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Foreign Language
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Hi ladies! Does anyone have experience with learning Koine Greek? I am trying to decide which foreign language to have my daughter take in high school. She has worked on a bit of French and a bit of Spanish. I’ve read that one cannot truly become fluent in a language unless they can work with someone who speaks that language. I’ve heard that there are various resources online that make this option available but I’m not sure how I feel about my daughter talking to complete strangers over skype. :-\
What foreign languages have your children taken and have they become fluent in the chosen language?
In light of this idea, I’m leaning toward a classical language-either Latin or Koine Greek. I’m drawn more towards Greek because of the bible study benefits.
Thoughts?
My dd is fluent in sign language. Our church has a deaf ministry, so it hasn’t been too difficult to find opportunities for her to talk with people who are deaf.
Another consideration when choosing a language is that if your dd is college bound, make sure that her college of choice excepts her choice language for credits.
I forgot to mention that in my opinion most students do not become or remain fluent in a foreign language, unless they use it regularly. This is especially true if they only take two years. Fluency is great, but can be difficult to obtain and maintain.
My 17yo daughter, who graduated this summer, is semi-fluent in sign language. She took two years at a high school homeschool co-op, then a year at the local community college. She is just now finishing up two months serving at a school for the deaf in Uganda, so she says her ASL now has a Ugandan Sign Language accent- hee hee. Her goal is to become completely fluent by taking more classes and interacting with the Deaf community here, then eventually use her knowledge overseas in deaf ministries and places where the community is underserved. Of course, her fluency has been greatly increased by spending two months signing all day every day.
She had always been interested in ASL, but until we found the resources, she was also interested in Greek. She used Elementary Greek for 2.5 years and then took one year of high school Greek online. She enjoyed it and might have continued except that we found the co-op that offered ASL and she was off and runnning. Er, signing.
My oldest daughter took two years of Latin online when she was homeschooling, after three years of lower level study. I think it was one of the best parts of her homeschool experience and was the hardest I’d ever seen her work academically. I hoped she would go on to more Latin but she chose not to because of the time it took each week, and because university wasn’t her goal so she didn’t need to fulfill a certain requirement. She loved Latin, though, and I know she doesn’t regret it.
It does take a lot of effort to become fluent in another language. I have been speaking French to my kids since they were born. I am the only person around them who speaks French and I don’t know that I would say they are fluent. The make a lot of mistakes.
I think the true way to learn a language is to live in a country where that language is spoken. (Of course sign language would be the exception!)
Thanks so much for sharing your experiences ladies! It sounds like sign language has been the perfect fit for some of your children! That’s wonderful that they are using them to help others. 🙂
Friends who have children in college have told me that most colleges do not accept homeschooled foreign language credits. They will only accept them from accredited sources, like community college classes.
Since it doesn’t seem like fluency is attainable for my daughter in our current circumstance, what other benefits have you seen from studying foreign languages?
We like Latin. Since it’s a dead language, fluency isn’t as important (which makes it less intimidating for me to teach). A couple benefits are improved grammar and vocabulary. Since many of our words are Latin or Greek based, it can help their vocabulary…many people recommend Latin if your DC are going into scientific or medical fields. My DH is really good at grammar, and I really think it’s due to the number of languages he learned at the seminary (Greek, Hebrew, Latin). Hebrew and Greek would obviously have benefits when it comes to Bible study as well (as you already mentioned).
We also purchased Rosetta Stone Spanish over the summer. There are mixed reviews over it, but I don’t think it will hurt. I don’t think we’ll achieve fluency with it either, but maybe at some point we’ll be able to have lessons with a native speaker. I really like the idea of having them study Spanish or sign language since those are the two “foreign” languages we come into contact the most in the US.
Holly, does your husband recommend learning Koine Greek? Does he remember his Greek studies well and do they aide him in his Bible studies? I guess what I’m wondering is how much do students retain? Do Pastors still have to look up the Greek meanings of most words? Can they read the Bible in it’s original language after studying Greek in depth for a few years?
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