Greek Is Really Cool - But Not My Forte

Thankful For Many Things

Well, my audit in Greek is finished and I'm thankful for a lot of things.  I'm thankful for what I've learned, and I'm thankful that it's over ... for now.  Studying Greek was really cool, but it definitely is not my forte.  Had I actually taken the class for credit, I would have received a B in the course which is OK, but well below the goal that I set for myself.  So I had to make a difficult decision

Going into the class I was perhaps a little skeptical of the benefit of learning the language.  Of course, there is the joy of being able to begin reading the Bible in one of the original languages, but would it really make that big of a difference?  A friend of mine had this to say about learning Greek, "The difference between studying the Bible in English versus Greek is like the difference between watching television in black and white versus high definition color."  I think my friend hit the proverbial nail on the head with that analogy.  I can see now how much clearer the pages of Scripture shine with the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ when translating from the Greek.  Mind you, I'm under no illusion that I've only begun to scratch the surface of my understanding of the language, but I've seen enough to appreciate the value.

So I have nothing but wonderful things to say about my experience with learning Greek and I'm looking forward to continuing my study of the language, but just not right now.  The time commitment to studying a language is immense.  Even though this was just an audit course for me, I spent far more time on this course than any other course that I've taken at DTS.  This is to be expected, however, I just don't see that I'll have the kind of time necessary this Spring to get the most out of the class.  So I'm going to basically try to keep reviewing what I've already learned and keep my skills sharp so I can develop a solid platform to continue in the near future.  All in all, I have no regrets for stepping up and taking this course.

So, if you're planning on studying Greek at a seminary and you don't have any previous experience with the language or struggle like me with foreign languages, I'd recommend a slightly lower course load during the semester to offset the amount of time you'll need to dedicate to learning Greek.  It's totally worth it, but it's a grind and takes a lot of time, commitment, and discipline.

And This is Why We Audit

Epic Faceplant

Greek has been a fickle friend this semester.  Sometimes, I think, "I got this."  And then other times my brain breaks and starts leaking out of the bottom of my shoes.  I just wrapped up my sixth quiz of the semester and I'm still feeling the pain from the epic faceplant I just brilliantly executed.  I managed an impressive 27 out of 98 (although my final score will probably be in the neighborhood of 40).  It's times like this that I remind myself that this is exactly why I choose to audit this course.

I mentioned that I struggle to pick up languages in general, and this is true.  But with this course, I just feel like I'm about two weeks behind in my understanding.  I mean it takes about two weeks for the learning to settle into a firm-ish knowledge.  So while we're just wrapping up chapter 18 in Mounce's "Basics of Biblical Greek", I'm just getting comfortable with chapter 14.  And this is despite studying just about every day.

Point is, it's not so much that the language is difficult.  There is just so much to learn and remember that I find it takes a while to sear into my memory.

Getting My Greek On

Auditing Greek

Alright, we're a couple of weeks into this Fall semester where I'm auditing first-semester Greek.  Things are going fine so far but I've already experienced the normal ups and downs of studying a language.  After crushing my first quiz, I got a bit overconfident and was brutally humbled on my second quiz.  But a big exam later this week should really give me a sense of if I'm on the right track or not.

Needless to say, any language course requires a tremendous amount of time and discipline to stay on top of the learning.  So it's been a solid hour or two most days (especially after the second quiz).  Anyway, I'm starting to get a handle on things and I find Koine Greek to be very technical which is just AOK with me.  So I'm sure I'll have more to write next week but now it's time to get back to studying noun and adjective forms!