[B-Greek] Hey, Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek!
John Colby
colby at solutions2000.net
Wed Oct 15 15:31:52 EDT 2003
Hi b-greek
I am a high school senior starting second year Greek. I have been subscribed to b-greek for several months and have enjoyed the discussions, although some are over my head.
I saw that no one has answered the questions about the "Hey, Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek!" curriculum. So I decided to reply to something I actually know about! I got the first book of the series in Jr. high and thought it quite boring, because it is intended for younger students. Thinking back, I do believe that the series would be fine if started in grades 3-5. The actual layout of the books (I have only seen three) is simple and easy to understand. There would be nothing to confuse the younger student, although the student might get frustrated because of the repetition. Book one basically teaches the student the alphabet and has simple matching exercises. Book two has review of the alphabet and teaches simple words. Book three does more of the same. Each form of a noun or verb is taught as a separate vocabulary word. (BLEPW- I see, BLEPEI- You see, ect,)
The books did help me with learning the letters and the alphabet, but that is all. It seems that the first three books of this series equal about two classes of a college level Greek course (although they are for children, aren't they?)! I found out (for me at least) that is was easier to nail down English grammar and spelling before I really started Greek. I did start taking first year Greek in tenth grade and realized that it was much easier since I already had a good grasp of English grammar. I learned much more in a month from my first year Greek the I did with three years of the work books.
In conclusion, I suggest the workbooks for the student to grasp the alphabet and to learn how to pronounce and write the letters correctly. Then in high school start with a good first year grammar such as Mounce's. His grammar is helpful to a younger student such as me, because he gives an English grammar overview to the subject in discussion. It is quite helpful to have someone that knows Greek help the student along, especially when the student gets into verbs. I do hope this helps.
Jonathan Colby
Guyana, South America
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