I heart ancient Greek
But I'm getting a little iffy on Teach Yourself Ancient Greek. I'm in chapter four, and the section exercises are moving a bit too quickly for self-study. They're also expecting the reader to memorize vocabulary that they don't exercise at all in the present section, but start using some sections later, confident that it was learned without practice in previous sections. Quite annoying.
Most annoying of all so far, chapter four introduces imperfect and aorist verb forms, but it doesn't actually explain what those terms mean until two or three pages in on the discussion of how they're used. I wag my virtual LiveJournal finger at the author and editor. That all aside, the book has other niceties that make it a million times better than other Ancient Greek texts I've found to date.
I've managed to stay afloat despite the problems, and I'm finding that I love what I'm seeing of the language. In particular, one section of this chapter four begins introduces a handful of connecting particles: δέ, γάρ, οὖν, adverbial καί and οὐδέ, and especially μὲν ... δέ. The postpositive usage of the particles felt a bit surprising and uncomfortable at first, but with a little experience I'm beginning to find it quite charming. And the succinct and balanced contrast of the last is downright joyful. I don't know that I can explain adequately to my monolingual friends how simply these particles -- especially as aided by Ancient Greek's noun declensions -- express certain ideas where English wants complex and unwieldy constructions. In Ancient Greek, meaning just seems to flow.
(LJ Spellchecker Genius of the Day: postpositive -> postoperative)
Most annoying of all so far, chapter four introduces imperfect and aorist verb forms, but it doesn't actually explain what those terms mean until two or three pages in on the discussion of how they're used. I wag my virtual LiveJournal finger at the author and editor. That all aside, the book has other niceties that make it a million times better than other Ancient Greek texts I've found to date.
I've managed to stay afloat despite the problems, and I'm finding that I love what I'm seeing of the language. In particular, one section of this chapter four begins introduces a handful of connecting particles: δέ, γάρ, οὖν, adverbial καί and οὐδέ, and especially μὲν ... δέ. The postpositive usage of the particles felt a bit surprising and uncomfortable at first, but with a little experience I'm beginning to find it quite charming. And the succinct and balanced contrast of the last is downright joyful. I don't know that I can explain adequately to my monolingual friends how simply these particles -- especially as aided by Ancient Greek's noun declensions -- express certain ideas where English wants complex and unwieldy constructions. In Ancient Greek, meaning just seems to flow.
(LJ Spellchecker Genius of the Day: postpositive -> postoperative)