The view from my desk…
The first day of Greek (Koine greek) is all about learning the alphabet. Learning how to write the letters is important, and knowing the order of the letters (alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, eta, theta, iota, kappa, lambda, mu, nu, xi, omicron, pi, rho, sigma – and final sigma, tau, upsilon, phi, chi, psi, omega) helps in looking up the meanings of words.
For homework, we’re given a few passages in either greek or transliterated greek (English letters, Greek spelling) and have to take them from one version to the other. There’s a lot of homework, but it seems to be sinking in so far. Tomorrow, we start to look at sentence structure.
It’s good to be back at college. Again I’m struck by the contrast between a bible college and a normal tertiary institution. Just as when I was working full time and pursuing a masters at UTS, there are people there who are there for the coursework, not for the conversation. It’s hard not to be one of those people at college, but the people I know from last year, and a few new faces, remind me that college is not just about the course content, but also about living the life of a Christian in a studying community.
In some ways, it would be easier if it was just about learning the language, but to focus on the academic content is to sell the experience short – and possibly to leave college having entirely missed the point.
Oh, and we were even recommended a font page from where we can download a font called SPIonic for Mac or PC: it allows a student to use the Greek characters on their computer, with all the different markings that we need to be aware of (aspirations, accents, and iotas).