[B-Greek] "Crossing the Rubicon" (learning Greek NOT in English)
Arthur King
amgking at sbcglobal.net
Wed Jun 20 15:38:31 EDT 2007
On Jun 20, 2007, at 3:37 PM, Arthur King wrote:
Then there's the story reported in the N.Y. Times last year about the
Spanish-speaking handyman who achieved fluency in Yiddish while
working in a Jewish deli, motivated by a strong desire to be able to
speak Yiddish with his coworkers and the customers. No grammar
lessons or discourse analysis - just a group of encouraging
coworkers. For those so inclined, there's likely to be a Greek
restaurant near you.
Arthur King
Clinton, CT
On Jun 20, 2007, at 10:52 AM, Iver Larsen wrote:
People can learn foreign languages to various degrees of fluency by
various methods.
1. You can be born into a community that speaks the language. In that
case you have limited use for
grammar and discourse studies. You know the grammar without knowing
why you know it. But then, I
have seen examples of people mistranslating from a language they know
well into their mothertongue,
precisely because they were not consciously aware of the discourse
features of their own language.
2. You can spend much time hearing, speaking, reading and writing the
language. This is what Randall
Buth and others advocate in order to obtain a high degree of fluency.
3. You can spend much time reading the language, some time writing
it, but little time hearing and
speaking it.
[SNIP]
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