The most important thing in learning a new language is to give yourself constant exposure to it. Learning in dribs and drabs is a hindrance to language acquisition. I sometimes compare learning a language to flying an airplane. In order to fly there must be a threshold speed--if you stop you drop! Any attainment of a foreign language necessitates constant exposure, practice, and review. It is better to study half an hour a day than 4 hours once a week (of course 4 hours once a week followed by half an hour a day would be wonderful!). When you decide to learn or keep up a language you must make a commitment of time and effort. How much is this worth to you? What other thing(s) are you willing to sacrifice to enhance your Greek and Hebrew skills?
While learning Greek or Hebrew I recommend spending at least an hour a day (or as close to that as possible) in order maintain the necessary pace.
If you are taking a class it is also important to remember that the farther behind you get in a language the more difficult it is to catch up. Be sure to keep up with the class!
There are two groups of Greek and Hebrew students: those who review (usually using flash cards), and those who should retake the class. Learning Greek or Hebrew requires an assimilation period to allow the material to really sink in. Learning is like chewing food, and assimilating it is like absorbing the food.
Make flash cards for everything. Learn how to make effective flash cards:
Try varying the color of ink. If making a flash card of verb forms try putting the letters that change in another color of ink.
Make grammar flash cards as well as vocabulary flash cards. Write a grammatical question (if possible) on the front of the card and then summarize the grammatical points on the other. Put the chapter number on one comer of the card, and write "Grammar" or "Vocabulary" in another corner.
It can be very beneficial to write down exercises from your textbook with the answers on the flip side. This can involve a considerable expenditure of time and should only be done where really necessary, or if you have enough time.
Consider to rewriting or recasting the textbook material in the way that best helps you to understand it. Try paraphrasing the material or writing it out in outline form.
Practice writing words and sentences from a book--do as much by memory as possible. (Look at a word or sentence, and then try to write down as much as you can without looking at the book.)
Practice reading the language aloud. If possible, try to get others to read the words and phrases to you so that you use your auditory skills as an additional channel of learning. Get tapes whenever possible and use them!
In my classes I have always required that students memorize verses from the Hebrew Bible. There are many advantages to this: (1) You learn words in meaningful context, (2) you have the ability to cite verses in the original when battling error, (3) it helps you to better recall grammatical forms of words and syntactical relationships.
The student needs breadth as well as depth. There needs to be the widest possible exposure to the Bible in the original language. This is the best way to constantly reinforce. what has been learned as well as to provide concrete and memorable examples for the words and grammatical concepts learned.
Discover how you learn best. Emphasize that method. Realize that between the classes you are your own teacher. As you try different approaches, determine which methods most help you personally with acquisition and retention of the language.
For example, when you hear or see the word "day" try to think of yom (Hebrew) hemera (Greek), etc. After doing this check with a lexicon or Bible dictionary to check your accuracy.
©1998 Internet Biblical Resources
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