[B-Greek] Difficulties of Learning Greek

Kevin Riley klriley at alphalink.com.au
Mon Oct 30 18:09:19 EST 2006


 The way Greek works is very similar to the way many other languages work -
including moving accents, pronouncing compound words differently to the
individual words which make it up, and changes in spelling and pronunciation
  In fact, the same complaints can be made about English.  Whether or not
these things cause you problems, that is the way Greek is, so you have to
find a way to learn it and then you will find they don't bother you.  Greek
could be taught better - or at least differently - but I suspect that no
matter how it is taught, a significant number of students will find that
they would learn better if a different method was used.  A sad truth about
education is that there is no one way that works well for everyone.
 
Kevin Riley
 
-------Original Message------- 
 
From: Amos Bender 
Date: 31/10/2006 6:28:18 AM 
 
Difficulties of Learning Koine Greek, 
 
Although the following might sound sort of wild, just think about it and see
what you think. I believe one very big reason Koine Greek is so difficult to
learn is because there is no solid and good pronunciation for it. I am even
afraid some markings about the Greek text, and some rules of Greek
pronunciation are not appropriate, and actually distort and destroy the real
pronunciation. 
 
I believe today's pronunciation of Greek is very improper, since accent
marks are not consistent on the different forms of the same word. Rather
when a particular Greek word has a different form or ending, the accent
often is moved to a different syllable of the word making the word largely
sound like a totally different word. 
 
I believe today's pronunciation of Greek is also very improper, because
compound words are not sufficiently pronounced as the individual words in
the compond word, but rather the words are blended together in a way that
makes a totally new and very rare Greek word, while one cannot even hear the
actual small words within the compound word as it is spoken! 
 
I have also noticed some places where the ruff breathing marks quite
obviously are not consistent and correct, and which also messes up the
pronunciation. 
 
Another difficult issue about Greek is that some words seem to be spelled
differently at different places, making one wonder whether in old times the
word was pronounced the same, even when spelled differently, or if it was
also pronounced in different ways. 
 
I believe another reason learning Koine Greek is so difficult is because
much of the Koine Greek education system focuses on very technical and
complicated grammar, rather than a hands on and real life experience with
the words and language. I believe more emphasis needs to be placed on
learning Greek root words and the many related forms of the word. More
emphasis also needs to be placed in showing the relation between the Greek
words and the English. In learning a language one obviously must get very
familiar with the words and the various ways they are used. Language largely
must become subconscious. Too much technical grammar can distract one from
really learning the language. The following was written by someone
struggling with very technical grammar; 
 
Hi guys 
"I started on verbs, Mounce holds off verbs until you get the noun system
down, 15 chapters in he starts the Verbs. I am at chapter 21 and I'm getting
punch drunk, excuse the pun 
It's like I never heard of these words before this and I'm getting blasted
with words like mood voice, aspect, person, middle. Then on to Present
active, present passive, present middle, future active, future middle,
deponents, Verbal roots, future middle, liquid future active, liquid future
middle, imperfect active, imperfect middle passive. 
Next week Aorist active and aorist middle. Wow that was a mouth full. Please
tell me it will sink in! Or some pointers wouldn't be too bad at this point.
 End of quote. 
 
I believe two of the most powerful and useful tools to learn Greek would be,
having a recording where a person reads a short phrase of the Bible in
English and then in Greek (while also at the same time having the Greek text
appearing on a screen). This would be sort of like listening to a Greek
speaker, with an interpreter. The second useful tool would be to take well
known songs and insert appropriate Greek words in them instead of the
English, so one could largely know what the Greek words mean because of the
melody of the song. Yet neither of these two tools have really been
developed as yet (although the one tool is being worked on). Yet both of
these tools will need a good pronunciation. 
 
Yet even with all the difficulties about Koine Greek, I day by day am
learning to read and understand it. I can read many Scriptures in the
Septuagint quite easily, as well as in the New Testament. Yet there are
still verses that are very difficult for me. 
 
God Bless 
Amos Bender 
--- 
B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek 
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B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org 
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek 
 
 
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