There are many books and more
and more multimedia products available to help you learn the Greek language. We want
your input for this section, as the more opinions the better. Email us at the
address at the bottom of the page and we'll add your input or let us know that you'd like
your book or CDROM reviewed!NOTE:
This information is opinion only. YASOU is not making a product endorsement.
Recommendation: With the above note in mind, because the task of
undertaking a new language can be very daunting, here's a brief suggestion. Buy a
good dictionary. The dictionaries at the end of the books are never enough.
Pick up the Essential Modern Greek Grammar book; it's valuable to have multiple references
when it comes to grammar rules. The same goes for the language. If you can
afford to buy the Teach Yourself Greek and the Colloquial Greek offerings get them
both. Bookwise, that's all you'll need. If you can't afford to get both and
are looking for a quick but thorough course, get the Teach Yourself Greek; you'll have a
good command of the language when you're done. If you want a more thorough
understanding, especially of grammar, get the Colloquial Greek. Both are excellent,
so get both if you can afford them. As for audio, pick up a conversational oriented
offering, like Greek in Seven Days, copy the original tapes, and play the life out of
them. Get the Wicked Greek offering and laugh so hard it hurts. Good luck.
BOOKS
**** Teach Yourself Greek - by Aristarhos Matsukas - The teach
yourself series is available in many languages and Greek is one of them. Teach
Yourself Greek is an excellent course, but make sure you buy the book/cassette combo, not
just the book. This offering is an excellent balance between learning Greek quickly and
learning the ins and outs of the modern Greek language. The book offers dialogues,
vocabulary and exercises at the end of each chapter to help you maintain a cumulative
knowledge of what you've learned, rather than a learn and then forget the last chapter
approach. - Published by the NTC Publishing Group. Mr. Matsukas
has a new Teach Yourself Beginning Greek out which we are currently
reviewing.
****English/Greek & Greek/English Learner's Dictionary
- by D N Stavropoulos - Two separate dictionaries, but well worth the
price. These are learner's dictionaries, which means they are loaded
with examples. This is exactly what you'll need in terms of a
dictionary when you're starting your Greek studies.
****Greek in 7 Days - by Baldwin, Boas and Middle - Not as
complete as the Teach Yourself Greek series, but still a solid instructional
conversational course. Again, however, make sure you get the book/cassette combo,
not just the book. Designed to deliver conversational skills quickly and should be used in
conjunction with a book that gives you the underlying grammar and structure to the
language like the Teach Yourself Greek offering. - Published by Passport Books.
****Paploizos Publications Incorporated - Theodore C.
Papaloizos - These were the books I used in Greek school. For kids, they are
perfect. For adults they work well also; however they are meant to be used in
conjunction with a teacher. Lessons are short and simple. Cassettes are
available, but I've never heard them and the book recommends them to learn the sound of
the modern greek language (i.e. I don't think they're meant to build vocabulary).
They have a good descriptive website at www.papaloizos.com
but they don't respond to email and the date on the pricing page is old. As of
11/07/98 it seemed to be a neglected site, but you can get the phone number and call them
or look for their ad in the Orthodox Observer. - Published by Paploizos Publications, Inc.
****The Essentials of Modern Greek Grammar - Douglas Q. Adams -
An excellent book, except that there were not enough examples. I think this was by
design, however, because they wanted to produce a small book rather than a large work. -
Published by Dover Publications.
****Greek in Three Months - by Niki Watts - This is a British
publication, which means it is a quite thorough course. Be prepared to truly study and
understand the Greek language when you undertake this series. While some books shy
away from heavy grammar, this book dives headstrong into the rules and reinforces them
with four cassettes. If you can stick with it, you'll come away with a great
understanding of Greek grammar. The Teach Yourself Series is a lot lighter on the
rules and tries to teach your by familiarity and patterns rather than learning the rules
(until later chapters, when you'll understand more). This offering was put out in
1988 by Hugo's Language Books and might be hard to find. As a matter of fact, you
might not be able to get it at all....read on to Colloquial Greek.
****Colloquial Greek - by Niki Watts - Ah, the same author you
say! (see above) Ms. Watts returns in 1994, this time under the Routledge
banner, which might have bought out Hugo? If you have a choice, take this series
over the Greek in Three Months series even though this offering comes with two cassettes
as opposed to four. Let me say that I am impressed. Ms. Watts has truly
matured in this series. There is a balance between the rules and leaning by
familiarity via entertaining exercises. You learn about Greek culture and learn the
language using the book and the two audio cassettes.. - Published by Routledge. This
one might be hard to find, so here's the ISBN# 0415086922. A word of warning, the cost is
a bit more than the others, perhaps the $30-$40 dollar range depending on your area.
****Wicked Greek for the Traveler - by Howard Tomb - I laughed
out loud in the book store and had a bunch of people looking at me when I read this one.
The book is a small 64 page offering in good humor that teaches you phrases the
other books don't, like "Slow down or I'll turn you into a kabob", "Is this
motorbike equipped with a Virgin Mary?", "This Bacchus corkscrew is a
classic" and "To ancient Troy, may we reclaim it from Turkish dogs". -
Published by Workman Publishing.
***The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Greek - by
J.T. Pring
- A fine, all around solid dictionary. Only drawback is lack of
examples for proper
***Greek by Berlitz - The king of languages, Berlitz has a
Greek 2-cassette and book course. The content is old and very formal, however still
useful if you can pick it up cheap. The tapes are good to listen to because they don't
depend on the book in any way.
Greek for Travelers by Berlitz however, is an excellent pocket
guide to the most useful information in a variety of situations. The pocket-guide
gets ****stars. Make sure you get the book specific to Greece, not the European
Phrase Book. The Greek one is ISBN # 2831507537.
Berlitz European Menu Reader - This might be good if you're
unfamiliar with the food in Greece. Has descriptive entries for just about
everything. Great if you're going to multiple countries. ***
***201 Modern Greek Verbs - by Vassilios Christides - This book
is good at showing you the many different endings and changes that occur in Greek verbs,
but their choice of verbs does not include some of the ones I would like to have seen.
The alternative is the 333 Greek verb book by Papaloizos Publications. The
former is $9.95 US and the latter was $15.00. - Published by Barron's Educational Series,
Inc.
***The Modern Greek Language - Put out by Oxford Press with a
dark blue cover, I think this one has to be imported and therefore carries a $35.00 US
price tag. This is a very complete source written by a Ph.D. instructor. As
for learning Greek for conversation or travel, this is overkill; it's targeted for the
academics.
***Modern Greek Idiom and Phrase Book - by Constantine N.
Tsirpanlis - This book cover a wide range of material and is nice for the advanced
student. For the basic student, the first 40 pages are valuable as they deal with
many everyday situations. The thing about idioms is that you can say what you want
without them most of the time. At $9.95 retail however, it's not something bad to
just pick up if you're interested. - Published by Barron's Educational Series, Inc.
***Modern Greek in 20 Lessons - by Pappageotes and Emmanuel -
This book came out in 1959, so you can imagine that the language is very formal and a bit
dated. The nice aspect of the book, however, is that it spells out the lessons not
only in Greek and English, but also phonetically. This would be extremely valuable
for someone who has no access to an audio system for one of the courses that come with
cassettes. - Published by R.D. Cortina Co. Inc.
SOFTWARE
****Greek for the Beginner CDROM - by Laser Publishing - This
CDROM can be bought separately or with the Everyday Greek CDROM (also by Laser
Publishing). This CDROM was born with a good conept but underfunded. Through
quite a few lessons, the user is guided through various aspects of the Greek language
(directions, weather, moeny, etc.). The lessons are written in English with
highlighted words in red. When you put the mouse over the word, the Greek equivalent
is shown and you can click on a speaker icon to hear the word pronounced. There is
also a recording feature where you can record yourself saying the word and they play it
back to compare your pronunciation with the native speaker's. They pace of the
native speaker, however, is sometimes slow. Understandibly, enunciation is
important, but when the word you say sounds different because it is being pronounced too
slowly, you miss the point of getting used to hearing Greek. This is only in
sections, however. Realize that this CDROM teaches only words and phrases however.
We'll try and post some screen shotsof the program in use.
****Everyday
Greek CDROM - by Laser Publishing - Like its sister CDROM, this one gets four
stars because in the relatively small field of English based modern Greek CDROMS, they
seem to offer the most. The navigation interface is similar to the Greek for the
Beginner CDROM and execution of the program is the same. You are presented with a
lesson in English with red words which, when the mouse is placed over them, reveal
the Greek eqivalent and offer an audio sample of the words. This CDROM seemed more
valuable, however, because it touched on grammar (i.e. non-contectual speech patterns,
like how to make comparisons). The drawback of this CDROM, like the Beginner CDROM,
is that you're learning words and phrases. You need to turn to books to gain the
command of the language needed for independent thought expression and complex sentence
construction. As far as computer aids, however, this medium of learning can be fun
and effective. If the company had a larger buget, they could have developed a great
program where you would type responses to questions and watch situational movies of native
speakers conversing. The interface could have been more colorful and slick.
Realizing, however, that they were putting to market a limited offering, they priced these
effectively: As a dual set, they ran US $24.95 and the single Beginner CDROM ran
$9.95 (but I could not find the Everyday Greek offering packaged independently). The
company website is at www.lp-group.com
***Modern
Hellenic Language and Culture: For the First Grade - By Lily Technology - This is
a demo version of the full product. The company website is at http:/members.aol.com/lilygreek. Lily
Technology produces many software products and the website leads me to believe they have
more in development. The program itself incorporates visual and audio learning tools
to teach the Greek language. Why did I rank it three instead of four stars? If
you're starting from scratch, you'll have trouble because the navigation is in
Greek. Lily has made a commendable effort to display both Greek and English, and
although navigation using the text links at the top of the program is in English, Greek
dominates the program for the most part. When you're learning a new language, you
need everything spelled out clearly, and anything not understood leaves a nagging thought
"I wonder if that is important?" As each word or phrase has a visual icon,
you can still learn a great deal from the program. This program is ideal when
someone who speaks Greek can aid the student, although a dedicated student with a
dictionary can certain learn from this program. In this type of situation, the
program is excellent. As with most Greek multimedia offerings, you primarily listen
and it is up to you to repeat and interact and you'll need help when you want to start
making complex sentences (I realize that this is the first grade version and thus it may
be limited). The audio is extremely compressed so you'll need decent speakers.
Furthermore, you must have four specific fonts installed in your system to use the
program. You can download them here in a
self-extracting zip file. Click here for
help on installing Greek fonts onto your system. (In a nutshell, once the
self-extracting zip file uncompresses the font files, drag/copy them into your
windows\fonts directory).
Lily offers the demo program in a series of four donwloads at their site, or we
have zipped it into single zip file (4.51MB) here.
NOTE: Lily also offers the story of Little Red Riding Hood in Greek. This
program has no English, but if you'd like to try and follow along, click here to download it in a single file. (You can
download it in a series of files at their website.)
