Saturday, August 06, 2005

Greek Verbs

So, last night I went to bed thoroughly spent and discouraged because I'm finding Greek so difficult. If the class were on a semester schedule, we'd just have completed ten weeks -- instead of two.

Early this morning, I dreamed that I was at Wartburg library's circulation desk. I asked to check out some Greek verbs, starting with the verb for "to loosen or destroy" in all its tenses. Problem is, all the present active indicative forms were available, as were the passive, but the imperfect forms already were checked out. The librarian suggested that I might check out the imperfect forms for a different verb, but I couldn't believe that she expected me to mix them, and was on the verge of shouting at her when.....I awoke, grinning. Wacky Greek dream, to be sure, but this morning I'm happy to note that I've recovered from my accumulated sleep deprivation, and thus have regained my sense of humor.

Note to self: Greek is challenging. I hope to heaven that it is challenging for everybody and that I am not alone in my frustration as I make mistakes. Working on verbs before going to bed is not the best idea. Perhaps savoring ice cream before bed is better!

7 Comments:

Blogger Susie/Nueva Cantora said...

Ice cream before bed is always better.

9:33 AM  
Blogger Beth said...

And yes, Greek is supposed to be challenging. That's a great dream though - especially the part where you wake up grinning. :)

12:24 PM  
Blogger Voyager said...

As far as the syntax and how the language works, it makes a thousand times more sense than English. Unfortunately, what always made it so difficult on me was the lack of time (desire?) to memorize my vocabulary.

Though I have fallen far out of practice, at one time I could look at any suffix and prefix and give you a part of speech, tense, et al. I just couldnt tell you what the word meant because I liked sleeping (and doing my history homework) better than studying my greek vocab.

Participles suck, by the way. :-D

9:38 PM  
Blogger geebrooke said...

During my exams I played some chess with a friend to unwind. But then, my nightmares would get mixed up, me trying to double my NT Theology rooks along the Bultmann rank, to bring my Wrede knight into the attack...

I'm glad you are grinning on awakening; I would be scared and nauseated. :^)

Hang in there!Intensive language courses are indeed awfully intense.

6:29 AM  
Blogger The Archer of the Forest said...

I stick by my guns...Latin is so much more fun.

5:54 PM  
Blogger Voyager said...

Did you know the latin classification for a gorilla (genus/species) was 'Gorilla Gorilla'?

6:05 PM  
Blogger The Rev. Dr. Debra K. Bullock said...

A) I only just discovered your blog - where have I been! So out of the loop!

B) I studied Greek as an undergraduate (let's see 1990-91, as I recall).

C) More of it stuck than Hebrew which I studied in grad. school (let's see 1993-5).

D) Like voyager, I too, have neglected my vocabulary --- so I bought a CD-ROM that has vocabulary quizzes on it (it sounded fun somehow) - sadly, I have not put it in my computer. I bet it would work better if I did :)

Great to have found you on the web and I'll be looking forward to seeing you in real life again soon!

8:32 PM  

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