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EdenMcGorlick
Posts: 6
Joined: November 25th, 2014, 11:41 pm

Hello

Post by EdenMcGorlick »

Hello,

My name is Eden McGorlick and I live in Melbourne, Australia. I studied one year of Greek using my Professor's Greek Grammar at the Bible College of Victoria some 16 years ago. I then forgot most of it, and picked it up again about five years ago, working through Mounce, dabbling with Dobson, beginning again with Randall Buth's materials, switching to Athenaze/JACT/Thrasymachus, before switching to yet another grammar: the hefty 'Learn to Read Greek' by Keller and Russell. I guess I love buying grammars and hate finishing them. I did actually work my way through all of the readings in Athenaze book 1, so that is something. My reading of the New Testament has been mostly in John, 1 John, a bit of Mark, a smaller bit of Matthew, some Revelation/Philippians/2 Corinthians with an NIGTC commentary to help me, and some Ephesians with Hoehner's commentary. I've been memorising some of Ephesians in Greek and almost had the whole of chapter 1 down before I started on something else. I did find that helpful in retrospect. I started blogging about working through Randall's material at http://esmcgorlick.wordpress.com but then as I mentioned I switched to Athenaze. I'm thinking about buying Athenaze book 2 as that is the only grammar I've actually finished so far, and I do find the story quite entertaining.

I guess over the last five years I've come to the conclusion that it would have been better to study one thing in more detail, than many things sporadically. I've gotten quite discouraged at times, and had small breaks where I didn't really study anything, but I've also had periods of madness where I was studying so hard I forgot to do important things at work because my head was off in the clouds. I don't think I'll ever be able to put down the Greek NT so I might as well keep improving. At times I've felt like I really love the language, usually when I've managed to grasp new concepts and made some progress, so perhaps with greater fluency comes greater love. I've been popping in here for a while now and reading the forums, a small portion of which I understand, so I thought I might as well introduce myself.

Nice to meet you,

Eden McGorlick.
Eden S. McGorlick
Stephen Hughes
Posts: 3323
Joined: February 26th, 2013, 7:12 am

Re: Hello

Post by Stephen Hughes »

EdenMcGorlick wrote:I guess over the last five years I've come to the conclusion that it would have been better to study one thing in more detail, than many things sporadically. I've gotten quite discouraged at times, and had small breaks where I didn't really study anything, but I've also had periods of madness where I was studying so hard I forgot to do important things at work because my head was off in the clouds. I don't think I'll ever be able to put down the Greek NT so I might as well keep improving. At times I've felt like I really love the language, usually when I've managed to grasp new concepts and made some progress, so perhaps with greater fluency comes greater love. I've been popping in here for a while now and reading the forums, a small portion of which I understand, so I thought I might as well introduce myself.
Hi Eden, welcome to join the discussions. It is interacting with others that we get a second perspective on the extent of our mastery of the language. That can be both encouraging when we are "discouraged at times" and sobering when the things we think we know are questioned in new ways.

I have a question about your approach to study; When you move on to a new textbook, do you start at page one and go over the basics again or do you flip open at some random page and study a bit, or follow your current interests from the index or table of contents? Do you have at least recognitive mastery of all or most of the paradigms and words occurring ten times or more yet?

I realise that those are quite exacting questions, but please don't take them as anything of personal prying (or some unpleasant form of welcome), I'm genuinely interested to know if a non-structured approach has helped you to "learn the language", and to avoid the trap of just "learn(ing) the textbook". It is my point of view that dissecting language into easier to more difficult and teaching things in order from a logical easiest to hardest has a negative long-term effect on language acquisition.
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
Thomas Dolhanty
Posts: 401
Joined: May 20th, 2014, 10:13 am
Location: west coast of Canada

Re: Hello

Post by Thomas Dolhanty »

Eden McGorlick wrote: I don't think I'll ever be able to put down the Greek NT so I might as well keep improving.
Welcome Eden. My money would always be on the one who 'won't ever be able to put down the Greek NT' versus one who plods all the way through a grammar book, but doesn't develop a real engagement with the language.
Stephen Hughes wrote:It is interacting with others that we get a second perspective on the extent of our mastery of the language. That can be both encouraging when we are "discouraged at times" and sobering when the things we think we know are questioned in new ways.
I think Stephen puts it very well, there is real encouragement and sometimes real discipline and correction in sharing the journey with others. Both are necessary, and both help us to advance.

There are quite a few different ways by which you can read the Greek text while picking up grammar as the text demands, Obviously, you are doing that in Athenaze and in your studies in Ephesians etc. Other tools/projects are Rodney Decker's "Koine Greek Reader", or simply doing a study together with a few others. After the basics, I think this is the most effective way to learn grammar for most of us anyway. Thank goodness for the grammarians, but most of us are not called to that strange vocation. :D
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EdenMcGorlick
Posts: 6
Joined: November 25th, 2014, 11:41 pm

Re: Hello

Post by EdenMcGorlick »

Thank you both for the replies. In answer to Stephen's questions I've generally started the new grammar at page one and then tried to work through it until deciding that some other grammar (or approach to grammar) was the best way to learn Greek and switching to it (starting at page one). Lately though since I've gotten far better at picking up the New Testament and making some semblance of sense out of it I've been using my grammars just to dip in and out of them in wherever I'm struggling with something or feel ready to look at what a more advanced textbook like Wallace has to say. I've actually learned by rote all the words occurring 10 times or more on two occasions in the past, (and forgotten them again) something I'll never ever attempt to do again. I found learning vocabulary while reading Athenaze to be vastly superior to attempting to learn it by rote; I simply picked it up as the story went along and hardly had to think about it more than that. I probably know most of the words used 10 times or more. My paradigm recognition is sort of reasonable, sort of lacking. I suppose I've developed a bit of a feel for the language while at the same time stumbling through it without sufficient precision to be confident about what I'm doing.
Eden S. McGorlick
Stephen Carlson
Posts: 3351
Joined: May 11th, 2011, 10:51 am
Location: Melbourne
Contact:

Re: Hello

Post by Stephen Carlson »

EdenMcGorlick wrote:My name is Eden McGorlick and I live in Melbourne, Australia.
Welcome to the forum, Eden. I just moved to Melbourne and there are a few others here in the area as well.
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
Jacob Rhoden
Posts: 171
Joined: February 15th, 2013, 8:16 am
Location: Greenville, South Carolina
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Re: Hello

Post by Jacob Rhoden »

Im also in Melbourne, perhaps if we can gather together enough people in Melbourne, at one point we can start a reading group of some sort. :D
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