2021-11-26 14:38:51 +00:00
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2021-11-28 12:33:45 +00:00
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2021-11-26 14:38:51 +00:00
< title > Hansen & Quinn’ s Greek , An Intensive Course — ancient - greek . net </ title >
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< h1 style = " margin-bottom: 0px; " > Τὸ σὺν τῷ βιβλίῳ ἐντόνῳ τῆς γλώττης μανθάνειν .</ h1 >
< h3 > The studying of the language with the < i > intense book </ i >.</ h3 >
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< p > Before you begin reading this , I would like you to understand this this is no longer the opinion I hold of this book ; instead , I would highly encourage you to look at what I have to say about Hansen and Quinn on the page regarding < a href = " readinggreek.php " > JACT’ s Reading Greek </ a >. I would no longer recommend this to you .</ p >
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< p > Studying a language — and this applies to any language , not merely Ancient Greek — requires a lot of practice and also forces one to invest a lot of time to it < i > every day </ i >. Therefore , I have always found it somewhat perplexing how some people appear to believe that studying a language for ten minutes daily by using free learning < q > apps </ q > — which I shall not be naming here — will result in them becoming fluent in aforementioned language within a short period of time . Using these apps as a supplement is , no doubt , rather helpful and allows one to continously study the language wherever one may currently be ; but I am of the opinion that such applications are totally unable to abolish the traditional text book .</ p >
< p > All of this is especially true with Ancient Greek — or , in fact , most other ancient languages — , since most of these aforesaid learning applications provide resources merely for modern languages ; and even , I must unfortunately say , some fictional languages , too ( indeed , why are < q > Klingon </ q > or < q > High Valyrian </ q > more important than Ancient Greek ? ) . Therefore , being in possession of an adequate text book for this language is of utmost importance , for it is going to be one of the only resources one will be using to advance one’ s reading and writing ability — speaking is , generally , not a priority when learning an ancient language .</ p >
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< h2 > The Importance of a Good Text Book </ h2 >
< p > As my country of residence is Germany , I first thought about getting a German book and to visit the local library to do so ; and I have to mention that there’ s both the city’ s main library ( < q > Stadtbibliothek </ q > ) and the university library ( < q > Universitätsbibliothek </ q > ) at my disposal . As the university library is , unfortunately , quite a distance from where I live , I decided to , instead , visit the main city library . It is divided up into two floors : the lower contains mostly fiction — in German and other languages — , whereas the upper floor contains the more < i > scientific </ i > books ; the latter is where I began my search . The language section < i > did </ i > did contain a number of book on Ancient Greek , and I took the first one I saw home and was utterly disappointed . The way it taught things was rather — let us say that it was basically unable to teach me anything but a handful of words and the alphabet .</ p >
< p > This resulted in my giving up the attempt of studying the language ; this is , until I found out about Hansen and Quinn’ s Intensive Course . Indeed , I tend to be rather decent at < i > absorbing </ i > grammatical concepts and rules into my brain and thus , a course that taught said concepts at a fast pace was exactly what I had wanted ( I frequently feel myself underwhelmed when studying languages using < q > regular </ q > text books and often study several chapters in short sucession ) . I therefore decided to get it and start my study of Attic Greek using it .</ p >
< p > I was quickly engrossed by it and the language it so nicely teaches that I made rapid progress . Its name is , however , not to be understated for , indeed , it is one of the most intensive text books I have , as of yet , seen . It teaches the language’ s basic grammatical concepts at a very fast pace , but does not leave the student in the dark and , instead , explains everything thoroughly and in an easy to understand manner . In addition , it includes a large number of drills and exercises after each chapter and also has self - correcting examinations after every three chapters </ p >
< p > But this , unfortunately , brings me to one of the down - sides of this book , namely the lack of an answer key . Indeed , the only exercises which contain answer keys are the self - correcting examinations ; all the drills and exercises at the end of each chapter do < i > not </ i > contain any answers . This is , obviously , problematic for those people , like me , that study the language autodidactically and was what had initially prevented me from buying the book ; but , fortunately , there do exist answer keys , put online by professors or other learners . Answer keys for the exercises can be found here : < a href = " https://atticgreek.wordpress.com/tag/hansen-and-quinn-intensive-greek/ " > atticgreek . wordpress . com </ a >. Answer keys for the exercises , reviews and drills can be found here on the website of < a href = " http://www.u.arizona.edu/~jbausch1/HQ/ " > The University of Arizona </ a >.</ p >
< p > These latter resources greatly decrease the problem for autodidactic learners and make the text book < i > much </ i > more accessible outside a classroom setting ; indeed , I would go as far as saying that , having these answer keys , this is a really good book for those who which to teach themselves the language without the aid of a teacher . Truly , < i > βιβλίον ἀναγιγνώσκειν ἄξιον ἐστιν </ i >.</ p >
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