Oxford Take Off in Greek (Paperback with CDs) [CD-ROM]

This is a new edition of the original Take Off in Greek with some improvements in the explanation of grammar and in the exercises. I own about 10 self-study-type books for learning Greek and this is the best all-around work. There are 4 CDs, more than any other course. The vocabulary of around 900 words is just right for a basic course without overloading the learner. You are going to pick up vocabulary when really using the language so learning the grammatical system is most important at the beginning stage.
There are 14 chapters divided into a total of 5 parts (each of which can be done on its own in 1/2 to 1 hour for those who don't have much time):
- 3 short dialogues each with its own pertinent grammar section and exercises. These are not translated into English; I can assure you that it will not be necessary! Afterwards you are usually given some phrases or vocab. with English FIRST (this is great, so when you go back to review you can test yourself).
- 1 reading covering practical information such as restaurant menus, supermarket ads, concerts, museum signs, etc.;
- and finally 1 dialogue based on conversations and happenings at a kiosk. This is for listening comprehension and is also printed in Greek if you get stuck.
There is no wasted space with translations and especially with those, mostly useless, transliterations. With 4 CDs who needs that?
Each little section has a few written exercises, and also two exercises on the CD, pronunciation and a role play called "your turn" where you are asked to give answers and generate phrases and questions in Greek. This is very important and much more useful for learning than repeating dialogues! It makes you think (creat), not just repeat. This is called meaningful interaction and is the fasted way to really learn a language. In fact the whole book is oriented by the CD's which result in a pleasant learning experience. There is also a track list at the front of the book so that you always know where you are.
The amount of grammar in each chapter is just enough for the dialogues and exercises. There is a small grammar summary at the back if you are in doubt. Each chapter also ends with a written test and oral summary (asking you to say things in Greek). This helps you to evaluate you progress at short intervals and see if you are ready for the next chapter. There are also 4 reviews spaced at larger intervals.
All questions about the dialogues, written exercises, tests and reviews have answers in the key. There is also a full Greek-English vocabulary, a glossary of grammatical terms and topic index at the end. You also get a code for downloading the complete audio part as an mp3 file!

Negative points:
1. like almost all the other self study books it DOES NOT show you how to form the letters for handwriting. See "Communicate in Greek" if you want this, or ask a Greek native to show you.
2. There is no English-Greek vocabulary in the book so get a small dictionary to compensate for this.
3. Like most learn-yourself type books this one tends to fall apart after some use. You might want to get it cut and spiral-bound at a place that does graphics and book binding.

I had worked through just half the book before going to Greece and was able to get along suprisingly well for three weeks, even make reservations at hotels by phone. The book is enjoyable to use and you never get get discouraged along the way. In my opinion it beats the pants off Colloquial Greek and especially Teach Yourelf Greek. This kit has the best balanced combination of listening comprehension, reading, writing and speaking. Highly recommended.

I chose Oxford Greek because they said they focused on both written and spoken. I've heard Pimsleur is very good if you are focusing on only the spoken language, but I wanted to learn to read and write Greek, too.

The product was better than advertised. Not only did it come with CDs, it had a code in it that could be used to download mp3 files for your computer or music player. You can use the sound files exclusively, I suppose, but you'll learn much more if you use it as designed, alternating between the book and the audio.

Personally, I think I would still prefer the old fashioned text-book approach to language, but for this style of learning, the Oxford product was as good as it gets.

I'm working my way through Take Off in Greek. It's an improvement on some other books I've tried and places emphasis on grasping the gist of a listened conversation at first before looking up vocabulary. It gives brief grammatical explanations with each new grammar point and also provides opportunities to improvise in virtual conversations. I think it might start too rapidly for a complete beginner, but if you've had a certain amount of practice with using the alphabet and basic vocabulary, it should work for you.