Greek lessons
Greek (ancient Greek) is a subject that is only taught at grammar schools and universities in Germany , Austria and Switzerland .
Greek lessons in Germany
As a rule, Greek is only offered as a third or fourth foreign language. There are around 200 grammar schools nationwide that offer Greek; 13,000 students took ancient Greek lessons in 2013. The competition from modern foreign languages ( French , Spanish , Italian ) makes it necessary to motivate students to choose this subject.
Knowledge of Greek was still quite rare in the Latin Middle Ages. It was not until the time of humanism that pupils at a Latin school should learn Greek as quickly as possible after Latin, in order to be able to study the New Testament in the original. In the 19th century, Greek became one of the two core subjects of the humanistic grammar school alongside Latin lessons . In the 20th century, and especially after a brief restoration in the Federal Republic of the 1950s, the subject was increasingly pushed out of the grammar school. In Bavaria, in 1958, more high school students learned Greek than French (ratio 16500: 11600). From 1963 to 1969 the number fell nationwide from 55,000 to 45,000 (in view of the increasing number of high school students, this only corresponds to a decrease in the proportion of 6.4: 3.3 percent; around 1900 the number of all high school graduates in Germany was around 12,000) .
In the GDR , the subject was only available at a few special schools .
According to the Federal Statistical Office, 15,900 students in Germany learned Greek in the 2007/08 school year. This number is currently increasing again slightly. Since mostly only schools with an ancient language tradition offer the subject, students who choose Greek usually have previous knowledge of Latin as a first or second foreign language. This is usually a requirement; Sometimes a language sequence such as English-French-Greek is also permitted. In the school laws of most federal states, choosing a third foreign language at the grammar school is voluntary.
(After conversion to still the norm in the nine-year high schools currently at the beginning of the Greek lessons from the 9th grade eight-year high school student, the third foreign language begins in most states in the 8th grade) in the 11th grade Graecumsprüfung store or, if the performance is at least sufficient (5 points), qualify for the Graecum, which is then certified on the Abitur certificate after passing the Abitur examination.
At the beginning of the Greek lessons from the 11th class of students will acquire nor the Graecum at the end of 13th grade without additional testing in some provinces when a Greek- credit course has occupied (C1-course). If he has only taken one basic course (C2 course), he must continue this until the end of level 13 and also take an examination in connection with the Abitur in order to receive the Graecum. The Graecum is required as evidence of the achievement of qualified knowledge of Greek for a number of courses (e.g. theology , classical philology , archeology , ancient history , philosophy ).
The four-year course is usually divided into two parts: In the first two years, the basics of the language in grammar and vocabulary with the help of a textbook (e.g. "Kairos", "Hellas", "Kantharos", "Lexis", "Ars Graeca"; formerly in Bavaria: "Organon") mediated. In the upper level of the grammar school, reading by Greek authors follows. Xenophon (" Anabasis "), Lukian or the New Testament are often used as initial reading . This is followed by reading of more demanding authors such as Herodotus , Plato and Homer , in the most demanding case also Sophocles , Euripides and Thucydides .
20-40 Greek teachers complete their training every year with the 2nd state examination.
Greek lessons in Austria
In Austria, Greek is offered in the upper level of the grammar school , where Latin is taught from the 3rd grade (7th grade ), from the 5th grade as an alternative to the 2nd “living” foreign language.
After the initial lesson in the 5th grade, in the 2nd semester of the 6th grade the New Testament (Biblical Greek) and passages with phenomena of a critical society and texts on the life and fate of Socrates, including the Apology of Plato, the dialogue Phaedo , the dialogue Crito , selected texts from the Apomnemoneumata by Xenophon. In the 7th grade, the Greek epic ( Iliad or Odyssey ) is dealt with and later philosophical texts as the foundation of the thought of the Greeks. Greek tragedy, Greek historiography (historiography) and early Greek poetry are dealt with in the 8th grade.
Greek lessons in Italy
Ancient Greek and Latin are compulsory subjects in the Liceo Classico (comparable to a humanistic grammar school ) in Italy. There are 5 classes per week for Latin and 4 for ancient Greek. The Liceo Classico lasts 5 years. In the 2013/14 school year, 6-7% of Italian students were in a Liceo Classico (10-11% in 2003/04).
See also
literature
- Friedrich August Eckstein : Latin and Greek lessons. Fues, Leipzig 1887.
- Florian Weigel: On Greek school grammar. Vienna 1901. In: Festschrift for the celebration of the bicentenary of the existence of the kk state high school in the 8th district of Vienna . Digitized
- Julius Keyzlar: Theory of translation from Greek: at the same time the basics of a Greek-German style for grammar schools. Vienna 1903. In: LIII. Annual report on the kk Staatsgymnasium in the 8th district of Vienna for the school year 1902/03 . Digitized
- Stefan Kipf : Classical Classes in the Federal Republic of Germany. Historical development, didactic concepts and basic methodological questions from the post-war period to the end of the 20th century , Bamberg 2006 ( ISBN 978-3-7661-5678-5 ).
Web links
- Curriculum for teaching Greek in Austria (PDF; 80 kB)
- Information sheet on teaching Greek in Germany
- Comprehensive collection of material on teaching Greek in Germany
Individual evidence
- ↑ Franziska Bolz: Why learn Latin and ancient Greek at all? welt.de, April 1, 2014, accessed April 1, 2014.
- ^ Kipf: Classical Classes. 2006, p. 30.
- ↑ Curriculum brochure from the Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Culture. (PDF; 619 kB) (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 6, 2007 ; Retrieved April 26, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
