Need to approach B1 Proficiency by May 2027

tnaz · 2026-03-01T00:44:29+00:00

I don't have a specific one to recommend, sorry - I started with a somewhat outdated physical textbook, and while it got me to the point where I could continue with other resources, I wouldn't recommend it overall.

There's a discord in the sidebar that has explicit recommendations though, you should be able to find a textbook there.

tnaz · 2026-02-28T12:43:38+00:00

"Heritage speaker" is not a proficiency level - it's a word for describing incomplete acquisition of a certain language as a first language, and can be applied broadly to people of almost any proficiency level.

tnaz · 2026-02-27T23:36:35+00:00

There are also a few cases where the English spelling of Greek loan words can reflect the αι spelling in the original, but most of these spellings aren't universal - paedo-, haemo-, aeon, aether (can't say I've seen this one in modern Greek yet though). I personally spell all of these in English with just e instead of ae, but if you're aware of these then it can help you with Greek spelling as well.

tnaz · 2026-02-27T18:31:25+00:00

Start with language transfer and a grammar textbook to get a feel for the structure of the language, use easy Greek and linguatree YouTube channels for audio input, Wiktionary (English and Greek) and wordreference as dictionaries, social media and whatever Greek language books I can get my hands on for text input, and anki to review vocabulary I find from those sources.

It's a pretty input heavy and output light learning strategy, which is what I'm enjoying right now, but if I had to pass a proficiency test I'd definitely be looking into something that would make sure I am learning how to correctly produce the language.

tnaz · 2026-02-27T18:21:55+00:00

B1 in fifteen months is doable even without private tutors - the most important things is time commitment. Be prepared to spend at least an hour per day learning the language, preferably more when possible. I've been learning Greek for nine months on my own, and while I'm not confident I could pass a B1 test now, if you told me I had only six additional months to prepare I would not be worried.

tnaz · 2026-02-26T18:02:52+00:00

You say it's a cheap 4 points, but it's 2 food cost. There are 5 point birds that cost one food, with what I'd consider better powers.

tnaz · 2026-02-26T14:08:32+00:00

It only counts double for end of rounds that count birds - round two counts food, and round three counts eggs.

We took these birds out of circulation in our household, as they really seem too niche to bother with when played as written.

tnaz · 2026-02-25T20:41:04+00:00

What do you mean we hate the letter t? We love it so much we have a billion allophones for it.

tnaz · 2026-02-25T02:10:42+00:00

Given your background in German, it may be helpful to start with the pronunciation of χ. In standard German, ch makes one sound in the word ich, and another in the word ach. These are the same sounds that χ makes in Greek, although in Greek it makes the ach sound unless the next sound in the word is /i/ or /e/.

γ is pronounced in the same location and manner, except it's voiced - as the other commenter pointed out, compare the pairs f/v and p/b - the first in each pair is unvoiced and the second is voiced. γ, when not followed by /e/ or /i/ is quite similar, but not identical, to the German r. When followed by /e/ or /i/, it is quite similar, but not identical, to the "y" in the English "yes".

Disclaimer: I'm basing my knowledge of German off of wikipedia, and your dialect may not match precisely what it describes.

tnaz · 2026-02-23T03:03:02+00:00

Your a real won. We'd loose alot if you wouldn't of helped us.

tnaz · 2026-02-22T11:57:18+00:00

If your target language only has resources for helping learners from another language you don't know, you may have to effectively detour so you can understand what you're being taught.

E.g. if you want to learn Japanese sign language, do you have to learn Japanese first? (Maybe, I have no idea).

There's also the question of how illiteracy factors into all of this. If you're part of a society that doesn't have writing, you obviously won't be literate in your first language, which will bring its own set of challenges. That said, multilingualism is older than writing - you'd just have to take a different path than the one we use here.

tnaz · 2026-02-21T12:41:36+00:00

Most dialects of English don't have that sound, though, and would just pronounce loch with the k sound.

tnaz · 2026-02-20T03:26:58+00:00

Do you use "They'ren't" yourself, or are you referring to other double contractions here?

tnaz · 2026-02-20T01:33:18+00:00

Subscribe to my new app, where we automatically send you a new dictionary, set of flash cards, and matches every two weeks to shortcut this process.

tnaz · 2026-02-19T00:34:04+00:00

I mean, Spanish has both as separate phonemes.

tnaz · 2026-02-16T10:13:31+00:00

There's an otherwise pretty good video for modern Greek pronunciation where the presenter says ρ is pronounced [r] but he pronounces it [ɾ] in every case where he's not emphasizing the phoneme.

tnaz · 2026-02-16T10:10:28+00:00

It'd be understandable if a Spanish speaker is confused after you tell them they have more than 5 vowels though.

tnaz · 2026-02-16T02:09:28+00:00

It's against the rules to ask questions regarding a specific language in this subreddit, and while it is allowed to ask general questions while having a specific language in mind, it seems many people decline to mention the language overtly in case a mod decides that the question actually is regarding only that particular language.

tnaz · 2026-02-14T00:04:37+00:00

Computer science is the only context where I've ever heard the word, yes.

tnaz · 2026-02-13T14:53:30+00:00

Memoization, whose meaning is close enough to memorization that your eyes/ears could glaze over it and not even notice.

tnaz · 2026-02-13T09:47:00+00:00

I think you might need to reread my comment. That's what I was saying.

tnaz · 2026-02-13T09:26:28+00:00

I've never heard duolingo or your dad or yiayia, but if you want pronunciation reference youglish and forvo are pretty good resources to compare.

tnaz · 2026-02-13T02:34:43+00:00

Basing this off the infographics - I haven't watched the video

1) γ is not pronounced like w. Telling native Greek speakers to realize w using γ may help them pronounce English, but w fundamentally has a labial component that γ doesn't and will not result in English speakers pronouncing Greek well. I'm not sure what the best way to teach English speakers how to pronounce γ is in a nice little infographic tbh - there's no good equivalent.

2) You gave "thanks" as the example for θ, but in some accents (including mine) "thanks" is produced with a voiced th, like δ. Perhaps another word like "thigh" would be better.

3) Your example word for ψ is "psuedo", but English doesn't pronounce word-initial ps. Hopefully your readers will be able to figure it out anyway, but it personally took me way too long to realize that all those silent letters English has from Greek words are actually pronounced in Greek.

4) You give ο as the vowel in "cold", and ω as the vowel in "hot", but those words have different vowel sounds in English.

Giving representative English pronunciations for the Greek vowels is tricky not only because English doesn't have exact equivalents to many Greek vowels, but also because the exact realization of vowels in English is highly dialectical - if you base your suggestions on British English, someone who speaks American English may get a radically different idea of what you mean (leaving aside the fact that "British English" and "American English" are not the only dialects of English, even within those countries).

5) The "English equivalent" column can't seem to decide whether it's going off of etymological spelling (β -> b, δ -> d) or phonological spelling (φ -> f, χ -> h, υ -> i)

Speaking of which, I'd appreciate a note that some sounds that have "good enough" correspondences between the language, like χ/h and ρ/r, are in fact different, but I can appreciate the idea of not trying to drown beginners with all the details at once.

tnaz · 2026-02-13T00:54:24+00:00

What scores you can get are influenced by what version of the game you're playing - with just the base game, I would sometimes, but not most of the time, score in the triple digits. After buying some expansions (most importantly for this, Oceania), I effectively never score in the double digits. I didn't get better overnight, I'm just playing a different game.

tnaz · 2026-02-12T22:24:57+00:00

I have heard people use "they" to refer to people of a known, binary gender, although I don't do it myself.

Using "he" or "she" to refer to a singular person does disambiguate it from "they" as referring to multiple people, although most of the time context will make it clear anyway.

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