Answer Key to Machen

Jason Hare
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Re: Answer Key to Machen

Post by Jason Hare »

cornertalker wrote: October 2nd, 2020, 8:42 am So - with objections noted about the "clunker" Machen - recommend another.
An alternative to Machen?

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Jason A. Hare
The Hebrew Café
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Barry Hofstetter
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Re: Answer Key to Machen

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

cornertalker wrote: October 2nd, 2020, 8:42 am So - with objections noted about the "clunker" Machen - recommend another.
As I mentioned above I taught out of "classic" Machen for 4 years at WTS. It was a fairly comfortable fit at the time, since it was similar to my beginning Greek text in College, Crosby & Schaeffer. But even then I didn't like the highly artificial sentences used for the exercises, and noticed certain weak points that need a lot of supplementing. Currently I teach out of Athenaze, a classical primer, but starting with Attic Greek ensures good success with the NT. I also like it because the ratio of time spent in the language to explanation is high. Otherwise, practically anything more recent. I haven't vetted this, but it looks promising:



Others can make recommendations based on their experience.
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.
ed krentz
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Re: Answer Key to Machen

Post by ed krentz »

I agree with Barry. I learned Attic Greek from the text book by Herbert Weir Smythe, the author of the standard grammar of Classical Greek.

After that we read Xenophon’s Anabasis, Homer’s Odyssey, and Plato’s Apology. In graduate school We read widely all of Homer’s two epics in two semesters, three Greek tragedies in one semester, lots os Strabo, ets.

My oldest son took a year of Classical Greek in one semester at Yale, with the final exam on Plato’s Apology. After forty years of teaching ancient history and classics he has piblished translations of Xenophons Hellenika and two volumes of Polyaenos’ Strategemats.

I agree that Athenaze is an excellent teaching resource. I would only supplement it with a careful study of NYU’s strategy for teaching a year of Greek in a ten-week summer session.
Edgar Krentz
Prof. Emeritus of NT
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
Shirley Rollinson
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Re: Answer Key to Machen

Post by Shirley Rollinson »

cornertalker wrote: October 2nd, 2020, 8:42 am So - with objections noted about the "clunker" Machen - recommend another.
You're welcome to use the Online Textbook for practice sentences - parallel Greek and English - cover one side up, then check your translation
http://www.drshirley.org/greek/textbook02/contents.html
RandallButh
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Re: Answer Key to Machen

Post by RandallButh »

ed krentz wrote: October 3rd, 2020, 12:42 pm . . .
My oldest son took a year of Classical Greek in one semester at Yale, with the final exam on Plato’s Apology. After forty years of teaching ancient history and classics he has piblished translations of Xenophons Hellenika and two volumes of Polyaenos’ Strategemats.

I agree that Athenaze is an excellent teaching resource. I would only supplement it with a careful study of NYU’s strategy for teaching a year of Greek in a ten-week summer session.
Ed, it's good to see you online. To answer the "NYU" strategy, it would appear that CUNY advertizes a "total immersion" Greek program:
"The Latin/Greek Institute offers total-immersion programs in Latin or Ancient Greek that enable students to master the material normally covered in two to three years in a single summer."
And I would heartily agree that full-immersion is the way to go if someone want to internalize a foundation of a language. Naturally, one needs more than 10-12 credits to learn a language, but that is the way to begin. The basic rule of thumb for language learning is "use a language to learn a language." It works as a fast track for every language. And when the word "immersion" is used with any modern language it means teaching in the language of interest.

Having said that, it would appear from textbooks and demands for "close translation" that CUNY actually means "intensive", not immersive. That is, they demand an intensive summer of Greek taught in English.
Jason Hare
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Re: Answer Key to Machen

Post by Jason Hare »

ed krentz wrote: October 3rd, 2020, 12:42 pmI agree that Athenaze is an excellent teaching resource. I would only supplement it with a careful study of NYU’s strategy for teaching a year of Greek in a ten-week summer session.
Do you have details on this program? What books do they use? Can it be done independently?
Jason A. Hare
The Hebrew Café
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Barry Hofstetter
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Re: Answer Key to Machen

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

Jason Hare wrote: October 4th, 2020, 6:09 pm
ed krentz wrote: October 3rd, 2020, 12:42 pmI agree that Athenaze is an excellent teaching resource. I would only supplement it with a careful study of NYU’s strategy for teaching a year of Greek in a ten-week summer session.
Do you have details on this program? What books do they use? Can it be done independently?
Intensive is a better description than what we normally mean by immersive, and is the word that the Institute itself uses. It has long been the go to for those who require one of the languages (Greek or Latin) for graduate school but didn't plan their undergraduate curriculum well. I have known several people who used it (including one of my undergrad classics professors), and all turned out quite competent in the language.

https://www.gc.cuny.edu/page-elements/a ... -institute
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.
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