# Greek language question



## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

For those who have learned some or even just started trying to learn Greek, it would really help me out if you could tell me:

- what do you think is the most confusing / hardest aspect to get of Greek language (the more specific, the better!!)

- what you found most helpful and least helpful in learning Greek

I'm asking because I'm starting to teach Modern Greek next week, and I am curious what others had the most trouble with / what helped them the most. 

Your experience at any level is relevant to me since I am starting with a low intermediate level.

Thank you if you are able to help!!  If you feel like giving multiple answers, I will be multiply grateful


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## Chrisles (Aug 23, 2011)

Hi,
I've been studying greek for about 10 years now (on and off) and have used a variety of methods- starting with self- help books and tapes , evening classes (4 different tutors) then Learning greek podcasts and now the Rosetta Stone. I'm in the UK and have been visiting Greece for a few weeks, for the last 25 years. 
I'm planning to move to the Peloponnese in March.
Things that I found hard:
speaking and listening
-pronunciation-especially the stresses and accents. It helped to have to write it down- I found the alphabet easy (I have a science degree so that helped) and I can read well.(don't always understand)
-i find it very hard to understand native speakers speaking fast-can't recognise and pick out individual words. Listening to popular songs helped, also the podcasts.
-the verbs at first ok still- Rosettta stone really helped with that (there's been a thread on the Rosetta stone and people have mentioned the cost -but is seems that you are allowed/meant to share it for a whole class or multi users-the whole family are using mine)
-word order 
- the possessive

I found it really useful to do old fashioned grammar and comprehension exercises. The latter because it put the words in context.
I was a primary school teacher for many years and and also worked teaching adults(A level psychology) and I feel it's important to use a variety of methods- formal and fun audio and visual. In fact anything from bus tickets,cereal packets, sub titled or dubbed films-stuff from the real world can be used as teaching aids

so things like making a scrap book with words and pictures helped me learn vocabulary.
Singing and listening to songs. reading children's books.
I've recently just discovered the Athens IKEA website-again words and pictures.-because I've got to pick up some household thing on my way.
The thing that really helped was just talking to Greeks in London and Greece-practice practice practice and communicating for real -and since you're in Greece -you've got that advantage.
Anyway- I hope this helps and good luck with the teaching.


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

Chrisles, thank you for your insight. It's very helpful and valuable to me!!! Ευχαριστώ πολύ!!

I'm glad you said you felt listening to music was helpful - I'm planning to use music so that's good to hear. And I would not have thought about the possessive or word order as everyone has different sticking points so thanks for that!!


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## mariek (Aug 17, 2009)

Hi wka, 
I am in the beginning stages of learning Greek but there are a few things that are much more difficult for me than others.

Speaking is the most difficult for me because I have to come up with the right conjugations without a lot of time to think through the process, more so with a verb I don't use very often. Learning the most common patterns for conjugating into the past and future etc has been incredibly helpful but I still go through the conjugations in my head when speaking. And obviously learning the most common irregular verbs from the beginning has been crucial. Doing a lot of repetitive verb conjugating is tedious but it helps me. 

Right now, I'm having the biggest issue with nouns and adjectives. I wish there were some easier way to remember the ending for all the words depending on their gender, whether they are singular or plural and finally depending on whether they are genitive, accusative or nominative. I can do all this on paper because I have time to think about it but while I am speaking I find it hard to come up with the right form on the spot. We made charts of it all in class which is useful but having all of it stick is the hardest part right now . . especially the ones that I don't come across very often. 

Listening is also difficult because I spend my time thinking through the verbs people use and translating them in my head to I can understand what tense they are speaking in . . . and by that time I have lost the trail of the conversation. 

Lastly, (and sorry to go on so long here) if you don't start out learning a lot of words and building a good vocabulary as fast as possible, knowing how to conjugate verbs won't mean anything. "They are cooking something and are thinking about something and want to go to the something." I end up missing the whole point. I'm trying to remedy this problem right now. 

Oh, and I watch cartoons . . . because they speak slower and the topics are basic which is good for the moment. 

This thread struck a bit of a nerve today


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

Thank you Marie, that's very helpful! I agree about vocabulary, I found at a certain point that while I had a large marginal vocabulary (words I understood when I saw them, but never used) I was basically using all the same words over and over again. I made a stack of 1000 flashcards and that helped but it was annoying to realize that I could recognize all these words, but I was still using a basic vocabulary. I had my first lesson on Thursday and I presented a lot of vocab (I think around 90 words - it's a 2x/week class) and I was very clear "LEARN THESE WORDS." I think there's power and confidence in a broad vocabulary.

The conjugations are tougher. I know that I didn't feel comfortable speaking in the 2nd plural for YEARS after I was comfortable in the other persons and numbers, because I didn't use it often (and didn't speak formally to pretty much anyone). I spent years speaking in impersonal terms to avoid the 2nd plural LOL.


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## southlondoner (Oct 18, 2011)

I've just started learning Greek, I used to go to Greek school 10 years ago and remember the basics, like word pronounciation and some of the letter, but after a quick reminder I managed to familiarise myself.

Now the real struggle is coming to grips with actually how difficult it is to learn another language period. 

That hardest things are the patterns of how things are said, the word endings, the fact that every word we know of in English is a completely different word (minus a few borrowed words). Sometimes I do feel like giving up, but thats usually when I've been writing the whole day and my brain starts feeling too lazy to translate what I'm writing and reading, but you have to know when to give your brain a rest, sleep, do whatever, and when you come back to it the next day you just feel fresher and think more positive about it.

Gradually, I've noticed the progress, I'm reading more fluently, I'm reckognising more and more words, like ones that keep cropping up over and over again and you need to keep re-checking what it means, then after a while you remember that word simply because of the fact that you had trouble remember that cerain word, then you just think to yourself 'hold on?! why is this word always troubling me, I'm not going to forget this word anymore' and then, bang, everytime you see that word you know it.

Just remembering that you only need to know the basics, how to talk to people, general subjects you know, is a good way to go by. Since you're going to be teaching people, there'll be all sorts of variations in how the students will be, there'll be ones who may still not be 100% on the reading or pronouncing of words, then you'll have ones who know how to read or write anything they see, but their problem is the understanding of what is said.


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## MDUK (Feb 15, 2010)

I learnt a little Greek before Ii went out to work their in 89. There were two words I struggled to pronounce. ξενοδοχείο (hotel) and διαβατήριο (passport) Which considering I was working as a holiday rep, proved to be fairly key requirements...


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## Jgrim (Jun 3, 2009)

wka said:


> For those who have learned some or even just started trying to learn Greek, it would really help me out if you could tell me:
> 
> - what do you think is the most confusing / hardest aspect to get of Greek language (the more specific, the better!!)
> 
> ...


****************************************************************
I grew up to age 4 or 5 not speaking English. Subsequently spoke only english in the house and lost my Greek. I have been trying to recover ever since. For me speaking every day, an opportunity I don't have is the best thing.. hearing it spoken.. The way the stress accent moves often confuses. Also there are many words with multiple meanings. Learning words in context is better than a vocabulary list. Learning how the stress accent moves I believe is a matter of just speaking. Ex: Χριστουγεννα -- Χριστουγεννων In the first it is accented on the 3rd syllable from the end, in the possessive it is accented in the second. I often make the mistake of missing that. Likewise Δασκαλος .. Δασκαλα. I know of no rule that tells me to accent the first -masculine on the first syllable and the feminine on the second. I believe the only way there is to practice .. so for me the best advice is that teaching Greek means speaking it. Small words and sentences building to larger thoughts and ideas. That all practice should involve 1. Hear it . 2. Say it. 3.Write it. 4. Read it. 5. Hear it 6 Say it. That's the only way for me at least. When I travelled to Greece and stayed for a few weeks my Greek dramatically improved. But after a year back home, i lost vocabulary again..


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## wka (Sep 18, 2009)

Jgrim said:


> I grew up to age 4 or 5 not speaking English. Subsequently spoke only english in the house and lost my Greek. I have been trying to recover ever since. For me speaking every day, an opportunity I don't have is the best thing.. hearing it spoken.. The way the stress accent moves often confuses. Also there are many words with multiple meanings. Learning words in context is better than a vocabulary list. Learning how the stress accent moves I believe is a matter of just speaking. Ex: Χριστουγεννα -- Χριστουγεννων In the first it is accented on the 3rd syllable from the end, in the possessive it is accented in the second. I often make the mistake of missing that. Likewise Δασκαλος .. Δασκαλα. I know of no rule that tells me to accent the first -masculine on the first syllable and the feminine on the second. I believe the only way there is to practice .. so for me the best advice is that teaching Greek means speaking it. Small words and sentences building to larger thoughts and ideas. That all practice should involve 1. Hear it . 2. Say it. 3.Write it. 4. Read it. 5. Hear it 6 Say it. That's the only way for me at least. When I travelled to Greece and stayed for a few weeks my Greek dramatically improved. But after a year back home, i lost vocabulary again..


Thanks for your post Jgrim! 

By the way, kind of random but in case you're interested, the reason δασκάλα is accented differently from δάσκαλος is that the omicron is always short (thus "mikron") whereas an alpha can be either long or short; in δασκάλα it's long, which pulls the accent toward the end of the word. Greek accents can't fall too early in the word, depending on how long the vowels are. (If the vowels are short, the accent can be earlier in the word; if the vowels are long, the accent has to be later in the world. A long vowel counts as two "beats" so to speak, whereas a short vowel counts as one. Although this is no longer heard in Modern Greek pronunciation, the accent is retained from the time in Ancient Greek when it was distinguishable.) So, yeah... 

(That's also the reason why the accent changes in Χριστούγεννα / Χριστουγέννων. Omega is always long (thus "mega"), so the -ων ending pulls the accent closer to the end of the word, because of that double "beat". The -α ending in a neuter plural noun is always short, as is the epsilon (epsilon is always short, thus "psilo"), so the accent can fall all the way back on the third syllable from the end.)


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