[B-Greek] Rules for reading Latin perhaps applicable to Greek

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat Mar 3 06:32:30 EST 2007


I've just come across a downloadable PDF poster entitled "Rules for  
Reading Latin Prose" from _Latin: How to Read it Fluently_ by Dexter  
B. Hoyos. The poster can be downloaded at http://www.txclassics.org/ 
rulesposter.pdf , the book itself ( 58 p.)  is available for $7.00 at  
http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~glawall/cane.htm (scroll down to the  
section entitled "Pedagogy."

I haven't read it, but judging from the "Rules" set forth on that PDF  
poster, I would guess that this might be an inexpensive and useful  
resource for students of Greek: most of the principles would be the  
same, I think.

I'm not trying to promote the book so much as one theme that it  
evidently states very clearly. I particularly approve of Rule #5: “If  
translating, translate only when you have seen exactly how the  
sentence works and what it means. Sub-rule: Do not translate in order  
to find out what the sentence means. Understand first, then  
translate.” It is abundantly evident that much of the teaching of  
Ancient Greek -- perhaps especially the teaching of Biblical Greek --  
has focused on translating MORe than on understanding, perhaps on  
translating RATHER THAN on understanding. So also the resources  
employed -- grammars, word-lists or "shorter lexica" seem focused  
upon the reformulation of a Biblical text in English (not necessarily  
intelligible English) -- or some other target language.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/





More information about the B-Greek mailing list