[B-Greek] what does "internalizing" mean?

Louis Sorenson llsorenson at hotmail.com
Sun Aug 2 21:24:45 EDT 2009


Internalizing Ancient Greek is what does not happen to you if
you spend fifty years just reading Ancient Greek and will presumably
happen to you if you spend fifty years reading, listening to,
writing, and speaking Ancient Greek.
 
Whenever my wife gets a back ache she always asks
me to rub her back to make it feel better.  It took me many
years to realize it doesn't actually make her back feel any
better, she just likes back rubs.  I don't think internalizing Ancient Greek
exists, but I like the Living Language tools that help me not get there. 

Mark L


FWSFOROS MARKOS

"Are you fluent?" or 'Have you internalized Greek?' I answer a question with a question -- Do you have to think about Greek language features when you are reading it, or do you only think about the content and range of meaning/interpretation.  I.e. 'what does the word mean?", "What does the case mean?", "What does the tense mean?"  These questions are asked by both people who have internalized the language and not internalized the language.  

When one reads a document in their native language, one that was
written by someone unfamiliar to them in an unfamiliar setting, there
are always some element of interpretation which is needed. Internalization means one knows what the content in question 'could mean' without having to think about the language features.  

The difference between using active language methods (such as TPR, living language methods, et. al. ) is the difference between passive and active internalization.  In passive internalization you only observe what happens. And after much close and careful observation, those who are good analysts, have a good concept of what could have been meant by any specific phrase.  So I think that someone who only knows how to read Koine and not
compose/write/speak it has internalized the language, but they have
only passively internalized the language, and their analysis is only as good as the breadth of their cumulative input.  

I've been reading a few books on language acquistion as of late.  It
seems that language studies of one method versus another are all very
difficult to evaluate.  A person who has used active internalization is much more conditioned (behavioralism?) than people who do not use active internalization methods.  They have used all their senses in acquiring the language; common sense tells you this is a better approach and that those who use this method will learn quicker, retain their knowledge longer, and internalize their knowledge deeper.  I have learned several languages by different methods, like many have; the methods that involved more of my senses and living language methods, have internalized the language better. 

I don't think anyone who expresses the desire to acquire a verbal
mastery of Koine (however imperfect the model one uses),  would say
others who can read with fluency have not internalized Greek. But there
is a huge difference between being able to read and being able to
compose.  Has anyone out there had someone in Modern Greek start asking
questions, when you told then you know ancient Greek? How are you.....,
etc. And when you cannot respond, you are embarassed, and tell them you
only know ancient Greek, and it is different than modern.  But if Paul
or Epictetus came up to you and said the same, you would realize you do
not know the language as well as you thought.

Whatever state of fluency my Greek is in, I know it will improve if I include active aural composition in my learning routine. One of the sayings in my workplace is "Work smarter, not harder." At age 50, I consider learning how to speak Koine as a remedial.  But I would highly want my sons to learn from an active learning method, and not a passive learning method.  I am 100% confident they would learn better, faster, and retain what they know longer. Does anyone doubt that assertion?

Louis Sorenson
. 

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