While driving home from class today, it suddenly occurred to me: Next year I will be taking Greek, and after I learn Greek, I will never again be able to use the phrase, "It's all Greek to me," to indicate incomprehension.
5 comments:
Anonymous
said...
heehee, and only an educated intellectual would lament something like that. ;)
Nope, after you learn Greek, you will then be able to use the phrase to indicate comprehension, and thus beautifully confuse people.
I took 3 semesters of Ancient Greek in college as my language requirement. Our text was oh-so-cleverly titled "Greek to Me."
I hope you have a better teacher. Prof. Gould was really nice (and looked suspiciously like Santa Claus) but by the end I knew lots of vocab and very little grammer (and still somehow got a 'B'). I don't remember most of it now, except for the occasional delightful discoveries (eureka! eh, sorry, Greek joke) I made when I put two words together like if potamos means river and hippos mean horse, hippopotamus means "river horse." Oh, and necropolis would be "city of the dead" (which Phil informed me was a level in Quake). Nothing earth-shattering, but I'm pretty sure languages aren't meant to be. You will probably gain a deeper understanding of certain New Testment words, though, which is useful. As my 3rd semester final, I did an oral presentation on the word "pnuma" which is used a lot in John. It means spirit and wind and so forth, and it's a gender neutral word. So the Holy Spirit was neither masculine or feminine. Things like that get lost in English.
Hmm...didn't mean to make a long comment. I just don't get to pull out my Greek card much. :)
EarthenForge: I love languages, and I am looking forward to things like the hippopotamus eurekas. It's a pretty intensive course of study, though, I think I am supposed to actually be able to read the New Testament in Greek when I'm done with my four semesters.
Kate: Actually, I take Greek in my first year, but I couldn't take it this semester because I started in the third semester and would have been woefully behind my classmates. There are four semesters of Greek (supposed to be semesters 1-4, but I will be doing them semesters 2-5).
5 comments:
heehee, and only an educated intellectual would lament something like that. ;)
~Marlene
Nope, after you learn Greek, you will then be able to use the phrase to indicate comprehension, and thus beautifully confuse people.
I took 3 semesters of Ancient Greek in college as my language requirement. Our text was oh-so-cleverly titled "Greek to Me."
I hope you have a better teacher. Prof. Gould was really nice (and looked suspiciously like Santa Claus) but by the end I knew lots of vocab and very little grammer (and still somehow got a 'B'). I don't remember most of it now, except for the occasional delightful discoveries (eureka! eh, sorry, Greek joke) I made when I put two words together like if potamos means river and hippos mean horse, hippopotamus means "river horse." Oh, and necropolis would be "city of the dead" (which Phil informed me was a level in Quake). Nothing earth-shattering, but I'm pretty sure languages aren't meant to be. You will probably gain a deeper understanding of certain New Testment words, though, which is useful. As my 3rd semester final, I did an oral presentation on the word "pnuma" which is used a lot in John. It means spirit and wind and so forth, and it's a gender neutral word. So the Holy Spirit was neither masculine or feminine. Things like that get lost in English.
Hmm...didn't mean to make a long comment. I just don't get to pull out my Greek card much. :)
You take Greek your second year? That seems a little backward to me...
just smile and say, quite simply its all doric greek, or Mycyne greek to me, since it will be koine greek and all you will be learning,
EarthenForge:
I love languages, and I am looking forward to things like the hippopotamus eurekas. It's a pretty intensive course of study, though, I think I am supposed to actually be able to read the New Testament in Greek when I'm done with my four semesters.
Kate:
Actually, I take Greek in my first year, but I couldn't take it this semester because I started in the third semester and would have been woefully behind my classmates. There are four semesters of Greek (supposed to be semesters 1-4, but I will be doing them semesters 2-5).
Post a Comment