Ancient Greek: An Intensive Introduction

Description of Course Goals and Curriculum

This is an intensive introduction to Ancient Greek. It covers in one semester material usually done in the two-semester introductory sequence (CLG 101/102). Students who complete this course can take CLG105 in the Fall and CLG108 in the Spring. This course aims at providing a reading knowledge of Classical Greek, quickly. Students are expected to be motivated and will have to set aside sufficient time for daily assignments. CLG 103 covers two semesters of Ancient Greek grammar in one spring semester, teaching the equivalent of CLG 101 and 102. Students start with no previous knowledge of Ancient Greek end the semester reading Classical texts like Plato’s Gorgias and excerpts from Greek thinkers like Aristotle and Isocrates in the original language. The class aims to give students the solid foundation in Greek grammatical paradigms that is required to succeed in further courses in Ancient Greek literature. It also urges critical analysis of the literature covered. The class sequentially covers material from the textbook Greek: An Intensive Course by Hansen and Quinn. It begins with explanations (in English) of essential grammatical terms, followed by declensions of nouns and present tense stems of verbs and then more complex grammatical constructions and syntax like conditionals and indirect statements and questions. There is homework every night of the week & weekend (~1 hour/night), which includes translation and exercises that drill students in paradigms and vocabulary from the unit. Since it is a fast­-paced course, there is not much time for review of previous sections, but as long as one keeps up with the course speed, it is doable! The class ranges in size. In Spring 2015, ­there were three undergraduates and one postdoc student in the class, but previous semesters have had ten or more students ranging in class year. Our class had one Philosophy, one Classics, and one Politics major. There is no singular defining background of the students who take this course except the motivation and desire to learn to read Ancient Greek ­-- and quickly!

Learning From Classroom Instruction

Class time focused almost entirely on translation of assigned sentences and some sight-­reading from the textbook. Not much time was spent discussing grammatical content from the textbook unless a student specifically requested this. Professor Bourbouhakis alternated between students, so each student had to be prepared to participate and translate each sentence or drill. Before translating, the text was read aloud. As a result it was useful from the start to have the Greek alphabet and its phonetics memorized as soon as possible. As the semester progressed, class time was also used to discuss broader themes and questions from Platonic texts ­ for example, what did Plato mean when Socrates ironically asserted that a teacher should be blamed for the faults of his student? The course is fast­-paced. Each week an average of two units in the textbook was discussed. Students are expected to learn the grammar and vocabulary in the units on their own using whatever methods suit them. To succeed in the course, it is useful to learn the Greek alphabet before the class starts. Things move fast, and feeling comfortable reading words out loud from the start will be a big help! Furthermore, do not prepare word­-for­-word translations! It may seem tempting to prepare word­-for­-word translations of the text before class, but the goal of the class is to improve reading skills, and simply reading prepared English translations will defeat this purpose. Instead, read and translate the sentences each night either in your head or on scrap paper. Add minimal markings to the Ancient Greek text to help you work through confusing parts of a sentence. Good notes to add: unfamiliar vocabulary, brackets around grammatical constructions, marking up similar elements in a sentence (like nouns, adjectives, and articles that go together). As an example, you can bracket off conditionals and purpose clauses in the Greek text, add arrows from verbs to their objects, and underline the subject of each sentence. Create your own grammatical code to help parse nouns and verbs on the spot in class. If you prepare well, you will gain confidence reading Ancient Greek fluidly instead of relying on time with a textbook or dictionary to help you through sentences. In addition, it is helpful to follow along with the class: When it’s someone else’s turn to translate a sentence, follow along. Don’t worry about mentally preparing the next sentence in case you are called on next. Professor Bourbouhakis clarifies grammatical elements in class as we go over each sentence. There’s nothing to lose if you forget something!

Learning For and From Assignments

Every night, there were 2-­3 components to the homework. 1) There were 1­2 drills, which  tested comprehension of the new vocabulary and paradigms from the unit. Some drills asked to change the form of a verb or noun and to identify what kind of sentence or clause it was. This is particularly useful for identifying these structures in authentic Greek texts, where everything is more convoluted and difficult to translate. 2) 10­-12 sentences are assigned for translation from the final section of each unit. These were not authentic Greek sentences written by the likes of Aristotle, but the themes presented in them were relevant to life and culture in Ancient Greece. 3) Towards the end of the semester, translation assignment included excerpts from authentic Ancient Greek texts in the textbook. Classes alternated between translating an authentic text and pressing on with acquisition of Greek grammar. When doing the homework assignments, it is beneficial to drill yourself on new paradigms and vocabulary every night. In this class, it is essential to figure out what memorizing techniques work best for you. It’s fast, so you need to quickly memorize the vocabulary and noun and verb endings before you finish a unit. Methodically write out the paradigms of nouns and verbs and principal parts of new verbs every night. Write them as many times as you need to, whether it’s ten or fifty. Maintain a dynamic list of new vocabulary as you progress through the semester, and delete words you’ve learned well. You need to absorb the vocabulary and endings until they are second nature. If you don’t invest the required time in memorization, you won’t be able to function at a higher level in this class. Try finding a quiet corner in the library or in your room, and say the Greek vocabulary and sentences aloud! Ancient Greek was meant to be spoken, and the best and most effective way to learn it is to speak it. Secondly, it is also beneficial to work together with your classmates: This would motivate you to slowly and efficiently work through the text, consolidation understanding of the  information for each word instead of guessing based on context. In addition, flashcards could be useful. For example, one could put the first principal part of the verb on one side, and write the other five on the other side. The quizzes were mainly a way to ensure that students were keeping up with the pace of the course. Generally, there would be a sentence to translate,  sometimes taken from the homework assignment, ­ then there would be exercises to parse two or three words in the sentence, and sometimes to indicate the grammatical syntax. As long as you memorize the required endings and vocabulary each week, quizzes are a breeze. To prepare for quizzes, it is helpful to meet outside of class and quiz each other on principal parts of verbs, asking for example, “What is the second principal part of the verb παιδεύω?” The midterm consisted of the sight-­translation of 6-­10 sentences we had not seen before. The student was responsible for parsing selected words, identifying case, number and gender for nouns and person, number, tense, voice, and mood for verbs. The student also had to identify the function of any given word in a grammatical clause and list the principal parts of selected verbs. The final exam included six sentences which featured some of the syntactical types of sentences learned during the semester, a previously ­seen excerpt from Plato’s Gorgias, and a sight­-reading component from Apollonius. For the sentences, students were asked to parse two or three elements, identifying case, number and gender for nouns and person, number, tense, voice, and mood for verbs. To succeed in the assessments, Professor Bourbouhakis emphasized that if a student kept up with the material as the semester progressed, exams would not require much extra studying or time. This is very true. Additional study strategies include condensing notes to make a “packet” of blocked notes from each chapter covered in the textbook. For each section, look at all the relevant resources: the textbook, your class notes, etc. Your packet should include all the noun and verb endings the book covers, grammatical exceptions, and the formation of every type of grammatical clause. You will have a packet of important information available for instant review. Secondly, it is useful to maintain a list of verbs and principal parts. Starting at the beginning of the semester, it is helpful to have a packet solely for principal parts of verbs to read through as often as possible. This helps to remember common endings and accents, so that by exam period, the principal parts will come naturally.

External Resources

Perseus language tool: perseus.tufts.edu ­ An invaluable resource for checking accuracy in parsing verbs and nouns. After you input a Greek word into the site, it tells you its part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, etc), and parses it for case/gender/number or person/number/tense/mood/voice. ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ: logeion.uchicago.edu ­ a useful tool for checking definitions of words and challenging yourself to figure out the first person present form of a verb you find in a text. Quizlet cards: These were amazing ways to remember vocabulary for exams and daily use! Look for Hansen and Quinn Greek vocabulary study cards. Check out quizlet user PsapphoPslug’s amazing card sets here https://quizlet.com/PsapphoPslug and https://quizlet.com/vidushisharma. Ancient Greek language table: This is a thrilling opportunity to interact with graduate students and to learn from them how to speak ancient Greek. It is very useful for remembering naturally verb forms and common idioms which will show up often in texts. (Optional) Later in the summer, at another Ancient Greek program, the book The Oxford Grammar of Classical Greek was useful. It’s small and handy, and presents a very quick overview of all the noun/verb paradigms and most grammatical concepts covered in CLG 103 and essential for further Greek language study.

What Students Should Know About This Course For Purposes Of Course Selection

This is an intensive course. On the first day, Professor Bourbouhakis advised that in order to learn Ancient Greek well, a time commitment was imperative. A few times, Professor Bourbouhakis mentioned that at Harvard, the Intensive Greek course meets every day for two hours and counts for two credits, but teaches the same amount of material. Professor Bourbouhakis is a great mentor on campus. It is rewarding ὑπέρ λόγους (beyond words) to come into a class knowing nothing of a language and exiting after having read some of the most iconic works of its literature. As an aside, the entirety of the class (3 undergrads + 1 postdoc) came in already advanced in Latin. This should not deter any potential CLG103 students as the class pacing is to some extent determined by the background of the students. As Professor Bourbouhakis often reminded the class, Winston Churchill once said, “Naturally I am biased in favour of boys learning English. I would make them all learn English: and then I would let the clever ones learn Latin as an honour, and Greek as a treat.”