The Beautiful Struggle of Learning Another Language

I did not want to take a biblical language.

A central part of any curriculum at the college I attend is the language requirement. Since I attend a very (very) small college, the offerings the college has the ability to set throughout the academic calendar is consistently sparse. The language requirement is no exception to this. Since the seminary portion of the school is by far the larger of the two schools, Biblical Greek and Hebrew are given priority (rightly), and each course (I and II) are offered every semester. Not so for language options like Spanish and Latin (the only other language options); these are only offered yearly, depending on the course. Therefore, not seeing an offering in sight, a few years ago I decided to apply for dual enrollment at a community college back from my hometown, a community college which delightfully offered Beginning German. As someone whose ancestors migrated from Germany and constituted one of the five major Renner clans at that time, has toured Germany, and took German during high school, I felt German was the language I would enjoy learning. Unfortunately, because of different complications and other factors, I failed the class (the only class I have ever failed, mind you).

So I postponed the language requirement.

Well, this semester is my final(ish) semester, and I have to fulfill the language requirement; deciding that Hebrew would undoubtedly be the harder and more laborious option of the two ancient languages, I registered for Greek.

And I freaking love it.

I had forgotten how fun, challenging, and horizon-expanding language-learning is. Though our vocabulary range is limited to ancient New Testament usages (the course offering is called "Biblical Greek for Ministry I"), I still feel like I am entering into an ancient world every time I approach my flashcards for memorization practice. I even phonetically equated the biblical Greek letters to my families' names this past week:

αλεξ ρεννερ = Alex Renner

ρανδι ρεννερ = Randy Renner

χριστι ρεννερ = Christy Renner

ραγεν ρεννερ = Ragen Renner

κριστεν ρεννερ = Kristen Renner

ροδ ρεννερ = Rod Renner

Like, what the heck! Although I am the runt of the Biblical Greek litter, I feel a deep passion for and enjoyment of the learning process for this beautiful, ancient language. I felt the same thing when I did a personal study of theological German a few years ago (albeit without the communal aspect of language-learning which is a crucial and extremely helpful thing for learning a language), but this is a whole new ballgame. If at all possible, let one of your bucket-list items be to learn one language other than English, regardless of your level of education or perception of your own learning abilities. The saturation of your mind in differing paradigms of reality (most of all in different linguistic paradigms) opens up your understanding and experience of life in completely new and exciting ways. Jump on in, my αδελφοσ!