Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Hellenist turned Classicist

All right, all right, I'm a self-proclaimed Hellenist. Myth is what dragged me into classics, and since learning about all of the gods and goddesses and heroes from the Greek perspective and with their Greek names first, I went a little heavier on the Greek courses for my Classics degree. I've taken Classical Greek for three semesters now and this is only my first semester of Latin, but so far, I've really enjoyed it! Yes, the third declension kicked me in the face, and then the neuter gendered nouns also gave me a hefty blow, but I've really enjoyed the book and Dr. Manolaraki's modifications to it. I mean, by unit two in Greek, you get present, future, imperfect, AND aorist. Then it's perfect and pluperfect. And within the next few units, you get into subjunctive and optative! So, I really like the way that the book introduces everything so that you get familiar with it before you're slapped with too many things at once. Dr. Manolaraki also does a really nice job of monitoring the text so that she can make sure that there is a smooth transition into every new chapter, and every new piece of grammar.

All in all, even if I didn't have to take several Latin courses to graduate, I still would. Latin I has turned this Hellenist into an equal opportunity Classicist. Though I do still prefer the Greek names for the gods and goddesses; some things can't be helped.

Also, thank all the blessed gods on Olympus for the ablative case!

K. Pinkett

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Kayleigh! I knew we could convert you! It was only a matter of time...muah ha ha!

Anne