[B-Greek] Learning Greek

George F Somsel gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Wed Jun 13 20:11:07 EDT 2007


By all means get an intermediate grammar -- then put it on the shelf and pick up your GNT and begin reading.  Something you don't fully understand?  That's OK -- keep going.  Set aside time each day to read and only consult the grammar if there is something that really confuses you to the point where it makes no sense.  Try gradually increasing the amount you read each day.  Hopefully that means that you are reading more rapidly rather than taking more time to read.  Regularity will function to improve your reading.  If you read for 4 hrs once a week, that won't be as valuable as reading 1/2 hr each day.
 
george
gfsomsel
 
Therefore, O faithful Christian, search for truth, hear truth, 
learn truth, love truth, speak the truth, hold the truth, 
defend the truth till death.
 
- Jan Hus
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----- Original Message ----
From: Andy Kaylor <andy_kaylor at yahoo.com>
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 7:18:53 PM
Subject: [B-Greek] Learning Greek


A lot of discussion goes on here at the b-greek list about the process of learning Greek.  Listening in on this discussion is one of the reasons I continue to subscribe to the list.  It's quite fascinating.

However, as a beginning student, I'm not always certain what to make of it.  Let me explain that I am a layman who has undertaken to learn Greek on my own.  Unlike many students of Greek, I have no particular timetable for when my learning must be complete or when I must have progressed to a certain point, and I have no course of study imposed upon me.  My goal is not exegesis per se but simply to be able to read the Greek New Testament, and ideally other ancient Greek texts as well.

I have been trying to learn Greek for about a year and a half.  I worked through William Mounce's "Basics of Biblical Greek" including the workbook exercises.  I've been memorizing basic correspondances for vocabulary using both flash card software and Jonathan Pennington's "New Testament Greek Vocabulary" audio CD.  I've been reading (in the weakest sense of the word, "pronouncing" might be a better description) a Greek New Testament.  And recently I've been working through the "Summer Greek Reader" published by Zondervan.

Now with that background and having followed several discussions about immersion versus learning Greek according to English, I'm sure neither that I've gone the best way I could so far nor how I may best proceed.  I gather from the various discussions that perhaps the practice of rendering simple Greek texts into English may not be seen as the best way to go.  I know enough grammar to plod through simple texts but a lot of constructions still leave me confused.

So, short of spending hours around people who are speaking Koine Greek, what's the best way to proceed?  Should I proceed to an intermediate grammar, and if so which one?  Or would something else be more beneficial?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me.

-Andy Kaylor
Beaverton, Oregon


       
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