I would like to say sorry for not replying for a while i have been burried under alot of work from school lately but am ready to start getting right back into my greek. Pharr is going great so far and george i would definately like you to create that new community it would be great it would help me alot and help me keep up my greek regularly. I am also currently doing VCE modern greek, VCE is basically the two last years of secondary schooling in Victoria, Australia. My ancient greek has considerebly helped my modern greek in many ways...
i havent had much time to keep it up though im only up to chapter 7 or so in pharr things are going very slow which is why the community would be so great to help me keep it up regularly...
To start a Homer learning group we need at least 3 or 4 members. Some prefer Xenophon or just their own schedule and aren't interested in co-operative learning. You can start working on Pharr and post your questions at the present "Speaking Greek" community. Maybe we'll have the chance to start a Homer group later, if more people ask for it. Do not depend on that and postpone your study. Start by yourself.
I've started Pharr's Homeric Greek by myself sometimes (maybe November 2006?) ago; my short term goal is to recite the 1st 52 lines but it seems stucked from 10 lines. One reason is that I don't have the confidence in my pronunciation, but the even bigger obstacle lies on the fact that I am beyond the fast-learning teenage period and stuffed with a lot of working junk. I stopped at lesson 24 a while ago (maybe Feb?).
And I bought the Gavin Bett's TIY Greek too before I engaged with Pharr. I've finished flipping all over that TIY some 2 years ago and I guess they are no better in teaching a beginner than Pharr in my humble opinion.
I did follow a Pharr's Homeric Greek answer key via textkit, though it only gives the translation from Greek to English from lesson 13 onwards (at http://www.greekgeek.org/), maybe George can have a look and tell us whether it's good to follow. It is helpful in the sense of comparing to pinpoint my own mistakes; not surprisingly I did quite badly.
Currently I am working on some phonology project while doing my Master Degree thesis in Chinese Philology. I want to learn the language I thought I knew the most while keep in track the beautiful Hellas' idea. I guess these great cultures must have their reason to influence us from time to time...
I would like to read Homer and have just started in with Pharr's book. I'm finishing the review with chapter 5. I am very lucky to have a tutor to work with, but I also have the limitation of work demands. I'd love to work along with anyone who is interested. I'm trying to cover about a chapter a week, but I may have to slow down as things get more complicated. Also, I'll need to figure out how to get the best fonts for communicating over the internet. It is very inspiring for me to be in contact with other interested readers all over the world (Hello especially to megas yiannakis! I hope you are finding the help you need! )