Reading Greek: Text and Vocabulary

"Reading Greek" (RG) is an excellent two- or three-volume text (depending on whether or not you get the "Independent Study Guide", [ISG] a MUST for self-study). This text is designed along lines similar to those of recent Latin textbooks (e.g., the Oxford Latin Course, the Cambridge Latin Course) and rather different from earlier Greek grammars and textbooks. The student is immediately immersed in a story designed to engage interest, but this "created Greek" gives way, little by little, to the real Greek of the Classics, ultimately the major point of learning Greek at all. The reading material has two different vocabulary lists: one for reading comprehension which need not be memorized, and a second (shorter) list of words to be memorized. With frequent rereading of the passages, however, the student will pick up more of the material in the first list simply by dint of exposure. The "Grammar and Exercises" (GE) text is carefully coordinated with RG so that the student's grammatical knowledge grows apace as he encounters new structures in the reading passages. This is an ambitious text in some ways, but I do not think this is a negative. Grammar is well explained but advances rather rapidly (e.g., contract verbs are introduced immediately after presentation of "normal" verbs, imperatives are introduced, 1st- and 2nd-declension nouns and adjectives are presented...all in Chapter 1!), but the presentations are clear with multiple exercises to drill the student's mastery. If working without a teacher, I advise that the self-studier take his time. The chapters are rather long to begin with, and all will be well if the student simply paces himself reasonably. I do agree with another reviewer up to a point: those who are absolute beginners in language study will find the text challenging. Even a casual knowledge of another inflected language (e.g., Latin, Russian, or even German) will be immensely helpful, especially at the outset. As the author observed in his preface, the traditional classical education usually presumed a knowledge of Latin before the student embarked on Greek, but this is no longer so. Greek is a beautiful, marvelous language, but not an easy one, which is perhaps partly why the rewards for learning it are so great. Consistency and pacing are the key to progress. The "Independent Study Guide" mentioned above is extremely valuable. It not only presents good ideas for study but, most importantly, has a key to all the exercises as well as an English translation of all the reading passages. Even working with an experienced teacher in a classroom, the ISG is a huge help for the learner and should be purchased. There is also an audio CD of the reading passages. In all, an excellent and challenging text for the student who wants to make good strides towards reading real Classical Greek.

If you're like me and you came from the soul-crushing world of pointless grammar-translation and are in the comprehensible input Copernican revolution, you'll love this book. I recommend it equally with Athenaze. Because language is primarily an auditory phenomenon, and language is learned via muscle memory and earworms (not via grammar -- just ask any child), you need to listen to it. So, either get the CDs too or do Athenaze + Luke Ranieri's YouTube channel to get the ancient sounds down. Then, read this one out loud. Staring at a text has very limited usefulness. There's a grammar book that comes with it, which can be helpful every few pages; but, your primary focus must be reading and training your brain to handle the onslaught of words. If you don't do that, you'll be in the pointless model of looking for subjects, verbs, modifiers, and parsing words -- which never works in the real world: "I'm sorry, can you repeat what you just said. I was looking for the subject." The progression in this book + Athenaze will train you to be OK to wait for the verb, subject, modifiers, etc. This is the primary skill needed in reading. Ignoring this is why some people call reading "advanced", when it's really the first step. Just read a clause (at normal speed). Didn't get it? Do it again (AT. NORMAL. SPEED). Let your brain do the heavy lifting. Don't know a word? This book has a super generous glossary with every block of text.

I love this course. I learned Classical Greek in the 90s with Athenaze which is another inductive grammar. I have taught from deductive grammars as well as inductive grammars. The trouble with Athenaze and Reading Greek is the temptation to enjoy the stories and forget the grammar drills. This is especially the case with Reading Greek because the exercises and grammar are in a separate book. Students pick up a lot of vocabulary and grammar intuitively and one is tempted to think the classic drills are unnecessary. However my experience is that the level of knowledge obtainable in that way is limited. There will be large gaps in their knowledge. Grammar drills and exercises are essential. With that caveat in mind, Reading Greek is a pure delight to study and teach. Students enjoy reading extensive selections from day one. New grammar is illustrated in the narrative itself. Afterwards the teacher explains the grammar/new paradigms and follows up with drills and exercises. When students reread the narrative they do so with greater understanding. A warning about the digital version: there are extensive vocabulary lists adjacent to every narrative. A student’s eyes can easily hop between the vocabulary list and the reading selection. This is more difficult on an iPad or tablet and positively troublesome on an iPhone. This action flipping back and forth will disrupt the pace a new student can read. A student should only use a digital copy as a supplement to their hard copy. Incidentally, I believe this course is a great path to biblical Greek. The Greek art, mythology and ideas may be a turn-off to some individuals who only want to read the Bible. However, with Reading Greek, students learn words in their normal everyday context first. When the sacred/theological context is introduced later there can be a sense of illumination.

The Authors of this work really did work hard to make a fine study tool . . . you will need the Reading Greek: Text and Vocabulary, Reading Greek: Grammar and Exercises, Reading Greek: An Independent Study Guide and last but certainly not least, the Speaking Greek CD if you really want to learn. This is story-based learning. When you have the audio to go with it, it creates an outstanding study guide. I have studied ancient Greek from other books, but have never got so far so fast as with this set. The only complaint I can think of, is that they got a little carried away with the background noises, especially the sea sounds, they are just to loud. They could stand to re-master the recording with that turned down some. One of the hardest problems with learning other languages, especially if the differ a lot from English, is that you have to keep looking up words constantly. The Reading Greek Text and Vocabulary does away with that problem . . . they put the word definitions on the same page. I admit to cheating a little by using my own application that can color words and list the definitions below in the same color as the word I want to remember. You can find it at (tachufind.com), along with some other Greek info and study guides, all for free, soon to have an upgrade that allows you to type all the Greek characters! My only other dissappointment is that I did not have this to study with when I started learning Ancient Greek . . . `ws kalos estiv!

As someone who works 9/5 and no easy access to take classes, this gives me the ability to learn at my own pace and on the go. I had taken a week before ordering to get the αλφαβετος down, and the text is made extremely comprehensible. The milestones and breakthroughs have been incredible, and I plan to order the Grammer and independent study books as well. 5 stars

This review is from the point of view of an adult self learner. WHAT IT IS This book is part of a three-book set, which includes: 1. RG: Grammar and Exercises 2. RG: Text and Vocabulary 3. RG: An Independent Study Guide ( this book) Think of the set as one book broken up into three parts, with the Greek practice text from every chapter in book 1, the grammar and exercises in every chapter in book 2, the answers to exercises in book 3. Nutty, but it works. #1 Short passages of Greek text (with vocab lists at the end of each passage). Early passages are modern Dick-and-Jane "easy Greek" written especially to complement parallel sections of Grammar; later passages are simplified (and further on, not so simplified) passages from ancient texts. #2 Grammar theory, forms, and exercises all keyed to parallel passages in the Text. So when you study middle voice verbs in Grammar, you read the accompanying passage in Text, and see how that form works in real Greek sentences. #3 A. Translations of Text #1. B. Answers to exercises in Grammar #2. C. Hints and insights. WHICH TO BUY? This is an integrated set whose whole is much greater than the sum of the parts. You will want all three books. The TEXT complements the grammar, the GRAMMAR makes much much more sense when supported by the text readings. The answers to exercise in the STUDY GUIDE will show you stuff you missed learning--but you won't find that out unless you have book #3 to check your answers. [There are other JACT RG books with short Greek passages from ancient texts. You don't need them now (or ever, IMHO Loebs are better).] BAD STUFF 1. In my experience this is NOT a good set for absolute newbies. It was originally designed in the 1970s when students started Greek after a year of Latin, and thus already understood inflected grammars. If you don't understand inflected grammars already, you may get lost. I did. I tried (the old version) of RG as my first learn-Greek-on-your-own book about 18 months ago, and was immediately lost. I'd suggest starting with Dobson's Learn New Testament Greek , them moving on to RG. 2. Vocabulary selection is excellent, Attic prose wise, but you're forced to make your own flip cards or memorization list. Because Greek diacriticals are a bitch, making your own computerized flip cards is a major pain. In the internet age, JACT really should have vocab flip cards at their web site. 3. Ancient Greek is still hard. . GOOD STUFF Since giving up on RG the first time I've been through Dobson's Learn NT Greek and memorized the forms in Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar . Now that I've come back to RG it makes much much more sense, and it seems to me the most excellent book. 1. Simple Readings Cement Forms. After memorizing all the verb forms in Mounce, I found struggling with Greek text a frustration--passing each word through a memorized translation table. RG's solution is to teach your brain to bypass the form tables and recognize word endings-meanings directly. The reading for the Present Tense chapter is full of simple sentences like: "Dikaiopolis walks on the ship." "Then the captain walks on the ship." and "The sailors walk on the ship." - different word endings in each case. Over and over. Repetition, particularly repetition in the context of a memorable little story, cements recognition. (Of course you do still have to memorize the forms.) This is a whole additional layer of learning that you simply will not get from table-Greek books like Mounce, or tables-and-rules books like Mastronarde's Introduction to Attic Greek . 2. Sentence Structure. It's not obvious till you've struggled a while, but ancient Greek has a layer of complexity on top of the alphabet and words. English brains extract word function--subject, verb, direct object--from word order; Greek brains extracted subject, verb, direct object from word endings; Greek sentences used word-order for other purposes. You've got to train you brain to process sentences a whole different way. Again, practice is the key. An RG has lots and lots and lots of text to help. By the time I was through RG chapter 7, I could pick up Loeb's Xenophon's Anabasis and quickly recognize (via case endings) the structure of each sentence (though of course my vocab still wasn't up to an unassisted reading). This was very exciting. Again, this is a whole additional layer of learning that you will not get from table-Greek books like Mounce, or tables-and-rules books like Mastronarde . 3. Learn By Reading; Lots Of Readings. RG is not a tables-and-rules book with an expanded Examples section. It is an integrated system of teaching ancient Greek through a graded series of long and progressively complex reading passages. Again, a whole additional layer of learning that you will not get from Mounce or Mastronarde . 4. Attention To Detail Someone spent a long time getting the big stuff and the little stuff right. . . COMPARING 2008 WITH EARLIER EDITIONS 1. The books are physically bigger, better laid out, with larger type and better fonts--much easier to read. A small thing that makes a big difference. 2. The Grammar has been entirely redone, and is much much better. 3. The Text readings are the same. 4. The vocabulary has been moved from Grammar to Text, which makes the readings much easier. (In the old version you were constantly flipping book to book.) . . COMPARED WITH ATHENAZE Neither RG or Athenaze is perfect, but the both have lots of simple readings that I find most helpful. I've bought and used both, and would again. 1. Athenaze also has very good readings. 2. Athenaze is slower, with less complex early readings. Athenaze translations are also in a separate, 2d book. 3. Athenaze has NO ANSWERS TO EXERCISES. The current 2003 edition of the Athenaze main text has exercises, but the workbook with the exercise answers was created but apparently never released. For me this is the TIE BREAKER. RGs exercises are very hard, but very useful. If you ace the exercises, you understood the material. If you didn't you didn't.

I'm a Latin instructor, and I've studied enough Greek to recognize the difference between good and bad Greek textbooks. This is one of the good ones. It focuses on accessibility and multiple method language acquisition. Unlike many Greek texts out there (e.g., I've heard so many students say this of Hansen&Quinn), there's no attitude of "only the best should study Greek, and if you can't adjust to outdated pedagogy then maybe that's not you." This combines the best of clearly presented grammar approach books like Crosby&Schaeffer with the reading and narrative approach of Athenaze. Is it a little annoying to have to buy three books to teach yourself? Yeah, but it's 10000% worth it. (I am submitting the same review for the other two books in the set.)

I bought all three books in this series bases on the ratings, but I should have saved my money. This is NOT a book I would recommend to a beginner that is a self-learner like myself. The main text, like so many other textbooks, the authors have created a back story for the readings that calls for complicated language and grammar structures that are far beyond the level of a beginner. In other words we get War and Peace instead of Dick, Jane, and Spot, or at least something one would find in a fourth grade primer. In the beginning, the language has to be simple! Then, later, add in the complexity.