[B-Greek] The BANE of Biblical Greek Pedagogy
Richard Smith
rbs58 at comcast.net
Wed Feb 23 08:51:34 EST 2011
OK, any help or suggestions with my επινομα Ελληνιστι to set my profile for σχολη.com?
I was going to use Richard, but could not find Greek spelling and how it is declined. This question is posted to BGreek in case anyone else is interested in joining.
I will not post any further questions about this on BGreek.
Thanks,
Richard
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carl Conrad" <cwconrad2 at mac.com>
To: "Paul Zellmer" <pzellmer at sc.rr.com>
Cc: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2011 8:14:23 AM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] The BANE of Biblical Greek Pedagogy
On Feb 23, 2011, at 8:04 AM, Paul Zellmer wrote:
> Carl,
>
> Say it ain't so! If you are old, what does that make the rest of us? You've got a long way to reach Moses, much less Methuselah!
>
> But, on a more serious note, I concur with the great advantages gained by developing composition abilities. It most quickly helps build vocabulary. But how do we avoid ingraining unnatural (read that, non-ancient Greek) grammar patterns?
I'm not sure that we can altogether avoid it -- but we can hope to "purify" it progressively by (a) voluminous reading in real Greek works of the style we want to emulate, whether that be Plato or Epictetus, and (b) by keying the exercises we write -- assuming that we do practice exercises -- to readings that are comparable to what we set ourselves to write. In grad school we were reading Plato's Symposium and converting paragraphs of Nabokov's Lolita and C.S. Lewis on love into Platonic Gσreek; in Latin comp we were reading Cicero and converting speeches of Burke into Latin prose; one of the most fascinating exercises we ever had was converting the NY Times editorial endorsing Kennedy for President into Ciceronian Latin in the Fall of 1960.
CWC
> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Carl Conrad
> Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2011 7:41 AM
> To: Richard Smith
> Cc: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] The BANE of Biblical Greek Pedagogy
>
>
> On Feb 23, 2011, at 7:29 AM, Richard Smith wrote:
>
>> Is part of the problem with the ancient languages that learning to converse is not emphasized. All other language studies, emphasize to some degree speaking, listening, and composing.
>>
>> I cannot make a simple sentence in BGreek, and my efforts would be more dismal in BHebrew.
>>
>> I am self taught, and old. I wonder if self taught in a language is as about as good as being self represented in court?
>
> I would urge you at your earliest convenience to join in the group at ΣΧΟΛΗ (http://schole.ning.com/) where you can at once make the acquaintance of others
> who want to dialogue with each other in voice and written notes and share information about using ancient Greek as a real vehicle of communication.
>
> I am old myself and my days of teaching and learning in the classroom are long since over; nevertheless, as the dictum of Solon has it: GHRASKW AEI POLLA DIDASKOMENOS. I did two years of Greek composition in graduate school and have taught it tutorially several times at Washington University. Composition accompanying reading really does wonders to help one internalize the language. But it is only in the last year or so that I ever started corresponding in Greek and I've been surprised and delighted to find that it is much easier and much more fun than I had ever thought.
>
> Carl W. Conrad
> Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
---
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