[B-Greek] Caragounis' book

Barry Hofstetter nebarry at verizon.net
Sun Nov 28 07:49:28 EST 2004


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dr. Don Wilkins" <drdwilkins at sbcglobal.net>
To: "Barry Hofstetter" <nebarry at verizon.net>
Cc: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 27, 2004 3:49 PM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Caragounis' book


> I had a similar experience in which one of my classmates was a native Greek, 
> and the teacher (Peter Colaclides) was known for his familiarity with all 
> stages of the language. He and this student would sometimes carry on brief 
> conversations in modern Greek, so I couldn't really tell whether modern Greek 
> was more of a help than a hindrance. Also, at times it seemed that the 
> professor was spending much more time than necessary over a construction, but 
> that may just be due to the fact that he savored the language.
> As a teacher (this is a favorite story), I once had a student from Greece who 
> had come to the states to learn classical Greek because (according to him) it 
> wasn't being taught at university in Greece anymore. I frequently asked him 
> for comparisons between Attic and modern, but I don't remember his answers as 
> being enlightening; then again, he was not a particularly good student.

We had several students that did this when I was an undergrad.  One young lady 
was quite good -- she had been in the "classical" track before university, and 
had read quite a bit of ancient Greek.  She was scandalized to see the word 
PORNH in the NT, though!

Another student would just simply argue with the professor all the time.  It was 
clear that his knowledge of ancient Greek was not that good -- he would make 
some pretty elementary mistakes, but he would always argue with the professor 
(who happened to have his Ph.D. in Classics from Amherst).  I learned as much 
about patience and teaching difficult students as I did the particular Greek 
author we were reading in that class that semester...  :)

N.E. Barry Hofstetter
Adjunct Faculty, The Center for Urban Theological Studies
         Philadelphia, PA
http://www.cuts.edu
Adjunct Faculty, Reformed Theological Seminary
         Washington, D.C.
http://www.rts.edu/campuses/washington_dc/index.cfm

And me:
http://mysite.verizon.net/nebarry/

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