Learn Ancient Greek (Greek & Latin Language) (Greek and Latin Language) [Paperback]

Peter Jones (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0715627589 | ISBN-13: 978-0715627587 | Publication Date: July 30, 2001

Based on the same principles that lay behind the book "Learn Latin", this book provides the chance to read real ancient Greek. It teaches the reader enough Greek in 20 chapters to be able to read selected passages from the New Testament and from Classical Greek literature such as Plato, Aristophanes and Euripides. Each chapter also comes with sections on ancient Greek history and culture and on the influence of the ancient language on ours.

Product Details

• Paperback: 222 pages
• Publisher: Duckworth Publishers (July 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0715627589
• ISBN-13: 978-0715627587
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #445,778 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun, easy and flattens the learning curve, March 30, 2005

By 

Catherine "Language Junkie" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Learn Ancient Greek (Greek & Latin Language) (Greek and Latin Language) (Paperback)

I love this book so far (up to chapter 5). It's elegantly simple but very effective. I've also been doing the JACT course, and while it is very good and certainly much more comprehensive, it just didn't grab me. Jones uses a lot of repetition to drill things in, and it works because unlike the JACT course, I'm finding things are actually sticking in my head. Fortunately, Jones also has a very silly sense of humour, so this does make all the repetition rather more fun.

I've been trying to do 1/2 to 1 chapter most evenings just before I go to sleep. While Jones wants you to write everything down, I've been saying it out loud while trying to visualise it in my head. It's harder at first but I find I'm retaining more. Also because I don't have an easy reference of vocabulary, I'm forced to think a little more to see if I remember something.

What's great about this book is that it makes Ancient Greek approachable, and well, fun! I really can't express the difference it made, I'm finding reading in Greek so much easier because I'm now actually being able to think in Greek. And I actually look forward to doing exercises!

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Peter Jones' "Learn..." books: excellent beginner value!, May 16, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Learn Ancient Greek (Greek & Latin Language) (Greek and Latin Language) (Paperback)

If you're self-learning a language, and finding standard textbooks to be drier than toast, give Peter Jones' "Learn ___: A Lively Introduction to Reading the Language" books a try! I have his book for Latin, and it enabled me to get over the initial learning curve and see that I would be able to learn this language after all. So, when I saw that he had another book for Ancient Greek, I snagged it as quickly as possible! These books began as a popular series of newspaper columns in the UK, and were subsequently published as books due to popular demand.

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars so so, December 26, 2007

By 

Furio (Genova - Italy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Learn Ancient Greek (Greek & Latin Language) (Greek and Latin Language) (Paperback)

Some reviews about this handbook sound quite enthusiastic, a few do not.

First of all, I should like to make clear that I am not new to studying ancient and modern languages, both by myself or with a teacher.

I have decided to take up Greek seriously (a long standing wish) on my own to give my passion for historical lingustics a sounder basis and I bought several British and American textbooks as there is no self study material in Italian.

There is no doubt about Dr Jones being competent, that is wholly out of question. I like his humour too, his light hearted way of illustrating grammar as if it were real fun: I may be a linguist in the core but I find learning declensions by heart just a little more easy than a common high school pupil would therefore heartily welcoming any device that can make things more palatable.

Up to chapter five (included) things are just fine. I do not like (well, I abhor) the leaving the accents aside, but this is very common way in Anglo-american textbooks: I see no reason why it should be so but so it is and one cannot blame Dr Jones too much for doing just the same.
Accents aside, learning is easy and entertaining and you really get the impression of making the most of your time.

From chapter six things get sticky. Grammar is still nicely illustrated but the examples and excercises are no longer up to the task of making you learn what has been so entertainingly explained. Reasoning leads one near to nowhere: one must begin learning by heart and doing the (few) excercises again and again in the attempt of memorizing vocabulary and constructions.

An even stickier problem is the choice of readings. Probably in the attempt of confronting his reader with real texts to awaken his/her interest, Dr Jones is just too eager in introducing nearly unadulterated Greek passages.
Such passages must be preceded by discouragingly long vocabulary lists not to mention the fact that this vocabulary is seldom useful later on; this is why I took no pleasure in reading Thucidides or Socrates as boasted on the book cover.

A minor but irritating fault is the lack of answer key translation for those readings taken from the New Testament. "Use your Bible" is not satisfactory for someone who wishes a self contained handbook, not to mention that there are several translations of the Bible and that, for the purpose of learning, a literal if unattractive translation could be of more use than the usual ones.

In my opinion one could use the first chapters of this book to break the ice but should go on with a different text or be prepared for a lot of self imposed supplementary work.