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| Today is the name day for every Gregory, which is Greek for watchman, the verb meaning - stay awake, watch. |
2 γινου γρηγορων και στηριξον τα λοιπα α μελλει αποθανειν ου γαρ ευρηκα σου τα εργα πεπληρωμενα ενωπιον του θεου
Latin Is Bad? - How About Today's English Literacy?
Someone complained about studying Latin, which is itself a dead topic, unfortunately. Latin teachers and the Left conspired to get rid of Latin and replace it with something more relevant (it seems). Everyone in the following fields should have several years of Latin:
- The liberal arts, since literature and music owe so much to Latin.
- Law - most legal terms are Latin.
- Medicine - medical terms are either Latin or Greek.
I learned Latin the bad, old way - vocabulary lists, grammar rules, painstaking translating, often using rather musty texts.
I taught Little Ichabod the good, Roland Bainton way, a method similar to federal efforts to train people for foreign assignments.
Immersion is how we learn best.
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| Roland Bainton learned 20 languages using my method. OK, I borrowed his method. |
Latin and Greek
We read the Gospel of John in Latin, with a little bit of training in endings and grammar, but very little. No words were written near the text and an English version was only used to figure out some difficult passages. By the end of the Gospel we were reading a chapter at a time, and he was translating with ease.
Emphasis - reading a lot of Latin, using a simple (but profound) text, which has a simple style of grammar and word usage. John 1-4, slowly, then repeat John 1-4 with some speed, then the rest of the Gospel
We repeated that exercise (home-schooling) with the Greek text of John, an even better experience, because there is nothing like the Greek text. The initial verses were difficult, just like Latin, but the final chapters were easily translated - sight-translated.
Emphasis - The goal was to read text, pick up basic grammar and vocabulary daily, and repeat the first four chapters so that translating turned into reading it like a newspaper.
Why don't all Lutheran clergy do the same? WELS pastors are always telling people about having studied Greek and therefore being infallible. When children learn a foreign language early, it is easier, and the next foreign language is easier. If they have the same language in school, a year is easily skipped.
LI tutored fellow students in Latin and Greek. NWC paid him to tutor students in Greek because they were not getting it from the old-fashioned pain-in-the-neck method (which only works on those who easily grasp languages). The Bainton-Jackson method works for everyone because that is how we learn our first language, from Mom and Dad. If someone is gifted in languages, it works even better and paves the way for enormous strides in those languages.
Funny how I never got asked to repeat this experience in higher education. Many schools have overlooked the chance to make the classic languages come alive in Biblical languages. But - no worry - thanks to our congregation's attorney, Glen Kotten, I began the lessons for everyone.
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| Tis strange how a couple of messages can launch exciting and fulfilling courses in Biblical studies. We are studying Romans in Greek now. Attorney Glen Kotten is on the left. |
