[B-Greek] Self-taught in Greek
Mark Lightman
lightmanmark at yahoo.com
Wed Nov 17 08:54:22 EST 2010
Michael asked
<...does anyone know of a good list of famous
theologians who are self-taught in Greek?>
Hi, Michael,
You mean, like this?
TOP TEN FAMOUS THEOLOGIANS WHO ARE SELF-TAUGHT IN GREEK
10. Ulrich Zwingli
9. John Brown of Haddington
8. John Newton
7. One of the anonymous editors of "Q."
6. God
5. Mark Lightman. I am essentially self-taught. Many years ago, I took a
few college courses in Greek, but I did not learn much therefrom. Whatever
fluency I have, I have developed from about five years of intensive self-study.
But you know, everyone would say that. Everyone is "essentially self-taught" in
that you do no learn Greek from sitting in a classroom. You learn Greek by
reading (and to a lesser extent, writing, listening to and speaking) Greek over
and over again. "Therein the patient must minister to himself." Paula Saffire,
in the preface to her Ancient Greek Alive, says she learned Greek by reading it
eight hours a day. Conrad says that he only started to learn Greek AFTER he
left graduate school. Or maybe, what he said, is what you often hear from
teachers, that he only started to learn Greek when he had to teach it to
others. Which is another way of saying "Therein the patient must minister to
himself."
But I think I agree in substance to what Dave McKay wrote. There is a big
difference between being essentially self-taught and being completely
self-taught. Even though I did not learn much in those few classes, or to be
more accurate, I had to re-learn on my own all the stuff taught, they were a big
help in terms of supplying motivation and structure and self-confidence. The
fact is, the overwhelming majority of people who try to teach themselves Greek
do not stick with it and fail. To see, face to face, a teacher and other
students, to complete a textbook (even though you are going to have to complete
many more textbooks on your own) to get an overview of the language from an
expert, probably has greater value than I admit. There may just be a
correlation, not a causal link, between successful self-learners and those who
at least took a class or two, in that really motivated self-learners will
probably do what they have to do to find some formal environment to learn.
But self learning today, with the internet, with audio and video and interactive
verb charts and forums like B-Greek, for that matter, is not like it was in the
days of John Brown of Haddington.
I'd like to hear from Jonnathan Robie and other completely self-taught folks.
I'm sure there are many on this board. I guess in the final analysis, I reject
Dave's analogy. Learning Greek is not brain surgery. It is hard, with or
without a teacher, but therein the patient must always minister to himself.
I will let someone else finish the top ten list.
Mark L
Φωσφορος
FWSFOROS MARKOS
________________________________
From: Michael Baber <illuminatiaries at yahoo.com>
To: B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Tue, November 16, 2010 8:31:26 AM
Subject: [B-Greek] Self-taught in Greek
Hello forum,
I know this is not on-topic, but since this board is filled with Greek
scholars and the like, I was wondering if anyone on this board is
self-taught in Greek. Also, does anyone know of a good list of famous
theologians who are self-taught in Greek? I know there are quite a few
but I don't know them off the top of my head. Your responses would be
greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Mike
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