[B-Greek] Practical Help in internalizing Greek
Randall Buth
randallbuth at gmail.com
Thu Mar 13 07:50:03 EDT 2008
The subject line "Practical Help in internalizing Greek" was changed
from "Understanding? Greek?"
John Sanders PROSEQHKE KALA STOIXEIA ENIA:
> I apologize to those who have written me asking for the nuts and bolts of
achieving fluency in Hellenistic Greek, . . .
> The basic unit of language is the sentence or phrase, and these sentences
and phrases are constructed on a few simple patterns. Fluency is to become
adept at using these patterns flexibly. ...
[RB]: Greek may have more than 'a few simple patterns'.
But let's not get bogged down in details.
> Given that as the basis of my understanding of learning languages, one
needs
to follow a program that will drill you in the use of patterns and
acquisition of vocabulary.
> I prefer using oral language as the primary learning object at the
beginning, using visual language as a secondary object in learning. But I
do use both together.
[RB] I can't disagree with this ! ! Besides our summer SXOLH, we also have
recorded materials geared to this very thing, Living Koine Greek Part One
and Part 2a and 2b. (disclaimer: I am connected to these, and they cost
more than paper productions.)
> In learning Biblical Greek, I have gone through the GNT and culled those
units of conversation, especially when there is some dialogue involved, but
even one liners are adequate; and I use those as a basis for memorization.
For
instance, in the first chapter of John, where Jesus tells the paralytic to
extend his hand, I memorize that phrase. I then play act it myself. It
would be better if you have someone you can work with; a small group is
better yet.
[RB] Still on target.
> Immersion is useful, but it is not a miracle worker. There are individuals
here in China who are immersed 24 hours a day, and have been here for years
on end and who still cannot speak Chinese in any meaningful way. Immersion
still requires you to make an effort.
[RB] I've lived in international settings for thirty+ years and I have seen
the
phenomenon that I think John is referring to. However,
this may be a case of mixing 'apples with oranges'.
SLA Second Language Acquisition studies can be boiled down to two,
major, encompassing principles:
(1) comprehensible input. A student must have a flood of
COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT in the language being learned.
'Immersion in a society' for foreign adults with pressing responsibilities
may not provide much comprehensible input at all.
(2) Meaningful LANGUAGE USE.
A learner must use a language in order to internalize the language. This is
the 'no brainer' that is systematically ignored in traditional approaches to
ancient Greek. Talking about Greek or Chinese in English will never make
that happen.
If 'immersion' implies those two principles, then they will learn the
language.
However, many people live in international situations without getting a real
'immersion' learning experience. Ironic, but true. Even when the persons
may want to learn the surrounding language.
> If I were going to develop a good program for learning Greek (classical or
Hellenistic), I would go somewhere in Greece where they have a group of
people still speaking some form of Attic Greek on a daily basis (you know,
the stuff that is not Demotic).
[RB] Is Shangri-la in China?
Anyway, 'ou-topia' is not in Greece, despite a Greek etymology.
When people read things like 'this island preserves an ancient dialect of
Greek'
that is 'urban legend'. There will be vocabulary and idiom, maybe a
phonological quirk that preserves features not found broadly in modern
Greek.
But it will still be a dialect without a morphological future, without a
dative,
without an infinitive, without long and short vowels, etc. Just a rustic
modern
dialect. The levelling took place a millenium ago, and Kathereuousa was only
a modern half-way house at best/worst. Some friends will be in KWS with me
tooling up for our summer, two weeks at the end of May. Not so much for the
local language, actually avoiding modern Greek this time, as for isolation
from other concerns. And a few of the locals are willing to put up with what
may seem a PAIDIA'.
> I will differ with Iver, Classical Greek is
not a different language than Koine Greek. Learning a formal way of
speaking does not inhibit an individual from acquiring colloquial
competence.
[RB] Amen, I think. I can't believe that Josephus, Philo, Epiktetos,
or Plutarch thought that they were writing anything but good Greek.
However, 'formal' and 'colloquial' form a continuity that should not be
polarized
into Attic and Koine. We have literary and colloquial Koine, literary and
colloquial Attic, Second Sophistic Attic, and a continuing mix throughout
the
generations.
ερρωσθε ERRWSQE
Ιωανης, ο αλλος IWANHS O ALLOS
--
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicalulpan.org
Biblical Language Center
Learn Easier - Progress Further - Remember for Life
randallbuth at gmail.com
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