An accelerated section of the elementary Modern Greek course for beginners with a background in Ancient Greek. By the end of the course, students will be able to handle daily life situations (shopping, ordering food, making reservations, buying tickets, requesting and understanding directions, etc.); will acquire daily vocabulary and basic grammatical structures; and will be able to write simple letters and brief texts. CYA strongly encourages students to study Modern Greek while they are in Athens. CYA believes that the study of this lesson provides valuable access to the life and culture of contemporary Greece and aids in the acculturation of students.

“Beginning Modern Greek Language and Culture” aims to combine the classic beginning Modern Greek language instruction with Modern Greek culture. While keeping with the conventional language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), this course integrates the “fifth skill” of language, culture, in a way that allows a full understanding of Modern Greece. Through language focused cultural lessons, students will learn the importance of language in everyday situations, and become active participants in Modern Greek culture. This course aims to enable students to: a) communicate in the language and handle basic life situations; b) read in the language; c) learn everyday vocabulary from relevant social topics; and d) write simple letters and brief notes. Students will develop oral language proficiency and cultural awareness through different activities, both inside and outside the classroom (neighborhood walks, graffiti, Greek idioms, street signs, visit to the Greek parliament, magazine covers, current pop culture videos, etc.). These varied aspects of language practice and cultural exploration will include etymological and historical information, allowing the students to engage comfortably and become integrated with Modern Greek language and society.

Herodotus of Halicarnassus, the “Father of History,” was the first historian in human civilization, invented this new discipline as he went along, and didn’t know that history is supposed to be boring!  In fact, the Greek word historia is the origin not only of English “history” but also of “story.” We will read all of Herodotus’s history of the war between the Greeks and the Persians in translation, and as much of it in Greek as we can get through in a semester.

A detailed analysis of the Odyssey or the Iliad; the entire work in translation, selected readings in the original. The oral epic and Homer's influence on Greek morality, culture, and literature.

Supervised reading or research at the upper-division level. Permission of department chair and completion and/or concurrent registration of 12 credits within the department required. Consult department for applicability towards major requirements. Not available to first-year students.