[B-Greek] The Value of Learning to Speak Modern Greek (was Free language courses
Mark Lightman
lightmanmark at yahoo.com
Thu Feb 11 09:00:49 EST 2010
--- On Tue, 2/9/10, Jeffrey Cockrell <jeffcockrell at gmail.com> wrote:
<Look at the free language instruction offered by the BBC website. There's
information on important phrases. Also, the Greek information shows brief
etymology of words related to the Greek games.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/
Jeff Cockrell>
Hi, Jeff,
Thanks for the link to this site. It’s very cool and I enjoyed it. Your post does raise the question, though, of the value of learning to speak Modern Greek for someone who is learning to read Ancient Greek. Randall Buth has gone so far as to say that if you want to help your Greek New Testament reading skills, you are better off learning to speak Modern Hebrew than Modern Greek. The question is not whether learning to speak Modern Greek will help you internalize Ancient Greek. It will. The question is whether the time spent in learning to speak Modern Greek would better be spent in doing something else-- say reading and rereading everything written by Homer, Plato, Plutarch and every Greek author whose name starts with an alpha. The answer to this question is, in a word, NAI.
But here’s the real question. Why would anyone who is learning to read Ancient Greek waste their time on learning to speak Modern Greek when it is just as easy to learn to speak Ancient Greek? I know what you are going to say. There are many more resources for learning to speak Modern Greek. Every big University offers courses in speaking Modern Greek, but how many conversational Ancient Greek courses are there? Rosetta Stone comes in Modern Greek but not Ancient. There are millions of Native Greeks that can teach you to speak Modern Greek, and of course you can go to Greece and get immersed in the language.
Well, in response, I would say it takes a little more effort to figure out a way to learn to speak Ancient Greek, but anyone can do it if they want it bad enough. And of course all the reading in Ancient Greek that one has done will be much more helpful in learning to speak Ancient Greek than it would be in learning to speak Modern Greek. That “my time is Mark” in Modern Greek is με λενε Μαρκ ME LENE MARK is an interesting fact and I again thank Jeff and the BBC for this fine web site But that phrase, close and yet so far away from its ancient equivalent, will never help me internalize Koine. On the other hand, the fact that, until recently, I, somebody who first learned Greek during the Reagan Administration, had never spoken the phrase το ονομα μοι Μαρκος TO ONOMA MOI MARKOS to a another live person who could understand me, shows that learning to speak Ancient Greek has been less of a priority than it should be.
This site that Jeff has found raises the obvious question. Where is the similar site for Ancient Greek? I cannot guarantee that there is not such a site. Five years ago I would have said, no way, but every day new sites are popping up which can help you to hear, write, speak and think in Ancient Greek. For example, did you know that there is a sight where some Rosetta Stone type stuff can be found for ancient Greek?
http://groups.google.com/group/latinancientgreek/web/ta-brwmata?hl=en
If a site for Ancient Greek similar to this cool site for Modern Greek which Jeff found does not exist, it soon will. Maybe somebody reading this is working on such a site just now.
The value for B-Greekers of learning to speak Modern Greek is a question that would only be asked by people who do not believe that speaking in Ancient Greek is an option. “Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” I’d love to speak Modern Greek. But μαλιστα αγωπω λαλειν Ελληνιστι MALISTA AGAPW LALEIN hELLHNISTI.
Mark L
FWSFOROS
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