Biblical Hebrew Forum

["" <peterg45 AT excite.com>]

Hi
   I have been following closely this whole thread. My observation is that, like in anything else, one must learn the basics--rather that be the basics of a foreign language or football--you must know how to get to the end zone.
   Also, there are persons who are gifted with what in German is called "Sprachgefuehl" - (? spelling), who have the ability to pick up a language miraculously. I had a Hebrew prof at the seminary who taught W.F. Albright at John Hopkins. He was no longer a student when Cyrus Gordon produced his Ugartic manual, so he had no introduction to the Ugaritic language. He discovered five mistakes concerning the Ugartic language in Gordon's manual.
   There is no "easy" way to learn a foreign language, unless one has a God-given apptitude to do so. I slaved over Hebrew and Greek word lists and paradigms in college with lots of sweat. Now that I am a retired minister, I enjoy working with both Greek and Hebrew with occasional need to check out what in college we called "cheaters".
   Learning a foreign language for most people is like keeping in shape physically--"no pain, no gain."

Peter Gordon

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