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Original poster

Learning greek - using symbols or english letters

36 replies

Ebound · 30/05/2019 06:35

Hi, for those with DC who learnt Greek, what is the way taught in school to learn Greek vocabulary - do you memorize the words using the greek "symbols" or do you transliterate the symbols into the corresponding english alphabets and then learn using the english letters? Thanks.

OP posts:
TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 30/05/2019 07:30

The alphabet seems like a big deal at the start but really it is not. Most of the letters are recognisable and it won't take long to get familiar with the rest.

Original poster
Ebound · 30/05/2019 07:24

No, I am not home educating. DS will be starting year 9 in September and will be starting Greek as a beginner. We also started off learning Latin by ourselves 2-3 years ago before he started learning them in school. Thought of doing the same for Greek but then I realized that the Greek alphabets are a different animal altogether. At least Latin is in English alphabets.

OP posts:
GeorgeTheBleeder · 30/05/2019 07:09

Are you home educating? Or just doing this as an extra thing?

Do you have other questions regarding language teaching? There should be lots more advice available here.

Original poster
Ebound · 30/05/2019 07:04

I have been teaching my DS wrong - I thought it is easier to transliterate and learn the words using English alphabets. But it did feel like it is double the amount of work. Thank you all for the responses. Really helpful community. Thank you so much!!!

OP posts:
SundayMorningSun · 30/05/2019 06:54

Learn the Greek alphabet. Within a week or two, you'll just be able to read it - I know this feels a long way off when you're working it out letter by letter, but it will suddenly come.

SomethingNastyInTheBallPool · 30/05/2019 06:54

Always used the Greek alphabet. It’s really easy to learn, and reading it quickly becomes second nature. Transliteration would make things much more confusing.

OKBobble · 30/05/2019 06:50

Quotes for the Literature and Prose paper of Greek GCSE are written using the Greek symbols/alphabet.

BertrandRussell · 30/05/2019 06:49

What do you mean by symbols? Do you mean the Greek alphabet?

RiversDisguise · 30/05/2019 06:46

Learn the alphabet. It takes 2 or 3 hours.

borntobequiet · 30/05/2019 06:39

On infrequent visits to Greece I’ve been pleased to find that once one recognises letters in the Greek alphabet, reading and pronounciation seem relatively easy.

Solasum · 30/05/2019 06:37

Once you have learnt the Greek alphabet, it is really easy to learn words written in Greek. What would be the benefit of transliteration?

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