Stephen Carlson wrote:Jonathan Robie wrote:Austin Dixon wrote:Ok, I didn't realize it before, but looking around the university website I found out that they offer two separate programs: classical greek and modern greek. Which would likely be more helpful as a launching point to learn koine?
Classical. Definitely classical.
Yeah, Modern Greek is too different.
Classical and New Testament
Greek are burdensome and boring to learn, with many long and unsavoury hours of mind-numbingly repetitive and seemingly up-hill learning with the majority of your inter-personal interaction being trying to understand the thoughts of those long since dead. It requires personal sacrifice, dedication and application to the task. But after you've done that, it is good to be able to pick up a Greek New Testament and read.
If you use Classical Greek as your "launching point" you will be learning what you want to learn and you won't
need to study further, but you will also need to learn to study despite the frustration and lack positive personal feedback. Learning only Classical Greek will allow you to read the New Testament, but it will look a little weird (and badly written) to you.
The overhead will be that 20% of the grammar and 60% of the vocabulary that you will learn will not occur in the New Testament.
Modern Greek is fun and interactive, it is the language of a living breathing society and you can have real interaction with your teacher and classmates, using at first simple, but never-the-less real, language. The thought-world and values expressed in the texts you will read are modern and European, so you will be able to more easily intuit meanings of Greek words. While many of the things you will learn in vocabulary are applicable to your reading of the New Testament, the grammar - both inflection, sentence words and narrative construction techniques - is really different.
If you use Modern Greek as a "launching point", the learning will be much easier, but you
will have to actually learn Ancient Greek later on too. Learning only Modern Greek will not allow you to read the New Testament - you will see many familiar things, but will be unable to put together the meaning of even one entire sentence in the text.
The overhead is that most of the Grammar that you learn will only be a little similar to the grammar that you will find in the New Testament and the vocabulary that you learn outside of the field that is broadly termed "the humanities (inc. religion)" consists of loan-words and forms of words that are so far developed from their ancient forms that you will not be able to recognise them. It will also cost you a year's delay.
Those things being stated, what it really comes down to is you the learner. If the arduousness of learning Classical Greek seems now or later turns out to be greater than your initial stamina and naive enthusiasm can either put up with or overlook, then I suggest you could do a very basic course in Modern Greek (there will be some issues with pronunciation, but they are not insurmountable) to get some familiarity with the language as a language for your daily life, your memories and your dreams, THEN (return) to
class--ical Greek as language you will only ever read and discuss in
class.
Most learners don't have a choice, and sad to say, the vast majority of those who study classical and New Testament Greek don't continue to anything that even remotely
resembles (even reading) "mastery" of the language.
If you do have to (or are lucky enough to be able to) make a decision, then the choice depends on your personality and the learning styles you are comfortable with.