Greek to GCSE: Part 1

by John Taylor

This course was written in response to a JACT (Joint Association of Classical Teachers) survey of over 100 schools. It offers a fast-track route to GCSE for those with limited time. It is based on experience of what pupils find difficult, concentrating on the essentials and on the understanding of principles in both accidence and syntax: minor irregularities are postponed and subordinated so that the need for rote learning is reduced. It aims to be user-friendly, but also to give pupils a firm foundation for further study. The course has been tested and refined in 15 schools over the last three years. Part 1 covers the basics: the main declensions, a range of active tenses and a vocabulary of 275 Greek words to be learned. Pupil confidence is built up by constant consolidation of the material covered. After the preliminaries, each chapter concentrates on stories with one source or subject: Aesop, the "Odyssey" and Alexander the Great. Part 1 is self-contained, with its own reference section.

Genres: Language, Classics, Nonfiction, Textbooks, Reference

163 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Frankie · Rating 5 out of 5]

:D

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am relearning Ancient Greek by participating in a GreekStudy email list (http://www.quasillum.com/study/). Our group went through this book. You get practice by both reading and composing Attic Greek (the predecessor to Koine Greek--seems very similar so far). It is unusual in a few ways:

- It only teaches the nominative and attributive cases first, then adds the others later
- It waits longer to teach accenting than I've seen in other methods
- My least favorite thing about it is that in the noun inflection paradigms, they go in the order nom-acc-gen-dat (instead of the otherwise ubiquitous nom-gen-dat-acc). It may seem picky, because the info is all there, but I'm a visual learner and having the words in a different order is a little frustrating.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

A textbook on ancient Greek for high-school students. With only the first half of the class. And it still took me nearly a year to finish.

[Gareth Reeves · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good introduction to Ancient Greek, with a well-judged difficulty curve, lots of exercises throughout each chapter (mostly Greek to English but also some English to Greek), vocab lists at the end of each one, and a grammar reference, full vocab list, and easily confused words section at the back. It assumes no prior knowledge of the language, though it occasionally draws parallels with Latin, which some may find irksome, and takes you up to GCSE, if you include the second volume. I loved, in particular, the simplified excerpts from Homer's Odyssey (concerning the cyclops), Aesop's fables, and a sort of piecemeal potted history of Alexander the Great. They are scattered throughout the book and make you feel a real sense of progress as you complete each one.

Some things I didn't like: the light orange font for words that will appear in the exam is useful in a sense (you obv need to know what words will come up) but annoying because it's hard to read the 'breathing' marks, causing unnecessary confusion. A very well-lighted room will solve this problem but late-night/early-morning reading may prove a little troublesome. A darker font in future editions would be my recommendation. My other issue is that you have to buy two books to get the whole course. The full book would have been 400-500 pp., which is standard size for a textbook. I also found a few typos - not many but there shouldn't be any in books like this.

The important thing is that I got through it without any real trouble, picked up the grammar fairly comfortably, and never found myself having to seek help from elsewhere (though I recommend watching YouTube tutorials to supplement your learning). Remember: don't just learn the Greek words/grammar; practise writing it, speaking it, and listening to it. And always consolidate. I read the first three chapters straight through, started the fourth, and realised it was time to go back to the start and make sure I'd got everything. I did this again when I got to the final chapter. I may reread the whole thing before moving onto vol. 2 or just dive in. I'm an adult in his early forties with no special gift for learning languages and it took me about three months, though I work full time and write outside of my work.

[Justin Bird · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great coursebook with lots of greek-english and English-Greek practise sentences. A good bit is left out till book 2 so thr pace is rather slow in comparison to other Attic/Classical Greek courses. I do wish some of the chapters had longer explanations and more examples. If you're an autodidact such as myself, it can end up being a tad confusing- especially with no answer key available.

I DID however find a few online college resources that directly work in tandem with this course and even help quiz you on the vocabulary, syntax, and verbs!

[S.B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The font and text color is horrible for students trying to learn Greek for the first time. I love the content, but I am not a fan of the book’s design and layout.

[Teena L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very easy to follow and a great source to learn Ancient Greek

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It is the best Greek textbook that I've used so far. And I've used other great ones too. I really liked the way that Taylor would tie everything together so that the student could see the pattern. For example, his explanation of OUDEIS was great and helped me to remember how that works.

Definitely recommended for anyone who is wanting to learn Greek.