Day 65 - Getting Out and Speaking
While doing my two-month self-assessment, I noted that one of my biggest areas for improvement was getting out into the community and actually speaking.
So… here I go.
Language Learning Diary
Notes from my journey learning Greek in Athens - what I'm trying, what works, and what I'm learning along the way.
Day 61 - It's All Greek to Me #3
A few days ago we visited **Acrocorinth**, the massive fortress rising above the ancient city of Corinth. Athens has the **Acropolis**. That got me thinking about prefixes. What does _acro_ mean?
Day 59 - Talking to Myself
One of the things I did today was talk to myself.
Day 56 - Using AI to Build a Grammar App
I used Claude to build a custom quiz app to practice Greek cases and article endings.
Day 55 - Comparing AI tools
Today I wanted some help learning a list of verbs, and I have also been wanting to do a comparison of AI tools, so this seemed like the perfect test.
Day 51 - Flashcards and Substitution Drills
One of my activities for today was making flashcards for adjectives. A few days ago I made flashcards for verbs and used them in a way that got me speaking and creating a lot of sentences. So today I wanted to repeat the activity with adjectives.
Day 49 - AI corrects my sentences
Yesterday I tried something new with ChatGPT that was incredibly easy but so helpful.
I asked it to correct my handwritten sentences.
Day 48 - Verb Flashcards and 180 Sentences
Today I made some flashcards for Greek verbs.
The cards contain only Greek — no English translations.
Day 47 - Using Google Translate at Church
One of the challenges of language learning is finding situations where you can hear real speech but still understand enough to follow along.
Last night at church I experimented with a simple tool that helped me do exactly that.
Day 46 - Six Sentences to Break the Silence
One small but meaningful tool in language learning is the practice of memorizing full sentences.
This should not be a large part of your strategy because real fluency means being able to create your own thoughts in the language, not just repeat phrases.
Day 45 - The Duolingo Tournament Rut
This week I slipped into a familiar kind of language-learning rut — the kind that looks productive from the outside but doesn’t actually help very much.
I’ve been using Duolingo for Greek, and if you’ve used the app, you know how skillfully they gamify everything: leagues, levels, bright little fireworks when you win.
Day 37 - How to Divide Your Learning Time
Some weeks language learning goes well. Other weeks real life takes over.
This was one of those weeks.
Day 33 - It's All Greek to Me #2
I love finding words that are easy to learn. Here are some words that **sound similar enough in Greek that English speakers can easily recognize them**.
Day 29 - Reading Signs Around Town
Last week was one of those weeks when life became too busy for normal language study. There was very little time for Bible reading, sessions with my AI chatbot, Duolingo, or any other kind of study.
So I took the opportunity to turn the errands of everyday life into language practice by **reading signs**.
Day 26 - It's All Greek to Me #1
One encouraging thing about learning Greek is discovering words that are easy to learn because they **sound almost the same in English**.
Day 22 - AI Chatbot Quizzes Me — Part 2
I've been having fun with the AI vocabulary quizzes I described in my earlier post.
Day 20 - Using AI to Turn Duolingo Screenshots into a Lesson
Today Duolingo suddenly introduced a large amount of new grammar and vocabulary in one lesson. There was so much that I didn't understand, so I turned to ChatGPT for help.
Day 16 - AI Chatbot Quizzes Me
At the beginning of my language time today I was feeling a bit tired and wanted to do something light and enjoyable, so I asked ChatGPT to quiz me.
Day 12 - Using ChatGPT to Learn a Verse
I've only been learning Greek for about 10 days, so memorizing a long passage of Scripture felt a bit unrealistic.
But I still wanted to try learning part of a verse. So I experimented with something simple: using ChatGPT as a study partner to help me memorize a short Bible verse in Greek.
Day 10 - Reading the Greek Bible on Day 4
On my fourth day of learning Greek, I started reading the Bible.
I understood almost nothing, but that was OK.
Day 5 - GLUE: A Framework for Language Learning
Yesterday I used my first real Greek sentence in the wild.
The sentence was simple:
> “I don’t eat meat.”
I didn’t learn that sentence by accident. I learned it intentionally, using a language-learning framework that has guided me for more than thirty years.
Day 1 - Day 1 of Learning Greek
Today we moved to Athens. After nearly thirty years living in Central Asia, this feels like the beginning of something entirely new.