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Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

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  • From: Randall Buth <ButhFam AT compuserve.com>
  • To: "Christian M. M. Brady" <cbrady AT tulane.edu>
  • Cc: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Teaching in Biblical Hebrew
  • Date: Sat, 18 May 2002 19:58:08 -0400


shalom Christian,

>
>Now, if the Chair had said that you should teach it in *biblical Hebrew*
her
>analogy might have had weight... When was the last time has anyone taught
a
>Hebrew Bible class in *biblical Hebrew*?

Now you're talking.

We speak Biblical Hebrew in our summer ulpan here.
See

www.biblicalulpan.org

for a description and some student testimonies.

So who is hired as a teacher? someone who can fluently direct people
around a room and outside like a BH circus director.
Now its a curious thing that the only people that have qualified are all
fluent in modern Hebrew. Hmmm. Does that say anything?

By the way, the above is not all that easy to do. Imagine trying to teach
Shakespearean English "in the language". We keep an Even-Shoshan in
the back of the class for teacher reference during breaks. Doing the
above doesn't mean that mistakes arn't made. Sometimes a modernism
will slip in without thinking and the teacher will slap himself on the
mouth. Students enjoy that. A relaxed atmoshpere helps everyone
learn. Especially common slip-ups are `axshav for `atta "now" and
ken as "yes" instead of echoing the salient word. ("Are you happy with
that?" Ans: "Happy" [not 'yes'].) But students are certainly learning
more than if the time was all spent in English.

blessings,

Randall Buth



  • Teaching in Biblical Hebrew, Randall Buth, 05/18/2002

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