Hello from Raleigh NC

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jtsmythe
Posts: 2
Joined: September 5th, 2011, 6:03 pm

Hello from Raleigh NC

Post by jtsmythe »

I'm a 55 yr old who auditing a K-Greek class & started a few classes ago and totally lost! All those pardigms does not make sense. Using Mounce's BBG, 3rd Edition. The memory work is a killer. I'm really not sure of this...
Mark Lightman
Posts: 300
Joined: May 6th, 2011, 6:30 pm

Re: Hello from Raleigh NC

Post by Mark Lightman »

Hello from Raleigh NC...The memory work is a killer. I'm really not sure of this...
Hi,

Memory work is to learning Ancient Greek what tobacco is to North Carolina.
RandallButh
Posts: 1105
Joined: May 13th, 2011, 4:01 am

Re: Hello from Raleigh NC

Post by RandallButh »

Sorry about the presentation of all those paradigms as the entryway into the language.
I must apologize for the Greek field. "They" have this tradition of using pedagogies that have been shown to not work and to ignore pedagogies that have been shown to work. Go figure!

You might check out the 1000 pictures of Living Koine Greek. They immediately put the student into a mode of thinking with the language rather than with English and can insert a living kernel to the language, something that can be 'watered' to grow naturally. Even little kids can follow along.
jtsmythe
Posts: 2
Joined: September 5th, 2011, 6:03 pm

Re: Hello from Raleigh NC

Post by jtsmythe »

Thank you for your comment. I found the Biblical Language Center and will try it. Children don't learn language this way and I suspect adults don't either. How many people can chart out the paradigms of our own English language? The first day in class and I'm hit with case endings that make no sense to me. I didn't even know why I was memorizing them.
jeffreyrequadt
Posts: 57
Joined: May 30th, 2011, 11:20 pm

Re: Hello from Raleigh NC

Post by jeffreyrequadt »

Hi jtsmythe,

It is disappointing that you have had such a trying experience so far. Of course I don't know any of your professors or practically anyone in NC, but what often goes under the misnomer of "rigor" is simply bad instructional practices and/or bad language learning practices. Fortunately, you have on this list a plethora of teachers and professors and learners who actually do know how to teach and what works better than what doesn't. I don't actually teach Greek, and I got out of academia with my B.A. 6 years ago, and I had a fantastic Greek teacher, and there are people on this list who will give you fantastic advice as well. My 2 bits (as a third grade public school teacher) would be to NOT memorize things meaninglessly; to try to see lots of words in a context rather than isolation--even if you don't know what they mean yet; to find some connection between what you're learning and what you already know; to talk to someone else about and even in Greek if possible; to use different senses--sight, sound, etc., rather than just one at a time; to involve music; to involve acting; to act out a vocabulary word/phrase while saying it; trying turning a passage into a script for 2 or more people and reading the different parts in different voices; find archaeological inscriptions and look for the endings and/or vocab that you see in your textbook; in other words, use as much of your mind and brain as you can. Be creative! Get ideas from the people on this list. In fact, you might look on the introductions page, or the profiles of different users, and track down the teachers and pick their brain. But don't give up! I don't even know that much Greek and I love it! And of course, practice makes permanent (not perfect), so that's why it's important that as you hammer something into your brain, you understand it and you know it's right.

Okay, enthusiastic teacher signing out.
Jeffrey T. Requadt
Tucson, AZ
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