Greek Language Learning Software

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Chris Servanti
Posts: 55
Joined: September 10th, 2015, 2:30 pm

Greek Language Learning Software

Post by Chris Servanti »

I'm working on writing a program similar to that of Duolingo for teaching languages (namely for teaching Koine Greek). I've only completed the text printing and input systems but I'm making steady progress. If y'all have never heard of Duolingo you should definitely check it out and tell me what you think it lacks or what could make my program a better version of it. I'm writing it solo so it could take a while (it already has for the small amount I've done), but hopefully that will provide me the time to get better at Koine. I've got a basic battle plan I'm going to use to teach Koine that should work fairly well (at least if the learning learns like I do). (btw this is not really designed for a second language, more like 3rd)

After very very very much internal debate I've finally become pretty settled on modern pronunciation because I discovered that if you know Koine really well (spoken) then you will be able to understand quite a bit of modern spoken Greek which you wouldn't really be able to do without the iotism.

My hope is to divide it up into different courses.
Maybe course one would include mastering the four noun forms, three compound present tense verb forms and an introduction to aorist.
Maybe course two would include mastering the middle/passive voice and the aorist tense plus learning odd noun forms like -ma and -eus.
Maybe course three would include mastering participles and an introduction to the more uncommon tenses.
Maybe course four would mostly focus on mastering all these areas and expanding vocabulary.

I'm not planning to focus much on "conversational" Koine because as of know there's practically no-one with whom to converse, so I'm planning to focus more on actually phrases and sentences. My goal isn't to get people's feet wet in Greek but actually get them proficient and very comfortable in the language.

Maybe in the future I'll include Buth's pronunciation and the Reconstructed later on but I'm definitely not settled on it.

Well, that's basically my plan, I've wanted to do this for a long time, but I'm finally really starting to work on it. If y'all have any suggestions I would greatly appreciate them!
caseyperkins
Posts: 9
Joined: January 23rd, 2015, 3:26 pm

Re: Greek Language Learning Software

Post by caseyperkins »

Hi Chris,
It sounds like a worthwhile project. What is the platform?

I would caution, however, that the restriction to modern pronunciation is likely to limit you to a very small user base. The number of people willing to buy biblical Greek apps and in-app purchases is already tiny (from my own experiences selling an app in the App Store). If the app is free however, you will garner a large number of people willing to at least try it.

Casey
Chris Servanti
Posts: 55
Joined: September 10th, 2015, 2:30 pm

Re: Greek Language Learning Software

Post by Chris Servanti »

caseyperkins wrote:Hi Chris,
It sounds like a worthwhile project. What is the platform?

I would caution, however, that the restriction to modern pronunciation is likely to limit you to a very small user base. The number of people willing to buy biblical Greek apps and in-app purchases is already tiny (from my own experiences selling an app in the App Store). If the app is free however, you will garner a large number of people willing to at least try it.

Casey
Initially it'll be only a windows application and hopefully from there an android app however I've never tried crossing something over to android because you have to buy an additional software package.

I do know that Modern pronunciation is a controversial decision to make, but here's why: I think Duolingo is probably one of (if not THE) best sites for learning languages because of its formatting. If I can make something even remotely as good, maybe I can change the tide of pronunciation. Idk, but if I succeed well enough maybe it will cause unity among the Living Koine community as providing one of the first ways to interactively, completely and comprehensively learn to read, hear, write and speak Koine (a resource that the community lacks). Of course chances are, at least the initial launch version will be pretty pathetic because of my lack of experience in teaching Koine and my lack of experience in graphics, so I'll probably throw in an option to switch the audio between the different systems.

If y'all haven't ever checked out Duolingo I would highly advice it, it's really an awesome site.
caseyperkins
Posts: 9
Joined: January 23rd, 2015, 3:26 pm

Re: Greek Language Learning Software

Post by caseyperkins »

Chris Servanti wrote:
caseyperkins wrote: Initially it'll be only a windows application and hopefully from there an android app however I've never tried crossing something over to android because you have to buy an additional software package.
I've done some Android programming, and I'm not aware of any additional software packages that you have to purchase. Android Studio is free.
Chris Servanti
Posts: 55
Joined: September 10th, 2015, 2:30 pm

Re: Greek Language Learning Software

Post by Chris Servanti »

caseyperkins wrote:
Chris Servanti wrote:
caseyperkins wrote: Initially it'll be only a windows application and hopefully from there an android app however I've never tried crossing something over to android because you have to buy an additional software package.
I've done some Android programming, and I'm not aware of any additional software packages that you have to purchase. Android Studio is free.
I'm working on a modified Programming language called GML. The software itself costs money and you have to pay for additional platform packages. Usually the GM language is used for making games but since it's obviously OOP in format it's working quite well for what I'm doing, plus all it's preprogrammed functions and automatic sprite system makes it so much easier to work with.
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