Athenaze

Book 1

This web page is intended to help students of beginning Greek get the most out of the Athenaze text series published by Oxford University Press. This page is not intended to be a replacement for the text. To take full advantage of the audio resources students must obtain their own legal copy of Athenaze.

In order to use our resources, you will be asked to verify that you have a legal copy of the text each time you open one of our web pages keyed to each chapter of the text. Since this task can become tedious, we have also set up an account system that will reduce the frequency of this verifcation. Simply register an account with IBG and verify your textbook. You will only be asked to verify your textbook once every 30 times that you log in. Please use the right sidebar to register.

You can support this site by using this link to purchase a copy from Amazon.com.

1. Introduction to BiblicalGreek.org Athenaze Supplements

2. How To Use the Site

3. Video Introduction

1. Introduction to BiblicalGreek.org Athenaze Supplements

Some may wonder why a site primarily concerned with Biblical Greek is providing additional resources for learning Classical Greek (Athenaze is possibly the most used text for Classical Greek classes and fairly rare in Biblical Greek programs.) This situation creates a false impression that there is a great difference between Classical Greek and Biblical Greek. Nearly everyone who learns to read Classical Greek can also read Biblical Greek. Unfortunately the reverse is not true. Much could be said about why this is the case, but rather than spending our time pointing fingers I would rather simply focus on helping as many as possible learn the language. So when faced with the choice of equally lengthy language programs why not choose one that will equip you with more and perhaps better skills?

I am convinced that to truly learn a language one must use it, and generate their own memories where the voice in the head is using the language. The more this is achieved the more students will understand instances of the language and the easier it will be for them. There seems to be an inverse ratio of effort to language proficiency. The worst students (students who understand the least) have to work the most and the most proficient students have to exert the least amount of effort. For someone who is fluent in a language reading is nearly effortless.

The only way to achieve such intuitive skill is to practice using and producing the language not just deciphering written texts. Students must practice listening to Greek read, which forces the listener to keep up even if a percentage of the material passes by unintelligibly. The more such exercises are repeated and possibly memorized the easier the brain will be able to digest larger chunks of languages at one time. The same can be said of conversational exercises. This site will attempt to provide additional resources along these lines.

Athenaze is story driven text. It uses a story as a tool for continuity and application while gradually introducing new grammatical material. The story method per se isn't that much better than unrelated practice sentences. Its value isn't so much what it serves up students, but what it allows students to create on their own. Stories are meant to be retold. So after reading a story in Athenaze the student is in a position to take a major step toward effortless fluency by working with short and simple stories until they can retell them in their own Greek words. Then it is a small step to start talking and thinking about their own lives in Greek, making memories in Greek.

Perhaps this is dreamy or wishful thinking (However it is done in modern languages all the time.) method of learning Greek. But I'm willing to bet that once you start practicing retelling the stories in Athenaze you will soon be dreaming in Greek.

2. How To Use the Site

The additional resources on this site are organized according to each chapter and section of the Ahtenaze text. Simply click on a section in the left hand sidebar to see the additional resources available for that section. Please let us know if you know of other resources for that we could include.

In addition to the free resources on this site, we also have online class material including recorded lectures, a vocabulary quizzing program, and online tests. You can purchase any of these on the online course page.

3. Video Introduction to the Course

This introduction roughly correlates to the material in the introducation Part 1 of Athenaze Book 1.