[b-greek] Re: Fw: Learning Greek, how far

From: Karen Spray (karen.spray@lineone.net)
Date: Tue May 15 2001 - 17:45:31 EDT


I know that when I learned Classical Greek at school, we spent a huge amount
of the learning time constructing sentences and composing, rather than just
reading and translating. For some reason, one particular example has stayed
with me over the intervening quarter century or so, which I doubt was to be
found in any classical author - 'The smell of the river is dreadful, and
Thrasymachus weeps again.' I would think that the argument for this is that
it makes you apply the grammatical knowledge you have learned and shows up
the holes when you haven't. By contrast, when I studied Old Norse at
university, as far as I recall we mostly read and translated, with the
emphasis being on reading the literature rather than mastering the language.

Whether it is significant that today I can still read Greek but would have
enormous trouble puzzling out a line of Icelandic, I don't know. I can also
say that when I visited Greece, I found my Greek very useful, despite being
a few millennia out of date, whereas in Iceland, the Icelandic was much less
so. But that may have been because most Icelanders speak excellent English!

Love, Karen Spray

karen.spray@fish.co.uk or karen.spray@lineone.net
----- Original Message -----
From: Ted Mann <theomann@earthlink.net>
To: Biblical Greek <b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2001 5:46 PM
Subject: [b-greek] Re: Fw: Learning Greek, how far


> >....it's definitely important to learn how to recite the language
properly
> with pronunciation, cadence, inflection and all the rest, but I >don't
know
> of any Shakespearean actor or critic today who works at constructing
> original dialogs in this form of English. I >wonder if this was what Ted
> meant by learning to "speak" NT Greek?
> >
> > Dave Washburn
>
> Ryan Green's comment was, "I have a strong interest in learning to read
and
> write (and possibly speak, though that is personally less important) New
> Testament Greek." I perhaps mistakenly took that to mean he is
considering
> learning how to construct original sentences in that language, so as to
> express himself "conversationally." Does anyone think that learning how
to
> do this might enhance one's grasp of the language? It is of course
> important to learn how to "recite the language properly with
pronunciation,
> cadence, inflection..."
>
> Best.
>
> Ted Mann
>
>
>
> ---
> B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
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>



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