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A Better Way to Read German

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openphotonet_bible-german-m-luther-2

Learning a new language—whatever language that might be—takes time and effort. German is no different. Some might even say that certain features make it a more difficult language than others. This is partly due to the fact that German is an inflected language; it has a host of irregular verbs, the gender of nouns is not readily apparent from their endings but must be memorized, and there are those tricky issues of verb placement and separable prefixes.

Thus, German is the bane and solace of many biblical scholars of whatever subdiscipline. [Read more…]

The Open Secret to Mastering Greek and Hebrew Vocabulary (It’s Not Flashcards)

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how to memorize greek and hebrew vocabulary

You could tell I was one of them. The hole-punched cards hanging from a steel ring on my belt loop gave me away.

I was an ancient language student.

The cards were my flashcards, and I didn’t go anywhere without them: to class, to the student dining room, to the dorm, to the movies, even to weddings. I would flip through them whenever I had a spare moment.

I had to, because learning a new language requires discipline and perseverance. Even after you’ve conquered the grammatical and syntactical intricacies of the language, you still need to add more (and more) words to your vocabulary storehouse—and somehow maintain what you’ve already learned.

While flashcards were helpful, I found they weren’t enough. I needed a better way to learn new words and reinforce the words I already knew.

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