[reeves]

Greek 1Z03, Dr Daniel McLean

I just took this course this semester, and I have to say…wow. Just wow.

First of all, this course is pretty intense, so if you’re planning on taking it to boost your mark, forget it. This class is tough. Our class started with about 80 people, and by midterms was down to about 40.

That being said, the class is great, with a lot of interesting content, including the origin of many words (OK, its only interesting if you’re a language geek), and amusing lectures by the incredibly knowledgeable and humourous Dr McLean. He does an excellent job of teaching the less-than-exciting content of a dead language using funny anecdotes, an overly excited personality, and amusing content in slideshows.

The course starts off with a relatively mild intro into the Attican Greek of about 1700 years ago. You’ll get introduced to noun declensions, and the cornucopia of Greek articles used to express the word “the”. Once you get those down, you’ll have your first encounter with the “Greek verb monster” (as Dr McLean will refer to it from here on out). He has reasons for calling it that, which you will see if you take the class.

This probably makes the class sound worse than it is. It was actually really enjoyable, and now that I’ve taken it, I’m genuinely considering pursuing it as a second major, or at least a minor. Just be prepared to devote a lot of time to reading the huge and rather dull textbook. If you want to do really well, expect 8-12 hours (or more) of reading/review weekly.

Bottom line: A tough course, but if you’re interested in it, I can’t imagine a better prof to learn it from.

Amazing professor makes you really want to get into the material.
Made the class so that there was a lot of interaction, and he made sure that you understood.

Not the easiest of languages too learn...but in this class, you learn more than greek

If you're fluent in verbal and written modern Greek, does this help?

Originally Posted by kousharee

If you're fluent in verbal and written modern Greek, does this help?

As far as I know, we didn't have any native Greek speakers in the class. But from what I've read online, it does in fact help.