Guide to Learning Modern Greek

A — Why should I learn Modern Greek?

Maybe you love the culture.

Or maybe like me, you plan to use it to learn Ancient Greek eventually (see Kevin and James’s Ancient Greek Curriculum).

Either way, I hope these resources are helpful to you, as well.

B — How to start

B.1 — My recommended path

Months 1-3

Use these resources simultaneously:

• Language Transfer’s Complete Greek Course
  • All-audio with listening and speaking
  • Gives a good base to understand the grammar
• Duolingo
  • Teaches the alphabet, reading, and a little writing

Months 3-6

Use these resources simultaneously:

• Pimsleur: Complete Greek
  • All-audio course with listening and speaking
• Use a graded reader, like Modern Greek for Classicists (see resource list, below)

After that…

Start using more comprehensible input, including readers and native content

• GreekPod 101 (see below)
• Language Input
• Language Reactor
• iTalki lessons (see below)
• The Routledge Modern Greek Reader (see below)¹
• Omilo

B.2 — Suggested paths by others

• “How to Learn Modern Greek Online” by Kelssey Ray Banerjee.
• “The Best Way To Learn Greek” by Danae Florou
• Classicist Carla Hurt on how she’s learning Modern Greek

C — Resources

C.1 — Book Courses

• Ellinika A / Greek 1 and Ellinika B / Greek 2 — Immersive text book, all in Greek
• https://www.youtube.com/c/OmiloHellas
• https://deltos.gr/en/home/

C.2 — Online Courses

• TPRS Beginners Greek Course from Naturalanguages
  • Video course with comprehensible input
  • This is a cool way to see TPRS in action. TPRS stands for teaching proficiency through reading and storytelling
• Comprehensible input playlist from Helenika
  • These videos are well made and introduce things like colours, animals etc
• LingQ (website from Steve Kaufmann) - This website has lots of audios and texts in Greek for all levels. There is a free version and a paid version. With the paid version it is possible to look up translations for the words. I think LingQ is great and I use it everyday.

http://www.kypros.org/LearnGreek/

C.3 — Readers

C.3.1 — Graded Readers

Graded readers are a type of reader, where texts in Greek are presented with increasing levels of difficulty. Used for learning Greek through reading. These are sorted from top to bottom, from highest recommended.

Modern Greek for Classicists by Ilias Kolokouris

• Read my full review at Book Review — Modern Greek For Classicists by Ilias Kolokouris
• Purchase at: Paideia Institute, Amazon
• Modern Greek for Classicists online course at Paideia Institute
• Supporting grammar videos by the author (YouTube)
• Animated videos of each lesson, from the author (YouTube)

The Routledge Modern Greek Reader (Greek Folktales for Learning Modern Greek)

• Purchase at: The Routledge Modern Greek Reader (Greek Folktales for Learning Modern Greek)
• This reader composed of folktales includes reading comprehension questions. It’s great if you’re out of the A1-A2 phase and want a challenge.

ΠΟΙΟΣ ΕΙΝΑΙ Ο Α.Μ.; (Who is A.M.?)

• Graded reader
• Purchase at: Politeianet.gr or Amazon

Adventure in Greece: A Bilingual Story by Athina Veloudou and Hugh Finlayson

• Purchase at: Amazon

Short Stories in Greek for Beginners and Intermediate Learners: A2-B1, Greek-English Parallel by Constantine Eliades

• Purchase at: Amazon

Tiny Stories for Greek Learners by Adonis Demetriou

• Purchase at: Amazon

C.3.2 — Other

• Read Your First Greek Book, The Easy Reader “Lydia”
• https://deltos.gr/en/home/
• InterlinearBooks.com
• Read The Clockmaster by Roubina Gouyoumtzian in Greek
• Read The Crack on the Hourglass by Roubina Gouyoumtzian in Greek
• Read a Selection of Short Literary Works in Greek
• Omilo
• Again, Omilo has a wide range of free eBooks and other materials for intermediate learners.
• Greek Easy Readers by Deltos Publishing
• https://www.alphabetagreek.com/blog/3-best-resources-to-learn-greek-easy-to-read-novels-an-interview-with-margarita-ioannidou

C.4 — Speaking Practice

• iTalki

C.5 — Writing Practice

• Master the Greek Alphabet, A Handwriting Practice Workbook: Perfect your calligraphy skills and dominate the Hellenic script
• HelloTalk – More than iTalki, HelloTalk is great for getting notes corrected, even if you don’t have a lot of luck in the private chats.
• Journaling – Sometimes, it’s just better to keep a journal. This is especially true if you are starting out and have limited vocab.

C.6 — Listening Practice

• Learning Greek Podcasts from the Hellenic American Union
  • This extensive list of practice topics is great for getting used to the language. And free, which is a huge plus.
  • Sources:
    • Learning Greek Podcasts from the Hellenic American Union (Internet Archive)
    • Learning Greek Podcasts from the Hellenic American Union (Tune In)

Other

• Helinika’s Immersion Playlist – Another freebie, Hellenika covers a vast array of topics. This is great if you prefer to learn through immersion.
• Ertflix – The Netflix of Greece. Enough said.
• Easy Greek
  • Easy Greek
  • A YouTube video series where Easy Languages asks Greeks on the street questions about their lives and interests. Since every video has English and Greek subtitles, it’s a great listening aid.
  • The Easy Greek channel is great, but the level is rather advanced. Look for the episodes marked “Super Easy Greek” for more accessible content. (It looks like at least most of the Super Easy ones are in this playlist.)

C.7 — Videos

• Comprehensible Greek (Channel) - This channel has videos where a man speaks in Greek describing children’s stories and other things like nature. His videos follow the natural approach to acquiring learning.
• Slow Greek playlist from Linguatree - This is new for me as I’ve just found out about it today but the first video looks good and the speech is slow so it is understandable.
• This playlist has children’s storybooks with Greek and English captions.
• This channel has fairy tales narrated in Greek with English subtitles.
• Songs can be a great way to learn a language, and kids songs can be useful even for adult learners because the language is often simpler. This playlist has cute and catchy kids’ songs with captions in Greek.,

C.8 — Apps

Duolingo

• Pros: Great gamified experience keeps you engaged
• Cons: Duolingo’s Greek offering uses a synthetic voice and lacks the unique characters and stories that makes their bigger language courses (like German and French) so exciting.

C.9 — Reference Books

C.9.1 — Dictionaries

Triantafyllides Online Dictionary

C.9.2 — Reference Grammars

Greek: An Essential Grammar of the Modern Language by Routledge

• Buy at Amazon.

Greek: A Comprehensive Grammar of the Modern Language by Routledge

• Buy at Amazon.

Concise Modern Greek Grammar by M. Triandaphyllidis

• Buy at The Institute of Modern Greek Studies
• This is a translation from native Greek, so this is not great for beginners.

C.10 — Other

• GreekPod 101 — despite the crappy name, this is a very advanced and useful product
• Learn Greek Online - 16 Best (And Worst) Courses For 2021
• Pimsleur
• Anki
• https://www.lingq.com/en/

D — Native Content

D.1 — Children’s Videos

• Caillou playlist
  • A children’s cartoon in Greek. It has a lot of basic language. I think only the traditional cartoons are in Greek, the 3D animated ones seem to have no speech.
• Sevasti Ziogas Varitimidis (Channel)
  • This channel has very basic comprehensible input aimed at children introducing basic concepts.

D.2 — Videos

• Μηχανή του Χρόνου (“Time Machine”)
  • Documentary series on history
  • Μηχανή του Χρόνου (YouTube playlist)
• Netflix
  • Find any show with Greek subtitles!

D.3 — Native Audio Content

Onassis Podcasts

• https://www.onassis.org/el/initiatives/onassis-podcasts

Lifo Podcasts

• https://www.lifo.gr/podcasts

D.4 — Other

Digital school (Ψηφιακό Σχολείο) from the Greek Ministry of Education

• Find all schoolbooks used in Greek schools!
• Reddit post describing Ψηφιακό Σχολείο and how to use it

E — End Notes