Forthcoming in 2025
Course Overview
Καλώς ήρθατε! Modern Greek for Classicists is a self-paced online course that offers a complete introduction to the Modern Greek language. The course assumes some familiarity with the fundamentals of Ancient Greek, but offers a comprehensive and thorough overview of the grammar of the Modern Greek language. The course features live videos, filmed by two native Greek speakers, who teach the language, as well as an immersive graded reader which begins in simple Greek and gradually increases in difficulty as learners master grammar and vocabulary. The course is ideal for self-study and individual learners, who can keep track of their progress on exercises and assessments through the course’s reporting system.
The Modern Greek for Classicists course is currently under development by the Paideia Institute's team of curriculum designers. We expect to release Modern Greek for Classicists in 2025. If you would like to support the project, please consider making a gift on our donation page.
Interest Form
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Grammar Lessons
Modern Greek for Classicists features one hundred fast-paced and engaging videos which teach Greek grammar. The videos are presented in Greek, with English subtitles. These videos start with the basics of the language, like pronunciation, noun declension, and common expressions, and goes all the way through the most complex topics in Greek grammar necessary to read authentic Greek texts and understand spoken Greek.
Throughout the course, Modern Greek grammar is always presented with targeted and helpful comparisons with Ancient Greek, emphasizing continuity while also highlighting important change. All grammar videos in the course are followed by written summaries in English of the topics covered, as well as quizzes that test learners’ ability to recall and deploy what they have learned. The course is designed for those who, as a prerequisite, have studied at least two semesters of college-level Ancient Greek.
Graded Reader
Modern Greek for Classicists is based around a graded reader of more than 28,000 Greek words. This reader tells the story of a dynamic duo of friends, Alexandros and Harris, who adventure around Greece with the help of the god Hermes, seeing the modern country through ancient eyes as they struggle to get a novel business idea up off the group. As the trio travel around Greece, from Athens to Crete, to the Ionian Islands and beyond, they visit famous monuments from the past, engage with local culture, and meet other colorful characters, some mere mortals, and others gods in disguise.
The graded reader’s early chapters are in very simple Greek, and are designed to quickly help learners recall their knowledge of parallel vocabulary, syntax, and grammar in Ancient Greek. Over the course of 30 chapters, the Greek text becomes increasingly challenging, until, by the end of the course, the learner can expect to see all the grammar they have learned through the course be reflected in the text they read.
The reader is currently available online in a custom-designed reading environment. The reading environment features illustrations and a built-in dictionary and lookup tool for every individual word within the reader, as well English-language glosses which help learners understand etymologies and useful comparisons to Ancient Greek for the vocabulary they encounter. Additionally, drop-down morphology tables and easy access to each chapter’s grammar lessons are available in sidebars and menus which the learner can toggle at any time for personal reference.
Assessments
Quizzes follow each grammar lesson to check learner comprehension of the subject matter covered. Additionally, every reader chapter has a comprehension quiz attached to it, a brief assessment which measures the learner’s understanding of the graded reader. Lastly, every chapter contains two sets of additional practice exercises, which test grammar and vocabulary respectively. These exercise sets usually contain many questions, only a few of which are displayed at a time, meaning that the learner can come back to them repeatedly for practice; these are not graded.
