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Athenaze: an Introduction to Ancient Greek: An Introduction to Ancient Greek: 1
by M.G. Balme
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc (2003-05-01)
ISBN: 0195149564
EAN: 9780195149562
Dewy Decimal #: 488.2421
Paperback: 380 pages
Edition: 2
SKU: B875-1136
Condition: New
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Customer Reviews
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The adult learner's viewpoint.
Rating  (4)
Date: 2004-03-23
8 out of 9 customers found this reveiw helpful
I started to use Book I in an adult education class and have just graduated to Book II.The texts are reasonably challenging to the average learner.
The long exposition of the present tense is fair enough and delays the aorist until the reader is ready.
The grammar summary at the back is very good as is the vocabulary
The Greek font used is clear and readable.
The material on Greek civilisation and history is well done. In short I am finding this a good text to use and look forward to the greater challenge of Book II with confidence gained from Book I.
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No problems!
Rating (4)
Date: 2004-02-11
4 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
Ok, so I'm still learning from the second of the books in this series, but my class seems to have no complaints about the text, except that those of us who have already learnt Latin from Mr Balme were disappointed at the lack of pretty colour pictures (and the wasting of class time when a debate ensured about the gender of various figures...)
True, you do spend an awful lot of time in the present tense, but it makes sense to get that firmly stuck in your head before learning all the others (especially the aorist...) and the author obviously considers this a good tactic since his Latin text does the same.
I suppose it may be a little difficult to understand in some parts if you've never learnt a language before, but if you've studied grammar before it's fine... and if you aren't teaching yourself it shouldn't be a problem at all (I am so glad I've had such great teachers...)
And if all else fails you could always do what we do in class and MAKE it fun... even if that is to the detriment of the book (and Mr Balme... sorry... but honestly... Dikaeopolis and his stupid rock were just the beginning of our descent into madness...)
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A good university coursebook
Rating (4)
Date: 2004-01-12
10 out of 10 customers found this reveiw helpful
A handful of the reviews written before this one said what an awful book Athenaze is, however those reviews were written by GCSE students.If you're a younger student, studying for GCSE or A Level Greek, this is most probably not the book for you, unless you have a good grasp of most languages. Of course, what your teachers set the course texts as you have little control over, but it seems fairly evident to me, as a university student looking at going in to lecturing (and hopefully teaching Ancient Greek) that it is not suitable for anyone lower than university level. That said, I feel this course book is an excellent aid for those at university wishing to study Ancient Greek. It starts with the very basics, but seeming quite advanced to the student, the first few pages including half a page of continuous (simple) Greek text. The course matter is, until around unit 5 or so, terribly dull (trust me in that you will get bored of Dikaiopolis and his plough), but you have to start somewhere, and I don't know of any course books with better material! The flow of the book is sometimes slightly strange, in that e- and a- contracted verbs are introduced very early on, while participles are introduced later, however the coverage of all subjects (in whatever order they're in) is always good. In summary, I feel this course (both books I & II) to be ideal for undergraduates & postgradutes to get a fairly firm understanding of Ancient Greek, however I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone studying Greek at secondary school.
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In my opinion, a poorly structured course.
Rating  (1)
Date: 2000-07-17
11 out of 19 customers found this reveiw helpful
I disliked having to use this book intensely. At prep school (upto age 13), I spent a couple of years using L Wilding's "Greek for Beginners", and old-fashioned course that nevertheless worked. Moving on to a senior school I had to start Greek from scratch. We were given Athenaze. I think that my whole class found it truly awful. For example :
In much of the first book, only the present tense is used (which tends to turn the translations of the stories into nonsense English), while introducing alpha/omega/epsilon contracted verbs instead. Totally illogical, but typical of the order of introduction of new grammar.
The plot of the stories is particularly dull. The cases are not taught in the standard NVAGD order, which is potentially confusing to those also doing Latin.
The vocabulary introduced contains far too many irregular verbs, which complicates matters for the beginner, and that introduced throughout the two books is insufficient/irrelevant for GCSE Greek.
The Greek grammar in the stories and excercises is not infrequently incorrect.
There is a HUGE step up in difficulty between books 1 and 2.
This book tries to be modern, and succeeds in replacing the good (but ever so dull!) well-tested style of teaching with one that simply does not work, especially for the UK syllabus. The only thing in its favour are the interesting pages on Greek history/culture, found too occasionally amongst the chapters.
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a
Rating (1)
Date: 2000-07-17
0 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
I disliked having to use this book intensely. At prep school (upto age 13), I spent a couple of years using L Wilding's "Greek for Beginners", and old-fashioned course that nevertheless worked. Moving on to a senior school I had to start Greek from scratch. We were given Athenaze. I think that my whole class found it truly awful. For example :
In much of the first book, only the present tense is used (which tends to make the translations of the stories into nonsense English), while introducing alpha/omega/epsilon contracted verbs instead, which is really rather illogical.
The plot of the stories is particularly dull. The cases are not taught in the standard NVAGD order, which is potentially confusing to those also doing Latin.
The vocabulary introduced contains far too many irregular verbs, which complicates matters for the beginner, and that introduced throughout the two books is insufficient/irrelevant for GCSE Greek.
The Greek grammar in the stories and excercises is not infrequently incorrect.
There is a HUGE step up in difficulty between books 1 and 2.
This book tries to be modern, and succeeds in replacing the good (but ever so dull!) well-tested style of teaching with one that simply does not work, especially for the UK syllabus. The only thing in its favour are the interesting pages on Greek history/culture, found too occasionally amongst the chapters.
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