Embark on Greek Journey
Achieving Fluency in Just 7 Weeks
Blog 1: Embarking On A Journey
Reasoning
My primary motivation for learning Greek was to gain a better understanding of classical literature and texts, such as the Bible, which were first written in the language. Numerous Indo-European languages such as Russian and Hindi have numerous borrowed roots and cognates from Greek. Although I wouldn’t know the exact meaning of what a foreigner might be saying, a background knowledge of Greek allows me to interpret key words that overlap in both languages.
Timeline
I plan to practice pronouncing phrases and vocabulary, as well as memorizing the twenty four letters of the alphabet in these first two weeks. For the next two weeks of the project, I’ll attempt to speak and write longer sentences in addition to learning more advanced vocabulary. In the latter three weeks, I hope to write complex sentences and even short paragraphs. My most beneficial resources would be Duolingo and Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar by William D. Mounce.
Resources
From the first few days of learning Greek, I seemed to progress through Duolingo’s lessons quite easily. I’d continuously started using Duolingo since Friday, and my commitment over the weekend helped me to remember pronunciations and characters. On the image to the right, you can see my progress in using words for particular letters. I had ordered the grammar book a few days ago because it had gotten great reviews from religious experts and various professors. The author, William D. Mounce, is a widely-renowned scholar in New Testament Greek, and has taught at seminaries across the country. It is the best-selling and most applicable workbook for learning Biblical Greek. The book contains many exercises and writing activities in order to add onto my knowledge from Duolingo.
Planned Final Project
For my TedTalk presentation, I'm aiming to give a commentary on the Euro 2004 Final, where Greece won its first title in football history. I'll try to make a 1 minute video of the final with English captions for my translation. So far, I'm very optimistic and excited with learning this ever-interesting language!
Tim's Mission
Join my intensive 7-week Greek language journey as I hope to achieve fluency. Through advanced learning techniques and expert guidance, I'm making strides to understand this complex and fascinating language. I hope that you'll come back to this site for future updates and blogs!
