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jdhomrighausen
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Apr 01, 2013 5:09 pm

Greetings!

Post by jdhomrighausen »

I've known about textkit for some time but am only now taking the plunge. I am Jonathan. I am a religious studies and classics double major so this forum should be a no-brainer for me.

In terms of languages, I only got serious about studying languages at about 19 or 20. Before that, I had taken two years of high school Spanish (didn't everyone?) and two quarters of Chinese at a local community college. I really loved the challenge of learning Chinese but had to move so was unable to continue it.

More recently: I am Catholic, and my parish where I used to live was next door to a synagogue. Through some coincidences (I like to think the Holy Spirit) I ended up studying biblical Hebrew with the rabbi. I have been plugging away at Biblical Hebrew Since May 2011. For my introductory grammar I used Page Kelley's book.

When I transferred to the university I attend now, I immediately signed up for ancient Greek. We are using Shelmerdine's textbook. I originally signed up for Greek to read the New Testament, but have now learned of the perils of "preacher's Greek" and have broadened my interests to the entire classical world.

When I first came to this school, I was trying to avoid Latin, but I am being lured into medieval Latin by my RS department chair, who is a medievalist. So this summer I will start with Collins' text.

Outside of classical and biblical languages, I am learning classical Tibetan, and have a very elementary ability to read it. I once made a vow to myself to learn the sacred languages of all the world's major religious traditions. I am now not so sure if one lifetime is enough to also learn Quranic Arabic and Sanskrit. (Plus there's the issue of some religious traditions having different texts written in different languages - so the Therevadin Buddhists read sutras in Pali, the Tibetans in Tibetan, the Zen in Japanese, etc. Even Buddhist Studies scholars don't learn all the languages of the major schools of Buddhism; my Tibetan teacher, a specialist in Tantra, only knows Tibetan, Sanskrit, and Chinese.) I have also recently been curious about the ancient Semitic cognate languages, such as Akkadian and Ugaritic, that are relevant to the study of ancient Hebrew and the people who spoke it.

Peace.

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