[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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