Posted: 8/21/08 The next Greek In A Week 2008 will be in San Jose, CA (October 14-18, Tues. & Wed. evenings through Sat. noon)Click here for details and to reserve your spot.

Classes

Explanation of the program

It simply takes time to become fluent in a language. Oxford Press has developed a time tested world renound curiculum called Athenaze. It is a story driven grammar that introduces the student to the ancient Greek culture, relationships, work, literature and history. Between the text, workbook and supplemental materials such as "A Greek Boy at Home" by WHD Rouse, students have the oportunity to grow accustomed gradualy to reading large selections of Greek each week. By the end of the curriculum students will be prepared to actually read works in Greek, rather than merely learning about the language. If you are serious about truly learning how to read Greek easily, this is the curriculum that will guide you all of the way to the end. A student who completes the curriculum should easily be placed in an intermediate Greek course at the college or graduate level.

1. Time and Schedule of Web Classes

Work-at-your-own-pace units may be taken at any time beginning September 2008. Volume 2 unit will be available not later than June 2009. Students may subscribe for access to a month of optional weekly web conferences for additional live help from the instructor. The conference will be Wednesday evenings at 5:00-6:30 p.m. PST. The conference is open to all who have a current subscription or are in the year long course. It will not meet on the following dates: October 16th Thanksgiving, Nov. 27nd; Christmas Break, Dec. 25 & Jan 1; and Spring Break, March 19th. Students will have the opprotunity to hear other students' questions and should take turns asking qeustions. The first half hour will focus on interactiver exercises geared toward the most recent units covered by the year-long class. The second half hour will focus on questions pertaining to units 1-9 and the last half hour will focus on units 10-17.

The 2008-2009 Beginning Greek Web Class meets for a online conference Thursdays evenings at 5:00-6:30 p.m. PST. The class will begin September 11th and finish May 7th. The tutorials will meet for 30 sessions and allow for various breaks and holidays (October 16th Thanksgiving, Nov. 27nd; Christmas Break, Dec. 25 & Jan 1; and Spring Break, March 19th.) Students will have the opprotunity to hear other students' questions and should take turns asking qeustions. The first half hour will focus on interactive exercises geared toward the most recent units covered by the year-long class specifically. The remaining time will open up for questions from other areas of the curriculum. Generally, the second half hour will focus on questions pertaining to units 1-9 and the last half hour will focus on units 10-17.

2. Instructor

Each session consists of a live conference taught by, John Schwandt, M.A. He is a Senior Fellow of Classical Languages at New St. Andrews College and has taught Greek at the college level for the past eleven years. Mr. Schwandt also developed Greek In A Week summer intensive language learning courses. This will be the tenth annual presentation of those courses at various locations across the United States this summer. Mr. Schwandt founded and serves as the director of the National Biblical Greek Exam. Prof. Schwandt is known as an energetic instructor whose enthusiasm for Greek is contagious.

3. Class Format

Within the conference, Mr. Schwandt reviews and answers questions from homework. All lectures and presentations of new material are recorded and available for students to download, watch, and review. These two elements would equate to 2-4 hours of class time per week (half live and half recorded). The conferencing web site enables students to listen to Mr. Schwandt talk and ask questions for the rest of the class to hear. Students are also welcome to type comments and questions in the real-time chat window during the lecture. This additional mode of communication increases the amount of classroom interaction and benefits students in a way not possible in a conventional classroom. Mid-week interaction with the instructor is also possible on the forum.

4. Course Description

The beginning course covers all of essential Greek grammar. In order to read a language with any degree of fluency a person must be able to compose or communicate in that language. In order to enjoy reading Greek one must be able to think Greek. For this reason, the tutorial stresses composition and conversational dialogue skills.

Contrary to popular opinion, Greek is not a dead language. The language has undergone a number of dialectical changes, but the language itself has maintained its integrity for thousands of years. God has seen fit to preserve the language of the New Testament to this present day with basically the same sound. If it were possible for you to hear Timothy speaking Greek and then someone from modern Greece, you would certainly ascertain that they were speaking the same language. This would not be the case with Homer whose Greek dialect had significantly different sounds. Most Biblical Greek courses taught in America today use the Erasmian pronunciation, which began as an attempt to speak Greek as it was spoken before the Koiné period. However, the Erasmian pronunciation has now become merely an anglicized pedagogical construction which was never used by Greeks at any time. Since this course teaches the language as it was used in Biblical times, we will not use the Erasmian pronunciation but rather the true historic and ethnic Greek pronunciation identified by Randall Buth (how the New Testament writers spoke.) This system has many benefits of the Erasmian systems such distinguishing vowels that Modern Greek doesn't. But it does so in a historic way that doesn't offend the Modern Greek ear. The advantage it has over the typical American version of the Erasmain pronounciation is that it also distinguishes vowel sound that the Erasman pronunciation wrongly confuses and Ancient Greek would have held distinct (i.e., ει as different from η). Given the variety with Erasmian systems and the phonemic historicity of Buth's system it should not offend the Academics or Modern Greeks. Further it will enable us to learn the language like ancient Greeks.

If you are excited about learning Ancient Greek as a foreign language and want to learn it actively as other modern languages, this tutorial was designed for you. Remember; since Greek is not a dead language, there is no need to learn just enough to silently decipher the New Testament as one might translate a dusty gravestone inscription. Greek is a living language, and Ancient Greek needs only be revived by this and future generations.

5. Required Materials and Links to Audio Helps

Athenaze volume 1 text and workbook are required for units 1-9. Athenaze volume 2 text and workbook are required for units 10-17. This is fantastic story driven series that gradually and systematiclly introduce the student to all parts of the text. The story also helps students get a good feel for ancient Greek culture and a natural understanding of the language. We have generated plently of additional helps to help students master the material in the texts.

We will also rely on the audio and vocabulary aids that I am producing to assist independent learning and mastery of the material. Here is the link to the additional Athenaze resourses.

Author		Title Publisher (date) ISBN Brief description and comment, (review links)	Format Pages	Retail Price	Direct Links to purchase
Balme, Maurice		Athenaze: An Introduction to Ancient Greek Book I Oxford University Press; 2nd Ed. (February 28, 2003); ISBN-10: 0195149564; ISBN-13: 978-0195149562 (Amazon reviews) Possibly the most popular classical Greek text book. It has an inductive approach with plenty of explanation. In addition to Oxford's Athenaze text, Luigi Miraglia adapted the Italian edition to emulate "Lingua Latina per se Illustrata" (Hans Orberg's Latin textbook). Miraglia's Italian edition follows the non-Italian edition in two volumes, but Miraglia has extended all of the Greek readings, added more pictures, and changed the layout so the student is able to stay in Greek reading mode without switching between one's own native language and Greek. The student has the feel of working through an actual Greek book rather than a Greek grammar with a number of reading exercises. I wish Oxford would publish an English version of the text since the Italian can be disconcerting for English reading students. Nevertheless it is a fantastic edition especially when students have the English version to use as a grammatical reference. You can order it directly from Luigi Miragliai here: http://www.vivariumnovum.it/Libri_greci.htm	Paperback 380 pp.	$29.95	$29.95 Amazon $29.95 B&N
Gilbert Lawall, James F. Johnson, Luigi Miraglia		Athenaze: An Introduction to Ancient Greek (Workbook I) Oxford University Press (February 28, 2003); ISBN: 0195149564 (Amazon reviews)	Paperback 172 pp.	$18.95	$17.64 Amazon $18.95 B&N
Balme, Maurice		Athenaze: An Introduction to Ancient Greek Book II Oxford Press (Sept. 2003); ISBN-10: 0195149572; ISBN-13: 9780195149579 to adapted passages from Thucydides, Plato, and Herodotus and ultimately to excerpts of the original Greek of Bacchylides, Thucydides, and Aristophanes' Acharnians. Essays on relevant aspects of ancient Greek culture and history are also provided.	paperback 398 pp.	$29.95	$29.95 B&N
Lawall, Johnson, King		Workbook II for Athenaze vol. II Oxford University Press (Sept. 2003); ISBN: 0195149572	Paperback 226 pp.	$17.95	$17.95 B&N

Recommended Books

In addition to Oxford's Athenaze text, there are a number of other texts like the workbook for Athenaze and Luigi Miraglia's Italian edition of Athenaze, which emulates "Lingua Latina." You can order it directly from Luigi Miragliai here: http://www.vivariumnovum.it/Libri_greci.htm

As I provide additional resources for Athenaze chapter by chapter, I will also recommend readings from the following texts.

Author		Title Publisher (date) ISBN Brief description and comment, (review links)	Format Pages	Retail Price	Direct Links to purchase
Buth, Randall		Living Koine Greek For Everyone Jerusalem: Biblical Language Center (2002); ISBN-10: 9657352029; ISBN-13: Inductive that focus on spoken Greek. Innovative materials (sample) It comes with 3 audio CDs.	Paperback 186 pp.	$69.00
Peckett, C.W.E.		Thrasymachus: Greek Through Reading Duckworth Publishers (February 16, 2007); ISBN-10: 0862921392; ISBN-13: 978-0862921392 (Amazon reviews)	Paperback 336 pp.	$29.00	$29.00 Amazon

6. Prerequisites

The course is a beginning course and does not require any previous experience with Greek. Many people actually learn English grammar as they learn Biblical Greek. The course is best suited for students who are at least 14 years old (It is preferrable for those 14-15 to have had some previous experience with a foreign langauge).

7. Fees and Registration Information