I have just received my copy of the Biblical Language Center’s (BLC) Greek materials for review. (As usual—I have purchased from them before—the package was shipped the next day and it arrived safely and quickly. Great service.)

Here is my plan for review.

Since this is a language learning program, and I want to genuinely test the program and the claims of some people for the benefits of “immersion” techniques for Hellenistic Greek (or, living language techniques), I won’t provide a one-time 1000 word review or anything. I’ll handle it in stages.

So, in this post I’ll explain my Greek background and why I’m interested and what my hopes are. In a second post in the next month or two I will outline and evaluate the materials to whatever point I’m at, also making use of the claims of its proponents. In a final post I will try to engage with the theory and practice of “immersion” with respect to a dead language. I envision this as a summer-long project.

MY BACKGROUND

I have been studying Greek since 2007 in my undergrad when I began with a year and a half of Classical Greek study and then moved on to Hellenistic Greek study thereafter. I first learned with Athenaze for Classical and then I moved to Mounce’s beginning grammar for Hellenistic. I have spent the last few years at McMaster Divinity College studying Greek with one of the foremost experts in the field. I’ve had the opportunity to take two Greek exegesis courses, an advanced grammar and linguistics course, Johannine studies with linguistic study applied to John’s Gospel, and I’m about to begin my last Masters course, linguistic modeling, and my thesis, which is investigating—and hopefully contributing to the field with my research—linguistic issues in Greek linguistics applied to John’s Gospel. I recently presented some of my research at a linguistics circle gathering and have been encouraged to move to publication in the near future.

So, I’ve got what would be considered a good background, I think.

That said, all of the training has been with tools that are reading based and use an English metalanguage to discuss Greek grammar. This is largely because Hellenistic Greek is a dead language; no one speaks it natively so we can’t learn it like we learn German today.

Or can we? This is a big question in Greek pedagogy.

I began with Erasmian pronunciation but last August I switched to Randall Buth’s reconstructed Koine pronunciation. The transition only took a week or so (maybe I can detail that on another occasion). My main three reasons for the switch were 1) to make use of the audio materials coming out of the BLC including readings of the Gospel of John and Letters; 2) to enjoy the sound of the language more in hopes that it sounds closer to a native pronunciation than Erasmian does; and 3) to be helped along in text critical matters as I investigate manuscripts and make sense of spelling changes and variants across texts.

HOPES

My number one hope is simply to continue to become a better reader of Hellenistic Greek. I’m a good reader now (I try to shun translation in reading so I don’t mean I’m a good on the spot translator) and I have a good handle on linguistic issues related to Greek. But, I want to go deeper, driving the language further and further into my mind. Audio materials should benefit me to that end.

My second hope is to be able to better navigate the debates occurring in Greek pedagogy. I’ve had opportunity to teach Greek and may yet again, so I want to decide what approach to take. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the immersion approach (yes, I’m sure there are disadvantages, contra one opinion!) and should it be used as supplementary to traditional approaches or can they take the place of them? Maybe I will be converted. Maybe I won’t. I’m open.

I think talking about Greek pedagogy is important for our own development in the language and for future generations of Greek students.

If you have any experience with these matters, what do you think about it all?