Reading Greek: Text (Joint Association of Classical Teachers Greek Course) (Pt. 1) (English and Greek Edition) [Paperback]

Joint Association of Classical Teachers (Author), K. J. Dover (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521219760 | ISBN-13: 978-0521219761 | Publication Date: December 29, 1978

The JACT Reading Greek Course has been written for beginners in the upper school, at university and in adult education. It aims to enable students to read fifth- and fourth-century Attic Greek, Homer and Herodotus, with some fluency and intelligence in one to two years. The main medium of learning is a continuous, graded Greek text, adapted from original sources.

Product Details

• Paperback: 182 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (December 29, 1978)
• Language: English, Greek
• ISBN-10: 0521219760
• ISBN-13: 978-0521219761
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #920,823 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

73 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An enjoyable approach to learning Ancient Greek, March 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Reading Greek: Text (Joint Association of Classical Teachers Greek Course) (Pt. 1) (English and Greek Edition) (Paperback)

Although I've only been studying the "Reading Greek" course for two and half months, I didn't want to put off recommending it to the motivated self-learner. The books are elegantly and logically laid out, allowing the beginner to gradually accumulate a vocabulary and grammatical knowledge. I hasten to add that by "books" I mean that there are three vital, interconnected components of this course:

1) "Reading Greek" ( Text )

2) "Reading Greek" ( Grammar,Vocabulary & Exercises )

3) "Reading Greek" ( Independent Study Guide )

The first two mentioned should be understood as naturally complementary, but the third is just as important- it contains translations, answers to tests and many valuable ( and often subtle ) points about the language.

Two additional texts are also offered for students who have finished those outlined above:

1) "A World of Heroes" ( featuring excerpts from Homer, Herodotus and Sophocles )

2) "The Intellectual Revolution" ( featuring excerpts from Plato, Euripides and Thucydides ).

As a beginner, I can't vouch for the two volumes just mentioned, however, based on the three books I am familiar with, they should prove to be excellent.

I've worked only a half hour on average per day with this course and feel that I've made significant progress ( I'm sure those who have more time to devote will make phenomonal advances ).

For those who wish to explore the richness of Greek literature, I wholeheartedly recommend this course.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tough going, but valuable, February 5, 2004

By 

Compulsive Bookbuyer (Massachusetts, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reading Greek: Grammar, Vocabulary and Exercises (Joint Association of Classical Teachers Greek Course) (Pt.1) (English and Greek Edition) (Paperback)

Before you buy into this book series, go clear off your desk. You're going to need a lot of space to spread out your Reading Greek library.

At a minimum, you will need two books: the "Text," which includes Greek readings with brief English introductions, and "Grammar, Vocabulary and Exercises," (GVE) which includes the actual pedagogical materials to guide you through the Text's readings. You'll need both books open at the same time to do your work.

Two books might not be enough if you're studying on your own. You will also want to pick up "An independent study guide to Reading Greek." This book gives slightly more in-depth discussion of the vocabulary and grammatical points covered in GVE, translations of the Text, and answers to the GVE exercises. And if you're teaching yourself, you can pick up "The teachers' notes to Reading Greek." This book gives tips on how to manage the materials in the two basic books. If you know a little Greek before you start, this book helps you figure out what strategy the authors are pursuing.

But you're not done. There's a thin "Greek vocabulary" that goes with the series. It provides all the vocabulary for the Text in one place. And there is a nice history of ancient Greece that complements the text, "The world of Athens." This book provides background on Greek culture, politics, and arts. The independent study guide cross-references sections in "The world" to chapters in the "Reading Greek" books. Very helpful when you come across a cultural reference and wonder what it means.

But wait--that's not all. If you can make it through all these books, there are two readers to continue your studies. One is an anthology of classic Greek texts, the other an introduction to the later, New Testament Greek. I hope someday to be in a position to make use of them.

One last thing. If you're like me and need to hear a language to learn it, you should listen to the audio tape that accompanies the series. Be warned that the audio quality is not so good. The recordings are rather noisy, making it hard to hear exactly how the speakers are pronouncing things. But since no one really knows how Attic Greek sounded, maybe you don't need to listen that closely.

Finally, concerning the value of the texts themselves: I find this series difficult to use, but worthwhile. In lesson one, the authors teach you the Greek alphabet and then drop you right into a seven page Greek story. (Perhaps the authors were inspired by that girl in Nabokov's Pnin who thought that, "once you learn the Cyrillic alphabet, you can read 'Anna Karamazov' in the original!") The vocabulary for the first lesson alone must number over 150 words. This approach makes for tough going at first. I can imagine many people give up half way through lesson one. I know I did. Then I spent a few months with a good Koine Greek program, one with better scaffolding for the beginner (William Mounce's,) before coming back to Reading Greek.

Bottom line: these books are well done, but dense and very demanding. If you're studying Greek on your own, you'll require either a lot of persistence--or assistance from other texts--to get you over the hump at the beginning of the course.

40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Judge this book by its cover, September 19, 2002

By 

Diotima "Mantinea" (Western Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reading Greek: Grammar, Vocabulary and Exercises (Joint Association of Classical Teachers Greek Course) (Pt.1) (English and Greek Edition) (Paperback)

It's drab.

You only buy this book because it's the set text for your Greek course. You are part of a captive market. The teachers who wrote the book prescribe the book. There was a perceived need for this book when it was first published in 1978. But it has only been corrected once - in 1979 - and the type has never been reset. Much of the Greek text is in a font so small that it is extremely difficult to discern the diacritics. The headings and sub-headings are all over the place and rarely in bold type. This book (and its companions) ought to be at least re-set by a competent typesetter and preferably revised by an editor who knows the meaning of the term "user-friendly".

And what about the content? The explanations are much too brief and the reference material is difficult to find being, as it is, scattered thoughout the text and poorly indexed. The widespread use of abbreviations and incomplete tables does little to facilitate understanding. The authors brought out "A Guide to the Reading of Greek" in 1989 which is little more than an apology for the original work. (But you will have to buy this addendum as well if you are to make any sense of the course.)

I studied Greek at a university for three years and this book gave me a very poor start. I regret that my tutor chose this book for the course.