Classics - Greek. Is it really really hard for GCSE?

[RatherBeOnThePiste]

DD very keen to do this for GCSE, is loving Latin, but we have heard Greek is really tough. She has no knowledge about what it will be like except she really rather fancies it.

Has anyone's DC done Greek, or are they doing it?

My DS had a taster of Ancient Greek (half a term before options chosen) and found the weird alphabet too hard for his head to cope with for translations - but he IS enjoying Latin.

The alternative, which those doing seem to love, is Classical Civilisation, involving a lot of history with some Greek & Latin but no translations required.

I am glad they were given taster lessons before committing to the whole GCSE!

My DS1 did a year of greek but dropped it before GCSE. He really enjoyed it but didn't want latin plus classics plus greek.
He actually found it easier than Latin .

I agree that classic civs may be a better bet if she hasn't done greek before but knows she likes latin

I started off doing GCSE Latin and Greek, but dropped the Greek, for me it was the new alphabet which threw things
She could try doing it and see

Greek i found much easier than french/german because if it is roughly the same as it was 15 years ago - there is a vocab sheet of maybe 400 words and you get to translate something relatively easy in the exam.

the main difficulty is the high quality of candidates taking the exam, therefore setting the bar pretty high.

once you have learned that alphabet it sticks - its not that much of a bar to learning.

They are having a proper trial of it soon, which sounds like a good thing, they have a done a v little taster so far.

I loved Latin - Caecelius est in via and all that, but Greek is out of my experience!

I did Latin & Greek at school. If DD is good at and enjoys languages, ancient Greek shouldn't be a problem once she's learned the alphabet.

(Are they still doing Caecelius in Latin? I remember the whole class crying when the pet dog died in the Pompeii volcanic eruption!)

Geeky - DD cried when the dog - was it Cerberus (?) died in Pompeii!!

No Caecelius still rocks!

We're still doing Caecelius!

I did both Greek and Latin at University. I found them equally easy/hard.

Though, having said that, I learnt Latin from my native Norwegian, and Greek "in English". This made the learning experience very different, as I did not understand the english grammatical concepts referred to by the professor as well as I did the Norwegian ones..

actually i think greek is in many ways easier than Latin....

and if yo stick to Homer you get a whole world of textual gratification...

we did 'Latin with laughter'

with sentences eg 'DBrous simia in fossa est'

and 'olim tres ursi erant....'

yes Greek will stretch her, but if you look at the results you will find that a huge proportion of the candidates get an A (or an A star these days I suppose?) - it will be hard for everyone not just her, so she won't do herself any harm by doing it.

I did ancient Greek O-level, and erm failed it but I don't regret it as it was kind of amazing and learning a new alphabet is like learning a whole new window on alternative worlds. If she's interested, she should definitely go for it.

I got a C in O Level Greek - my classmates all got A but that was because we had to memorise long passages of Odysseus for the exam - I can do languages, but I couldn't be bothered trying to memorise lots of prose.

OnThePiste - I can't remember the actual name of Caecelius' dog (Cerberus sounds familiar) but it was 35 years ago!!! I'm completely amazed that school kids are still crying over it!

Are Monsieur et Madame Marsaud, Claudette et Jean-Paul still around?

That;s mainly what latin is, isn't it? Memorising big chunks of prose so you can churn them out for the exam.

I did ancient Greek many years ago, so can't comment on the exam. But for me it was the different writing that was part of the appeal - Latin seemed boring, Greek exciting and exotic. But maybe I'm easily amused .

I did a term of greek once, many years ago. My dc have both just been offered the GCSE course too (as a twilight thing). Ds is too busy, but dd was a bit interested. She may give it a try if she can't do Japanese for timetabling reasons.

Definitely, definitely go for the Greek! Yes, it's not an easy option but it's not harder than Latin. The alphabet is not a big deal and it really shouldn't put people off. If she really enjoys Latin she will get a lot out of doing Greek as well. She won't get many chances in her life to try something like this (unlike a modern language, say), so she should seize the opportunity with both hands.

DS sat greek last year, said it was theasiest of his GCSE's. All he really had to do was memorize the (relatively limited) vocab and master some verbs, learn some text. Bit more interesting than Latin too...

Greek is a difficult language to fully master. I am fluent and have been since childhood. It still challenges me. But to GCSE it should be OK if your child likes languages.

DD has gone for Greek having done a taster and loved it. She will do the gcse over three years and Latin in the normal two. She really loves Latin which is great, I'm not sure why, but it's almost like there's something romantic about it. It's funny how as children move on how different subjects start to appeal to them! Great too!!

Greek is awesome! Grammar-wise, about on a par with Latin. Alphabet is not difficult to learn an, let's face it, beautiful. And all those riches of Greek literature...

I'm learning Hebrew at the mo (I'm doing Hebrew and Greek for theology) - I love languages which evoke mystery and culture and wisdom.

I did 5 yrs of Classic Greek, as it is one of the main subject in the Italian Liceo classico.
It is difficult. It is more difficult than Latin (which I also studied at school and at University), but we did it up to a very high level.

Clockface- I think you describe Greek and Latin in a way that DD would agree with, although she has way less experience. It's the mystery she finds exciting. I hope it stays like this for her!

She should do it then, absolutely. Greek rewards very quickly, really. If she's got a good grasp of the structures of Latin grammar then she'll find Greek grammar a doddle as it's conceptually pretty much the same.
Does she know what she wants to do longer term, academically (A level Classics?)

Thank you Clockface -DD is officially in the Greek Group!! Wooo hoooooo!

It is so hard to say what she will continue to do, she loves Latin, maths, physics, chem, biology etc and the subject she finds the hardest is English, she can't be doing with it!