[B-Greek] Difficulties of Learning Greek

Win & Erinn Vahlkamp wevahlkamp at houston.rr.com
Tue Oct 31 21:47:40 EST 2006


I highly recommend the Greek New Testament readings and vocabulary readings
by Jonathan T. Pennington. They've been very helpful to me.

http://www.amazon.com/Testament-Greek-Vocabulary-Jonathan-Pennington/dp/0310
243823/sr=8-2/qid=1162349194/ref=pd_bbs_2/103-6598765-8508637?ie=UTF8&s=book
s

http://www.amazon.com/Readings-Greek-New-Testament-Audio/dp/0310253225/ref=p
d_bxgy_b_img_b/103-6598765-8508637

-Win

-----Original Message-----
From: Webb Sprague [mailto:webb.sprague at gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, October 30, 2006 1:35 PM
Cc: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Difficulties of Learning Greek

I wonder if Macintosh computers can read Greek just like they do English
(though I am sure it would sound quite strange...)

On 10/30/06, Amos Bender <bendersa at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>
>
> Amos Bender
> bendersa at earthlink.net
> EarthLink Revolves Around You.
>
> 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 B-Greek mailing list 
> B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org 
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
>


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