[B-Greek] Re: Need Some Encouragement
Cal and Heather Redmond
redmond at iglou.com
Thu Sep 23 18:08:24 EDT 2004
I remember the feeling well, and have seen it in the faces of my
students at times.
I suggest you try to "organize" the different terms, so that you know
what is possible and what is not possible. In column 1, you would have
tense, with choices like present, future, imperfect, aorist, perfect,
and pluperfect. In column 2, you have "voice," and the possibilities are
active, middle, passive, or the combination middle-passive (as in the
present tense). In column 3, you have "mood," and here you have
indicative, imperative, subjunctive, or optative. (When you start
parsing participles and infinitives, for convenience they can go in this
column, although they are not truly "moods,")
The other encouragement I always give to my students is that I believe
there is a gap between comprehension and confident mastery. You might
be able to exercises successfully on, say, Aorist Active Indicative, but
only really feel you understand it a few days later. Expect this gap,
and as long as you keep learning, the gap should stay only at about 3
days. It is normal to feel lost on the newest material.
I hope this helps!
Dr. Cal Redmond
The International School of Theology-Asia
Manila, The Philippines
(In US at present)
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