🚀 go-pugleaf

alderson@netcom.com writes in a recent posting (reference <ALDERSON.96Dec12160924@netcom16.netcom.com>):
>In article <58nfl2$lqd@epx.cis.umn.edu> miga0003@maroon.tc.umn.edu
>(Larisa Migachyov) writes:
>
>>I've been trying to learn ancient Greek on my own for a long time, and have
>>been having less success than I hoped for.  I was just wondering, is it
>>possible to learn Greek at my age (21) and attain a reasonable level of
>>accomplishment?  I know that those who learn the classical languages in
>>childhood learn them well, but what about adult learners?  Are there any
>>people here that have learned Greek at an adult age and know it well?
>
>Well, I started my first Greek class in 1975, just before my 24th birthday.
>Since I'm an Indo-Europeanist, my Greek has to be pretty good in order to do my
>research.  I'm a little rusty with long pieces, but I'd be comfortable reading
>Xenophon, Homer, Herodotos, Aristophanes, or Euripides with a Little Liddell at
>hand.
>
>Don't let age stop you.
>
I completely agree!!
I began studying Greek at St John's College (one of the "GreatBooks" schools)
when I was 23. It was rough going at first, but once in a while there are
breakthroughs.
The best advice I can give you is to practice *often* for short periods of
time rather than occasionally for long sessions. And repeat some of the 
easy translations you have already done with effort, in order to reinforce
the recognition of your hard-earned progress.
I got to the point that I could sight-read Homer, but still needed to fuss
a lot to make sense of Aristotle; the style and vocabulary are soooo different!
I found the Loeb Series quite useful after reaching basic proficiency: it
provides easy cribs for vocabulary!

Perserverance furthers.


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