Modern Greek, Modern Hebrew, Mordern Arabic.

ZhongGuoRen   Mon Nov 27, 2006 11:33 am GMT
Modern Greek, Modern Hebrew, Mordern Arabic.

Which one is the most difficult language? Thanks!
ZhongGuoRen   Mon Nov 27, 2006 11:42 am GMT
Modern Greek, Modern Hebrew, Mordern Arabic.

Which one sounds beautiful? Which one is of greet help?


Thanks!!!
Ion   Mon Nov 27, 2006 2:11 pm GMT
From my stand point, Greek is most helpful; although the modern Greek is different than the old Greek, it might be helping you to understand/learn the old Greek as well. To learn old Greek , for historians, archaeologists and so on, it is a must!

Ancient Greece has given the World some of the most important philosophers, historians, mathematicians, medics, artists and politicians. The ancient Greece had put in practice the first democratic socio-political system, recognised and practiced now by the modern world. (Of course, adjusted to the actual time)

It took over 2000 years to the Germans, French etc to understand and accept democracy as a society model. Some of our societies didn't understand not even today that democracy means, the power in people's hands...

That's why, I think Greek is the most important...but this is only from my perspective...you might need to consider your personal reasons in order to make the final decision...I was telling you only what I would do, if I had to chose between the languages you mentioned.
peter   Mon Nov 27, 2006 5:14 pm GMT
I think arabic sounds great, very erotic. Greek sounds horrible, really annoying. But i don't have clear opinion about hebrew.
ZhongGuoRen   Tue Nov 28, 2006 4:50 am GMT
Thank you all for your above patient advice,
And I'm a Chinese, living in Mainland China。
In Mainland, some of Hebrew or Arabic textbooks can be found in bookshops,so we can learn Hebrew or Arabic just through Chinese.
But I still haven't found any Greek (Modern Greek) textbook here.
So I want to know that, for an English speaker, Which series of textbooks would be the best one for you to learn Modern Greek step by step. And I can also learn Greek through English instead of Chinese, if necessary.
Thanks again!
ZhongGuoRen   Tue Nov 28, 2006 5:01 am GMT
By the way, the Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the New Testament was written in Greek? Which one is the language of Jesus?

Thanks!
ZhongGuoRen   Tue Nov 28, 2006 11:20 am GMT
If Modern Greek is the easiest one in there 3 languages, then which is the most difficult one, Hebrew or Arabic? Thanks!!!
Borrokan   Tue Nov 28, 2006 6:25 pm GMT
hebrew and arabic are same sounds (semitic family) in my opinion, greek is interesting, and mystic...
For my opinion if you know latin alphabet, greek is more easy than arabic and hebrew but arabic is easy to learn
ZhongGuoRen   Wed Nov 29, 2006 4:32 am GMT
Borrokan:(greek is more easy than arabic and hebrew but arabic is easy to learn)。


Mr Borrokan:

Hebrew is even more difficult than Arabic?

Why? Thanks!
Guest   Wed Nov 29, 2006 10:56 am GMT
<<It took over 2000 years to the Germans, French etc to understand and accept democracy as a society model. Some of our societies didn't understand not even today that democracy means, the power in people's hands...>>

2000 years ago, there were no Germans, French, so it couldn't take them 2000 years to understand and accept democracy.

Are you really sure that Germans understood and accept democraty as a social model? (I'm German.)

In Germany, we have only indirect democracy=no democracy. This holds for many countries. Real democracy is direct democracy! As far as I have heard, the ancient Greek invented democracy to avoid tyranny. It isn't likely that they cared about the concept of a ''society model''.

Does democracy really mean ''the power in people's hands''?

If there is tyranny, dictatorship, etc. the people know about that they are unfree. With modern democracy, most people believe that they are free, but they aren't really. There are more subtle mechanisms to manipulate the peoples lifes and thoughts. Most of the people don't recognice that they are manipulated, e.g. by the media, by religion, by teachers; or they do, but choose the easy way: they obey. Actually, there's no real choice. If a ''democratic'' government likes to have a certain law, a certain decision, a certain way of development for the country, they have means to enforce it, even against the will of the people. In Germany, the best exemple for that is the socalled ''Rechtschreibreform'', the orthographic reform.
Guest   Wed Nov 29, 2006 11:02 am GMT
<<Hebrew and Arabic are Semitic languages and Arabic is a conservative Semitic language at that with fewer links to Western culture and the Western worldview than Hebrew.>>

Here a link to Ivrit, the modern Hebrew language: http://www.geocities.com/ourjewishgroups/1Ivrit/Definition.html
Ion   Wed Nov 29, 2006 12:27 pm GMT
Guest, I dint have the intention to make a philosophical analyze of democracy or to study the term in its essence. I was only trying to justify why I would chose Greek against other languages...If you really want to run with me into such a subject, (about democracy of ancient time), and to compare it the one of today we need to find another forum because we cannot monopolize this one as long as this is a languages designated one.

On the other hand, I was using generic terms, Germans, French etc...Just by accident...it could happen to be something else...Sorry if this was upsetting you in any way. I didn't have any intention to do so.

Then, how could you say that 2000 years ago, the Germans didn't exist? When I mentioned Germans, I used this word as a generic name for the Germans tribes which are here, on our planet from more than 2000 years, ( denk mal nur an die ersten Gotten! Die waren hier, seit so lange!)

Am I sure if Germany is a democratic country? Yes, I'm. Democracy cannot be defined as something idealistic. Everything what human nature has created, generated, invented is perfectible. It is never perfect, but perfectible. The actual German democracy is a direct democracy, to use your term, by comparasion with the ancient Greek democracy...

By comparison with what we have today, the Greek democracy would appear as a dictatorship. Real democracy, direct democracy, indirect democracies are just non sense terminologies.

Democracy is a relative thing and in its relativity, it exists or not, simple like that. Germany is a democratic country because of a few criteria which are respected and which people understood and agreed on them and respect them : free elections, free expression of opinion, liberty of people movement (motion) etc. That you are not totally happy with the German democracy, it is normal, as long as we accept that democracy (the power in people's hand) is a relative event. Einverstanden?
observer   Thu Nov 30, 2006 1:50 am GMT
Hey guys (Guest & Ion), I suggest you should both let go for the “democracy” discussion, otherwise this thread will be terminated by Schwarzneger (it did happened many times). if you want to discuss such topics, start your own thread (I doubt though if it will last more than two or three posts before it evolves into an aggravated crisis), and let the guy who started this thread to get ideas on the original topic that he came for…Don’t you think you both, the “Democratic civilized guys”, that he has the right for that, and you have no rights to ruin it for him?
Calliope   Thu Nov 30, 2006 3:59 am GMT
1. Democracy (greek: δημοκρατία) means "the people in power".

2. Observer is right, let's not get this thread deleted too.

3. ZhongGuoRen, since you are chinese, all 3 languages will look strange for you. However:

-arabic is probably the most useful one of the three right now, and I hear the grammar is pretty easy.

-hebrew is probably the less probable to run into, and I hear it is pretty complex. I don't know much about it though, so don't take my word for it...

-greek is a language you can do without, but you might run into it occasionally (however, in those occasions you will be fine knowing just english). The grammar is kind of weird; I have to disagree that if you know english, greek will be easier. The only thing that will come easier is the alphabet and perhaps some vocabulary (some loans from greek that there are in the english language - in any case, not that much).

It all depends what you need the language for. To work with, I'd go for arabic. To know one of the "weird" languages without killing yourself trying, again I'd go with arabic. If you are an archaeologist or interested in antiquities, greek. If you just want to go abroad as a tourist, I'd say greek again (then again, I might be biased, heh). To study religious texts, or to know a challenging language just to prove you can do it, Hebrew.

As for the sound, I like how all three sound. I think hebrew and arabic have some similarities in the way they sound, but still I think they are pretty distinct. But you know how it is - when it comes to aesthetics, it is all subjective... maybe look up on the internet some recorder samples and see what sound you prefer yourself..?
Calliope   Thu Nov 30, 2006 4:01 am GMT
Um, I meant to type "recorded samples". Not "recorder samples". That would be pretty irrelevant, heh.