GK101 Introduction to Biblical Greek John D. Schwandt

Michael McLane said:

John, is this still on track to be released, in total, by the end of the year. I would like to purchase it but do not want my money to be tied up in something that I cannot use in full for the next six months.

Yes, we are planning on releasing it before the end of the year.

Mark said:

Any update on this?

We're finalizing the course now and still plan to release it by the end of the year. It will be close to the end of the year though.

Hi Scott,

There is a lot packed into this course so people with different learning goals and styles can use it in ways that suit them.  I’m very pleased that there is a heavy dose of teaching on composition in the course.  Most first-year seminary courses (and textbooks) today do not include many composition exercises in their education.  So, a person who wants to go that far and surpass what is often taught can do that.  Others can trim that part of the course off.  Still others can take even a more abbreviated approach.   The underlying principle for learning nearly anything is some system of spaced review.  Some people need to work on learning a language every day to gain ground.  Others can learn just as well or sometimes better with more spacing between study times.

Once you determine your learning objective and get a feel for your natural talent, the best pattern for you to learn will become apparent.   I would caution you not to rush things for whatever level of competency you are pursuing.  Give yourself ample time to work on the exercises while continuing to review appropriate brief lectures and exercise examples.  You will also want to give yourself time to review vocabulary daily.  The speed that you can learn new vocabulary may help guide your pace.  You don’t want to be in a situation where you must be looking up every word you see.  If you feel this start to happen, go back a few chapters for review and work through exercises again or work through them backwards (i.e.., you can take the composition answer key and translate that if you need more exercises.)

I do suggest one language at a time.  I don’t think it really matters which language you start with.  I would choose the one that you think you will be using more frequently so you can stay up with it as you learn the second one.  We are planning on producing advanced or reading level courses.

I’ll look forward to you joining the course’s Faithlife group and interacting with you there.  I hope you will consider writing community notes within the group, so many people can be encouraged and join in the learning experience with us.