Brian W. Davidson

I want to recommend one simple way to get started speaking Greek. It’s free. All you need is one other person who wants to pursue the same goal. I have in mind those of you who have studied Greek in a grammar-translation way, perhaps for many years, but have not yet started down the path of acquiring the language as a means of communication.

The process can be very simple:

1. Pick a text, any text, but one you can understand relatively easily.
2. Meet with your friend.
3. You read a couple verses or a paragraph.
4. They read the same couple verses or paragraph.
5. Close the book, and one of you try to summarize what you read using your own Greek vocabulary.
6. The other person adds to the summary until you are both ready to move on.
   

Some encouragement: You don’t need a very large vocabulary to successfully communicate in Greek. Just use the words you know. You don’t have to memorize the passage as you read. That isn’t the goal at all. Picture it. As you and your partner read, picture the scene, and then when you summarize, use the Greek words you do know to describe what you see.

Don’t correct each other’s grammar and case usage. That is irrelevant for the goal of communicating. Your case usage and verb forms will correct themselves slowly over time as Greek becomes to you an actual language.

Go for it and enjoy! You’ll be shocked at how quickly you see progress.