[B-Greek] Learning Greek (back to basics)

Randall Buth randallbuth at gmail.com
Sat Jul 19 14:00:52 EDT 2008


>I went through Rosetta Stone Modern Greek CD 1 and 2.
If I was allowed to READ the word/phrase/sentence, I was 90% likely to get it.
If I LISTENED only, I got it about 3% (including guesses!). I could not
understand the most basic words in Greek by just listening. >

shalom Mitch,

I'm not sure that you are using the course correctly.
If this were computers, I would say that you might need to reinstall the
system, because computers are actually a good thing.

There are several possibilities.
It is possible that some of this may be false expectations based on an
adult grasp of English or expectations of previous written Greek.
Or you may have jumped ahead of some basic material
too fast.
Or you may have an audio/picture/script mismatch.
Hopefully, you have all of the correct pieces of the course, playing at
the right time.
Your 3% level sounds like some audio tracks are not lined up with
the material. I haven't seen the Rosetta Stone for modern Greek, so
I can't say much more, but I've never heard of a 3% level of
comprehension with correctly functioning material from any modern
language program. Like with computers, this could lead to a
'hit any key when ready' feeling. [Background: there was a cartoon
'back in the days', of a duck with a sledghammer, ready to smash
a computer that was doing the usual (reporting a problem, but not
reporting how to solve it), and then providing the phrase, 'hit any
key when ready' in order to continue.]

Our own "Living Koine Greek Part One" specifically avoids all written texts
while the ears/eyes/brain are being trained (or re-trained in the case of
those who have already started with a reading approach to the language).
thus, a person does not read their way into a level that is not right for them.
They must start at the beginning, must listen, and must understand. It's
actually fun and more like a game.
Adults (post 12 years old) often need to relearn what it is to start to think
with a new language, without English/mothertongue. We expect
fluctuating 60-100% comprehension during the learning modules.
Repetition of 100 picture listening sequences usually needs 5-10 times
in order to solidify all of the new structures or vocab.

Language learning can feel like it is at right angles to what might be
expected from "learning", because language acquisition usually takes
place when the language itself is not the target of the learning but is the
means of the learning. Language is the conduit of meaning and
communication, and only in a secondary, somewhat artificial sense does
it become the target itself.
Yes, I realize that a learner has the language as a target, but a language
is a very flexible thing and quite difficult to stick into one's head in the
right place when it is being manipulated from 'outside'.
Focusing on 'referential meaning' (e.g., picture of a man laughing+plus
chuckle sounds) while hearing/using the language/code to track/access
that meaning is what the brain is pre-programmed to do (o anhr gela).
And someone shouldn't expect to hear or understand the pieces until
first being to recognizing anhr by sound and picture.

Hope this helps,

Randall Buth

-- 
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicalulpan.org
randallbuth at gmail.com
Biblical Language Center
Learn Easily - Progress Further - Remember for Life



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