Those who learned Greek first then Hebrew: what is your experience?

[Drew_A]

Hi All,

 

I just finished a  full year of Hebrew in a 7 week compressed version this summer. It was quite intense as you might imagine. I did fairly well until the end and then on the final many things were a blur. I really wanted it to be a joyful ending but it was rather deflating. Now I am taking some well advised and needed rest before intermediate starts next week.

 

Greek did not hit me as intensely despite its many hurdles and challenges. What are others experiences out there? Did the second year get easier for you? I really want to be excited about reading more but so far I just want to get back to the LXX.

 

Thanks for your thoughts (perhaps encouragement even!)

Drew

 

[JohnABarnett]

I like you took (1) Greek first-- did well-- and (2) a compressed summer class in Hebrew -- did well gradewise but had more difficulty retaining what I had learned. This was a ways back, in the late '70's and early '80's. 

 

There were reasons why I had to do it the way I did, like, um, getting married and having to support a family. But I wish I had been able to study Hebrew over the course of a full year. 

 

Advice and encouragement? 

 

(1) Be thankful for what you have achieved, it is a gift of God not many enjoy.

 

(2) Original language work pays off if you are able to do it consistently over time. This is particularly hard if you are not in the "golden years" of opportunity as a full-time student. If not I would encourage you to come to grips with that and (a) don't hold yourself to unrealistic expectations, and make the best effort you can as consistently as you can in such a way that higher priority duties like family, making a living, church responsibilities if you have them, do not suffer seriously.

 

(3) Set a realistic goal to translate a small book over time. For me, working in a Biblical text in the original languages engenders a sense of payoff for my efforts. If your goal is to understand the Bible, use that as motivation. You are seeing the author's intent, his tone, his way of expressing things, his way of looking at things more directly. Avoid grandiose plans that peter out because they are unrealistic. I say this as one who is all to prone to do that.

 

(4) Vocabulary, vocabulary, vocabulary. There is nothing more frustrating than having to look up more than half the words you encounter. Of course, you have to know the alterations enough to recognize the lexical version of the word, so I grant it's a tradeoff with other aspects of the language. 

 

(5) Try your best to enjoy what you HAVE learned. Beating yourself up is a surefire way to giving up.

 

After a long hiatus, when I say long, I mean l-o-o-o-n-g, I tried to begin relearning Hebrew early this year. Some things I had retained, most I had not. So I went back to the Greek New Testament. Though there was still much forgotten, I found I had retained much more (I had two years of Greek) and it feels less daunting than Hebrew. 

 

Are you young? Do you have a family? Or relatives with kids? Or someone who can share this journey with you in some way? They may not be committed to learning Hebrew like you are, but maybe they will let you teach them the alphabet and a few words. Anything you can do to "teach" what you are learning, will help you learn and retain more.

 

Just some thoughts.

 

God be with you in your Hebrew path.

Edited August 28, 2017 by JohnABarnett

[Harold Hosch]

Drew, I hope I have a few words of help as far as Hebrew is concerned. I taught Hebrew for a good many years, and I have used it in numerous studies I have done. Try to get into the mind of Hebrew—study it from inside and not outside. Read as much as you can about the way ancient Hebrew people think. Learn to read Hebrew as an insider. One can learn Hebrew noun, forms and Hebrew verb forms and still have very little understanding of the language. When missionary go to a new language group they must learn the culture as well as the language. The culture helps one understand the language, and the language helps one understand the culture. In other words, it is best to start at the beginning of the two. Keep in mind that Hebrew is a spoken language. The ancient Hebrew people were primarily oral. Thus the language represents the orality of a people. It is hard to describe in any short way. The Hebrew language is not the Greek language—Greek is western; Hebrew is eastern. What was the eastern people like at the time of Israel's early development? Books by John Walton can be of helpful in this area. Hebrew is a great language; I love it. But the people of Israel were a great people—hard headed and stubborn at times, but they met their match in God who would not let them wander wherever the wanted to go. Study Hebrew with 'gusto' and study its culture with the same 'gusto'. I believe you will lear to love it. Accordance is a great tool to help you in your quest. Harold Hosch.

[Drew_A]

John and Harold,

 

Thank you both for your very helpful and encouraging responses. Both have great wisdom and insight!

 

@John -though I am not young I am a full time student so I can focus on just studying. I may just need to find a fellow student to learn with at this stage.

 

@Harold getting the cultural perspective is an excellent idea and a great point.  I'll see what resources I can find. John Walton should be fairly easy to track down.

[Λύχνις Δαν]

Hey Drew,

 

One of the other things I think is that one should have fun with language. When I was growing up learning English as a kid we would play scrabble, do wordsearches and cross words and so on. These are all great things for vocabulary building. There is a real dearth of such things for biblical language study. I did run across some for very young kids in the Kan Zaman materials which was fun. There is also modern Hebrew Bananagrams which a friend of mine gave me recently. I don't really have anyone to play it with alas but I can at least sit there playing with the tiles making the consonantal Hebrew words I know.

 

 

 

I of course also think we should try to use the language more into daily use. That requires of course you have other people to talk to. But we had fun one day earlier in the year assembling the trampoline with the kids, counting the springs as we installed them, using the words for numbers from all the languages we could think of - alas not that many, but it was fun.

 

Thx

D