I recently started over in studying Attic Greek and wrote a short introduction to myself in Greek, based on the Latin version of the English original. I would appreciate the Koinonia members' help correcting it. If you would like to help correct me, you can read it here.
This is the composition I mentioned in my first post.
You need a lot of studying - starting from the basic, declensions, conjugation etc. Your text is so full of mistakes, it needs hours to be corrected. Start studying grammar and syntax systematically, and try to read each day a page or two of a Greek text you are interested in - Plato, The New Testament, whatever, and practice by translating small sentences or paragraphs from English to Greek. If you do that with texts already translated from the Greek you will also have the chance to check your work by using the original. For example, Elpenor's www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/greek-word.asp" target="_blank">Bilingual Greek Anthology would provide you the necessary texts to work this way. But whatever way you choose, you need a lot of work.
Well, I was sure it did have many mistakes. Most of my writing up to now has been from Greek to English, so I don't have the experience yet for English to Greek, or straight Greek composition. And almost all of my reading has been in the Greek Bible. I am about to start doing short sentences, as you suggest, with the books on Attic I have-Teach Yourself Greek by F. K. Smith and T.W. Melluish, Greek for Beginners by L.A. Wilding (in printed form) and some from Textkit in PDF form.
I am sure the materials here on Elpenor will help also. Thanks for the advice.
Do you recall Cavafy's poem, The First Step? "Just to be on the first step / should make you happy and proud. / To have come this far is no small achievement: / what you have done is a glorious thing."
The hard work that you need, doesn't mean you have achieved nothing! But I wouldn't recommend using textbooks and similar aids, because they usually select uninteresting excerpts. Perhaps it would be better to continue your study working on texts that really excite you, favorite New or Old Testament chapters, etc. Let me remind you of the "devotional" advice of yours, which means that we need to bring crucial texts to the center of our life, not just follow some boring textbook.
I agree about learning from interesting content. The Teach Yourself Greek book has better selections than the other Attic book I mentioned. TYG has readings and sentences to translate based on the Greek Bible, church fathers, Plato, Aristotle, Homer, and others. Of course I will also continue using the Attic selections here on Elpenor.
As for Greek writing practice, I am now a member of the new Greek forum site Σχολη. I have written a few posts with short sentences and so far am making myself understood. Any suggestions for improvement if you read my posts there would be appreciated. My username there is Δεβενιος Δυλενιος. I will also try this approach on the Διαλογοι Αττικοι site.
Again, thanks for the encouragement, and I look forward to learning more Attic, as well as learning Koine better, with Elpenor and the Koinonia members.
Help with Greek Composition (Attic Greek)
Posted - 14 Apr 2010 : 03:33:00
