From: Ken Smith (kens@180solutions.com)
Date: Fri Feb 01 2002 - 16:12:06 EST
I expect that this will engender a number of responses and an equal
number of opinions from folks on the list, but I'll toss out my opinion
as a Not Very Big Greek.
I learned Greek from the perspective that you should be able to read
passages from the NT without a lot of assistance, but that any attempts
to speak it or even write it were of very little value.
I've come to question that goal, even as various commitments in other
directions have precluded my moving beyond it. Certainly, there is a
value to knowing Greek at any level, and unless you're Fred Danker,
there's probably a "point of diminishing returns" for energy you can
expend. But I'm finding that this "point of diminishing returns" is
moving further and further out for me. I'm afraid I've almost entirely
bought into Randall Buth's rhetoric about moving beyond the "language
monitor" stage of learning, even if I haven't yet been able to following
him in doing so. (There's no way I could write this email in Greek, for
instance, without investing several hours doing so.)
In other words, I'd say that the goal shouldn't just be the ability to
read the text without (many) aids, but should also include the ability
to produce the language, both written and verbally. How long it would
take to get there . . . Well, given current pedagogical methods,
probably a lot longer and with a lot more effort than it would take if
we adopted something more like what I've used when tutoring Mexican
immigrants in English.
Ken Smith
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Sawilowsky [mailto:msawilowsky@bryanisd.org]
> Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2002 9:41 AM
> To: Biblical Greek
> Subject: [b-greek] Read or Study
>
>
> I have a question related to the purpose or goal of NT Greek study.
>
> Is the study of Greek designed to equip the student with
> tools to help him study the Bible?( ie You can translate a
> passage with the help of a lexicon and other tools) Or is
> the purpose to put the student on the road to being able to
> sit down, basically unassisted and read from the Greek?
> Is there other options? And how much time must be invested
> by on "average" student to be fluent enough to do both?
>
> Any comments about a guiding philosophy behind learning NT
> Greek would be helpful.
>
> Michael Sawilowsky
>
>
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>
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