[B-Greek] Learning Greek, Experiences, and Thoughts
R Yochanan Bitan Buth
ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il
Wed Mar 2 14:16:16 EST 2005
Shalom Amos,
Thank you for sharing your experiences. I admire your creativity and
energy to find solutions. You are on the trail of what is called
listening comprehension in second language acquisition theory. In
short, that is good. Responses to your email have mentioned other
items like left-brain/right brain which is also true. Languages,
fully and properly learned, are learned on and with both sides of the
brain. The most difficult thing about language learning is that it
often takes place outside the framework of what we think is taking
place. A language is a tool for communication and when focusing on
that communication item we are usually unconscious of the apparatus
(the language) that makes that communication possible.
In general, listening comprehension requires tracking material where
you are understanding most but not everything of what you are hearing.
In live situations, correction is possible from dialogue partners when
mis-communication is detected, e.g., what did you say? Did you mean
a-b-c, etc? this is not possible alone, though your idea of putting
up an english translation is quite good. Many 2nd language English
speakers overseas do something similar: they watch and listen to a
movie, while seeing subscripts in their national language. This works
quite well, as long as the english movies are not dubbed into the
local language, too. And works best when they reach a level of
following much of the material without subscripts.
Ah, so now what for ancient Greek? I contacted the Jesus film folk
several years ago for doing a Koine Greek version. Unfortunately, we
havent found the $50,000 it would take to edit, record and process
the Koine Greek edition. [Donations accepted. :-) that is
tongue-in-cheek because it will be a long time before funds would be
gathered, and possibly more before good actors/voices would be able to
produce natural sounding Greek at movie quality. There is another
probablem in needing to match the syllables and edited script to the
syllables of the video. With modern languages one simply edits and
finds words that will fit. With the NT text, how much editing would be
tolerated to fit the video mouthings?]
On vocabulary, most second language acquisition theorists would
probably recommend hearing vocab in context rather than in lists, but
that is what you have available. Use until you find something better.
(Or do more of your scripture listening.) It seems that brains have an
adiaphora filter that tends to flush material tacked on to
English/mothertongue glosses, but I know from personal experience that
massive overriding of that filter is possible (but painful or
inefficient at best). Lists are generally more efficient for quick,
wide, review than new learning.
Erics suggestion to try the Zodhiates CDs should be given serious
consideration. I would Amen that and sometimes I listen to them
myself. In all cases, when using listening comprehension approaches,
you are faced with the question of what you want to sound like when
finished. It would be against list nettiquette to repeat what some
Greeks have said about what you are listening to. (short translation:
its not Greek). I did listen to some of the songs on one of the
links. It was fun to listen to, but I would use with caution (actually
I wouldnt use). ah is not a correct sound for o (ah is a long
alpha) (ei was [i] in Hellenistic and Roman, etc.), and most of the
tunes cut against the accent too sharply to be pleasing. An occasional
syncopated word adds some spice, but when the tunes stomp all over the
accented (high-toned) syllables and hold the unaccented syllables
long, it may cross into the boundary of kakophonic for some. BUT the
idea is WONDERFUL. Again, if investing time in audio learning, a more
basic question may become, do I want to learn Pauls language and
Lukes language? or would I be happy to learn something that they
probably couldnt understand and conflicts with manuscript history?
You neednt worry, though, at this stage.
Fluency, listening or speaking, is a long road and you may have more
time than you you realize toward reaching that goal. You will have
ample chance to change *FI-LE-W into a real Hellenistic word like
FI-LEIN [fi-lín] or FI-LW or FI-LH-SAI [fi-lE-se], when/should you
decide to go Hellenistic. I would be curious to know if you are able
to understand or follow 1John1 at www.biblicalulpan.org
<http://www.biblicalulpan.org/> courses greek materials,
scrolling down over material descriptions to notes on Koine Greek
pronunciation system [PDF available] with the free MP3 download.
ERRWSO
Randall Buth, PhD
Director, Biblical Language Center
www.biblicalulpan.org
and Director, Biblical Studies in Israel
Hebrew University, Rothberg International School
ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il
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