Ellka mou..., February 9, 2001
Reviewer: A reader
Riding on the waves of inspiration and dreams of Kefalloni? I purchased the book and tape set. Like other reviewers, I found that the conversations are recorded by native speakers who run their words together; this is helpful, as it gives a true-to-life pronunciation of the speakers a foreigner would encounter. I also found it helpful that the language is printed in arabic and the Greek alphabet is introduced slowly. I strongly recommend for those in pursuit of a grammatical exactitude, a supplementary grammatical text. On the whole, this text and its tapes are truly excellent...and a bargain!

Don't buy just this book, January 3, 2000

This course focuses on developing conversational skills. The most valuable part of this course is that most of the dialogues you listen to are recordings from the streets of Greece. Most courses use studio recorded audio to teach you a language and this method does not realistically reflect how native Greek speakers truncate words, run words together, do not enunciate every word and speak fairly quickly. Listening to these dialogues will give you a more realistic idea of how people will speak when you reach Greece.

Because the book is conversation oriented, they do not emphasize the alphabet and you should buy another book to help you practice your reading skills.

One chapter (out of 15) focuses on the future tense and one on the past tense. This short introduction will not adequately prepare you to fluently use the future and past tense, but will at least expose you to the underlying concepts.

Points of grammar are introduced when they occur in a conversation and you must use the book for the explanation of grammar points.

Bottom line: Use another book, such as the Teach Yourself Greek or the Colloquial Greek (with audio) if your goal is fluency in the language. Get another course such as Greek in 7 Days (same publisher - passport books) to give you a conversational course where the audio is slow and controlled. Use this book either in conjunction with the Greek in 7 Days or afterwards if you are having trouble understanding Greek when it is spoken to you. This is where the strength of this book lies: getting you used to hearing Greek spoken outside a studio.

Far superior to FSI or Berlitz to teach understandable Greek, February 8, 1999

Kalimera! I purchased the Just Listen 'n Learn Greek with two tapes and a book. After studying through with the Passport Books program I have a great handle on Greek. In fact, my Greek associate understands EVERY phrase I speak to him in Greek. At 54 years of age I was skeptical about effectively learning a new language. The Passport Book system is outstanding for ALL ages! (I also just purchased a LANGUAGE/30 Revised & Expanded Edition Greek program and it is BY FAR inferior. If I would have chosen this program first I would have undoubtedly failed at my attempts to learn the Greek language.) Now, however, I am returning to the Passport Books program and will master the language as far as these tapes and book will take me. You MUST continue on ... and I would love to see an advanced or continued program to follow the Just Listen 'n Learn Greek Basic Course to Succeeding in Greek and Communicating with Confidence. Congratulations on a job fabulously done. AND, for Amazon.com ... it would behoove you to HIGHLY RECOMMEND this program to folks that inquire about the most effective resource for getting a handle on the Greek language as spoken by the people,quickly. I WISH I would have had that information before. With the confusion in government it is no wonder they recommend other systems to teach a language that are a COMPLETE waste of money and certainly time! To Brian Hill and to Amazon.com I say, "Efharisto poli!"

With esprit de corps,

Sandra Lee Koch CFO, PR & Marketing Western Shipping Management 120 El Camino Drive Beverly Hills, CA 90212