[B-Greek] Re: English Grammar as a Prerequisite to Learning Greek?
jvonkodar at hds.harvard.edu
jvonkodar at hds.harvard.edu
Thu Dec 11 20:54:20 EST 2003
There are many fine books on Greek Syntax that do explain both Greek and English grammatical constructions with excellent examples. The key of course is patience and a willingness to learn.
Jonathan,
Harvard Divinity School
----- Original Message -----
From: LIKELUKE <likeluke at bg8.so-net.ne.jp>
Date: Thursday, December 11, 2003 8:41 pm
Subject: [B-Greek] Re: English Grammar as a Prerequisite to Learning Greek?
> Maurice
>
>
> Thank you very much for your quick response.
>
> | I would be the first to categorise it as an exasperated cry <g>
> from a
> | generation whose schooling included parsing of English prose as
> a standard
> | part of English classes and whose university insisted that my
> matriculation
> | subjects include Latin before I could enter the engineering school.
>
> I understand what you mean, though I cannot imagine how you were
> parsingEnglish! A parallel argument or even regret is often heard
> in Japan, too,
> with regard to Chinese classics education, which is regarded as
> parallelto Greek or Latin in the West.
>
> I myself belong to a generation in the middle. As I learned
> English as
> something that was not useful to my daily communication, I had to
> do it
> all over afresh when I learned speaking and writing in it. Yet, the
> grammar/translation-oriented English that I had learned at school
> provided me with a very good help when I started learning Greek and
> Latin. The way I learned English had made me a good frame of reference
> in tackling those classical languages.
>
> And I am now teaching Greek, crying for the students' lack of that
> frame of reference. My relief, however, is that, since I was an
> English/Japanese teacher/translator with a formal linguistic
> training, I can
> enjoy teaching even English (a bit of fake one), translation
> techniques,and linguistic points of view to my students with a lot
> of delight.
>
> Thank you also for the inspiring article that you quoted on-line and
> sent to me off-line. I really enjoyed reading it. I subscribe to
> some of
> the mailing-lists on Latin as well, and, honestly speaking, I
> sometimesfeel envious of such a world that you are taught these
> classicallanguages at the high-school level or even a lower one.
> You learn them at
> a high school as typical educated Westerners while we learn,
> again, 20,000
> Chinese characters as typical educated Japanese . . .
>
> Well, let us keep enjoying learning this beautiful Greek language!
>
>
> ==========
> Hirokatsu Yoshihara <likeluke at bg8.so-net.ne.jp>
> Asia Pacific Theological Seminary, Baguio City, Philippines
> December 12, 2003 (Fri) 05:47 +0800
>
>
>
>
>
> ----------------------- Original Message -----------------------
> From: "Maurice A. O'Sullivan" <mauros at iol.ie>
> To: Hirokatsu Yoshihara <likeluke at bg8.so-net.ne.jp>
> Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 18:46:25 +0000
> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] English Grammar as a Prerequisite to
> Learning Greek?
> ----
>
> | At 15:23 11/12/2003, Hirokatsu Yoshihara wrote:
> |
> | >Maurice
> | >
> | >
> | >Speaking from my experiences of 1) traning Japanese people who
> wanted to
> | >be teachers of the Japanese language as the second language, 2)
> working| >together with English teachers who were teaching in
> Japan with the only
> | >qualification that they were native speakers, and 3) myself, a
> native| >Japanese speaker, having been formally trained as a
> linguist specialized
> | >in my own mother tongue, it always seems quite difficult for a
> native| >speaker to be well trained in analyzing his/her own
> native language
> | >UNLESS one has had a good quality of education on it at any
> level from
> | >elementary to college.
> |
> | Thank you for your courteous and well-reasoned response to what
> you (
> | flatteringly ) term my "thesis.
>
> <snip>
>
> --------------------- Original Message Ends --------------------
>
> ---
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