Learning Greek- help???

[costargh]

So I've taking it in my stride to try and once and for all improve my spoken greek.

Ill give a brief explanation of what level Im at:

My relatives (parents/grandparents) spoke to me in both Greek and English as I grew up. However I never really caught on much with it and I have trouble speaking it. I understand a few words that people say to me and in that respect I can get the general jist of what they are saying to me, but Its like I may just hear the word "hungry" and realise that they are asking me "Are you hungry" without actually knowing the sentence structure.

I don't know the alphabet.
I rarely speak to people in greek. I know a few nouns like "table" "food" "door" etc but dont have the confidence to know how to incorporate some of those nouns into spoken sentences.

How do I go about learning these and improving?
Im currently going through this online greek learning thing, seeing if that helps, Ive learnt a little in the first lesson, im just not sure if ill retain it.
http://www.kypros.org/LearnGreek/

What are good techniques to learn a foreign language? Can I just remind/tell people that does not use an english alphabet, therefore if people give a suggestion for example to write the names of objects and place them on the object themself, I am unable to do that if I dont initially learn the alphabet. Or should I write out phonetically how the object sounds?

To reitterate though, out of my greek my knowledge of objects/nouns is my strongest point.

I have trouble knowing how to say "I am"" "they are" "we are" etc...

and verbs im terrible at. I know in greek that their are masuculine and feminine things ... just dont know how to apply it.

Any help??? Please? Even from peopole who are learning other languages who may be able to shed some light.

[osmoister]

i have much the same problems with the language of my culture tbh. i've learnt a lot in the last few years though (people in my area) and when i finish vce, i'll go to a language school and that should help me out. start one aswell, i'm sure they teach greek weekends or something.

[AQ]

Guys you have greek school and turkish school on the weekends.

You should have language schools on the weekend, and im 100-ercent certain there is.

[Eriny]

If you still have relatives around who can speak to you in Greek then that's pretty good. You can ask them to help you out and speak to you in Greek.

Umm... you should get a good dictionary (pay around $30 or so) and learn some verbs, stuff like 'I am', 'I have', 'I go', etc. If you can enroll in a class that would be ideal, but if you can't you can try using textbooks. Borders has heaps of resources. It's probably a good idea to get a book like 'Greek for Dummies' or something, since it'll explain it all to you in English. Eventually though, you may want a textbook which predominantly explains things in Greek, but that would be difficult at first without a teacher and very little knowledge of Greek.

[TrueLight]

uh man it would of been much easier if you went to greek school when you were younger... just like how my parents forced me, but then again im prob glad i was now.. yeah you gotta learn the alphabet first cause that how like everything is spelt and then you can sound it out, cause pretty much every word is spelt how you would say it out loud, so learn like the sounding of the alphabet and like those double letter thingos like to yy make a gh sound... eh i dunno just listen to your parents and ppl around you, and you'll pick up stuff lolz... man im starting to forget my greek im not that great.. maybe if i go to greece one year ill get way better eh ... den xerw poli kala tin ylossa alla me xrono tha ton mathw... eisai poli eksipnos kai ta ellinika sou tha einai arista se ligo lol

[costargh]

Oh thanks truelight.  great advice.

I did go to greek school when I was younger, but I was kicked out.

den xerw poli kala tin ylossa alla me xrono tha ton mathw... eisai poli eksipnos kai ta ellinika sou tha einai arista se ligo lol

something something 'very good'.................

haha yeh i think il get my godsister to teach me the alphabet

[TrueLight]

hey costa
didn't u talk about somewhere that you wanted or were looking at doing that new unit the modern greek one thats offered by arts faculty? r u doing it?

and... why are you guest... your online right now with the same name...lol

[stonecold]

is it just me or does the greek spoken by greek australians sound like a completely different language to when I hear them speak on greek tv.  they go a million miles an hour.  can't understand a single word, but i can talk with my grandma in greek no worries.  used to be able to write, but completely forgotten it now.  can still read what you wrote though TL

then again, they use lots of grenglish words here.
they call a fridge 'friza' or 'fridzeria' rofl.

[vasilakiii]

okay well being a 3rd gen greek australian that speeks writes and reads fluent greek i think that it is important that u learn the greekk alphabet first, then start learing the basics.. what year level are you currentlly in because if you are in VCE and you donot know the alphabet i delt u will go very far.
Use ur family for help. speek greeek around the house and try listening to greek music u will get the words from there and they will expand your vocabulary in the greek language.

[TrueLight]

is it just me or does the greek spoken by greek australians sound like a completely different language to when I hear them speak on greek tv.  they go a million miles an hour.  can't understand a single word, but i can talk with my grandma in greek no worries.  used to be able to write, but completely forgotten it now.  can still read what you wrote though TL

then again, they use lots of grenglish words here.
they call a fridge 'friza' or 'fridzeria' rofl.

lol i know huh ... they go soo fast and use diskoles lexeis so i can barely understand it too
ha yea but its psiyeio but then friza is easier, we're integrating out language with english ahh lol
like car... i just say karo not autokinito

[QuantumJG]

To remember the alphabet, study physics and maths!

When we use Greek letters in maths and physics, it makes it sound hardcore!

i.e.

Ψ for the wavefunction, the Rieman ζ function or ofcourse Σ to represent summation.

[EvangelionZeta]

On that note, does anybody know how difficult it is to learn languages later in life?  Are classes when you're, say, 30 still practical?

[ninwa]

On that note, does anybody know how difficult it is to learn languages later in life?  Are classes when you're, say, 30 still practical?

Definitely. I have a guy who looks about 70 in one of my classes - he talks about his grandkids etc. His pronunciation's a little off - I guess that kinda stuff is hard to change at that age - but otherwise he's survived in a subject which last year had a fail rate of 50%...

[IntoTheNewWorld]

On that note, does anybody know how difficult it is to learn languages later in life?  Are classes when you're, say, 30 still practical?

yesss. There's no reason for it not to be possible.

random note: Uni is such a pro opportunity to learn languages. I wag programming to crash Korean lectures. Next semester I'll arrange my timetable so that I can go to Chinese and Korean lectures without wagging.

[TrueLight]

To remember the alphabet, study physics and maths!

When we use Greek letters in maths and physics, it makes it sound hardcore!

i.e.

Ψ for the wavefunction, the Rieman ζ function or ofcourse Σ to represent summation.

ha yeah a lot of greek letters for maths
now tell me....how do you pronounce them? lol

On that note, does anybody know how difficult it is to learn languages later in life?  Are classes when you're, say, 30 still practical?

yeah but it makes it more difficult later in life to remember ... when your younger its easier to consolidate
but i guess you can do it but with lots of practice and it makes it easier if your talking it to