Do you remember learning your mother tongue? Probably not, it just kind of happened, as if without effort. Wouldn’t it be great to learn other languages that easily and yet so effectively? In fact, research has shown that the way a child learns its mother tongue is the best and most efficient way for everyone, at any age, to learn additional languages. The trick, then, is to imitate how young children learn languages as closely as possible.
So how do they do it? Well, they spend hours listening to the language before they start trying to produce or read it. They immerse themselves (they call it “play”) in the world around them, interacting with objects, actions and ideas long before they know the proper words and expressions, knowing that with repetition meaning will become self-evident. And when they do start talking, they make hundreds of mistakes, and they don’t care that they do (nor do their parents).
For over two decades the Biblical Language Center, with its Living Biblical Languages approach, has adapted these principles to the languages of the Bible, so you can learn them as easily and as efficiently as a child learns its mother-tongue. There are no vocabulary lists to memorize, nor any verb charts to reproduce. Instead, one “plays” with the language, so that it can be felt, intuitively understood and, best of all, internalized for good. It is so easy that at times one even forgets one is learning a new language!
No other curriculum for biblical languages applies these principles as thoroughly as the “Living Biblical Languages” method. Only the Living Biblical Languages method starts with having you just listen to the language with understanding right from the beginning, enabling you to gain a vocabulary basis of several hundred words before you even begin reading. No other textbooks include as many hours of audio material to help you hear, practice and internalize the language. And our immersion classes are the only ones that guarantee two instructors in every class, so that you can experience the language in action, not just hear it talked about.
Want to see how easy it is? Check out our Hebrew and Greek of the first self-study lesson. Watch our video about the immersion courses. Or read what our students are saying about the effectiveness of our Living Biblical Languages approach.