Teaching Greek

Rodney J. Decker rdecker at bbc.edu
Wed Mar 1 17:57:14 EST 2000


I thought this had gone out before, but I see that it went only to the 
original poster. I'll try again.

At 03:29 PM 3/1/00 +0000, you wrote:
>   How much Greek do you need to learn, to adequately teach the language to
>others? One year,Two years, Three years or more?

Probably a lifetime to do it "adequately"! I suspect that Carl is nearly 
there. Most of us have to make a living, so we're making do with 
less.  :)  I'm closing in on 30 years studying the language, though only 
about 8 of those are "formal study." I wish I had more. I've taught Greek 
formally for about 10 years.

Seriously, it all depends on what you want to accomplish and what academic 
level you're talking about. Beginners (2 or 3 years) teaching beginners is 
liable to result in a lot of mis-teaching. I winch at the thought of most 
students with 3 years of Greek teaching Greek at the college level, even 
first-year. But if we're talking about "hobbyist"--that's probably another 
story. (I don't use that designation to denigrate such study; it's valid so 
long as one realizes the limitations that come with that approach.)

It's not the typical opinion, but I think that the more advanced student of 
the language ought to be the one teaching first year Greek. Laying the 
right foundation is essential to accomplishing much with the language.

Rod



****************************************************
Rodney J. Decker, Th.D.       Baptist Bible Seminary
Assoc. Prof./NT  PO Box 800, Clarks Summit, PA 18411
rdecker at bbc.edu      http://faculty.bbc.edu/rdecker/
The *Resources for NT Study* site is accessible at:
http://faculty.bbc.edu/rdecker/rd_rsrc.htm
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