James' Version as a crib to help you over any tricky bits, and of course you can ask B-Greek for help with bits you can't work out for yourself.
You're welcome to try the online textbook at
http://www.drshirley.org/greek/textbook02/index.html
Keep on reading, and it does get easier :-)
Welcome to B-Greek
Shirley Rollinson
SGraham
Posts: 6
Joined: November 24th, 2017, 7:30 pm

Re: Intro - Stuart

Post by SGraham »

Hi Jonathan and Shirley :)

I've been working on those Memrise courses when I have time, I've learned a fair bit of vocabulary using a couple of their decks. It has been a great help there. At the moment I'm working between Accordance on my PC and the Olive Tree Bible Study App on my Android tablets. I have the Greek & Hebrew Learner collection as well as the early manuscripts and "Papyrus Bible" on Accordance. In my meetings I use the Olive Tree app to read the LXX and their Analytical GNT while the speakers are reading from an English Bible. If there's any really difficult words that I don't know I can look them up in the dictionary, otherwise since there's no interlinear to lead me astray. Immersion works quite well for me in this and in German. I don't really learn much grammar, but I have been learning a lot of vocabulary in both languages by reading verses in context. I'll have to stop being lazy with Accordance and actually start learning to use the study tools I have available there.

Thanks for the link and the advice. I'll put that to work, I had seen or thought of some of the things, but I've been afraid of trying the translation without more knowledge. But I suppose you don't get the ability to understand a language without actually practising the language. I'll skip the "begats" and go to something a little more challenging because I can almost recite all of them off by heart. I've done them every time I have made an abortive attempt to learn Greek. :D

I think Dr Shirley's advice is good for me, if I could do just three verses a day, I could learn a lot without taking on an impossible load. Add to that writing out the paradigms a couple of times a week would help me - I've found the Ginoskos app along with Dr Mounce's laminated study sheet has been helping me there.

Thank you, I'm glad I've signed up here already.
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