From: Steven Cox (scox@chinaonline.com.cn.net)
Date: Thu Apr 23 1998 - 19:57:32 EDT
It is possible to learn a new language in six months, the UK Foreign
Office and many European multinationals quite often give their key
staff intensive language "immersion" before sending them on their
4 year postings. When these lucky ones arrive in the country they
may not be able to discuss technical matters but they can read newspapers
and start the routine communication of life and work in the language and
capitalise on every minute of their time there. However this is incredibly
expensive (for the employer) and not really relevant to a "dead" language.
For most people "hours" are a more relevant measure than "years" with
the caveat that 1000 in 100 days back to back are worth 3000 spread over
3 years.
For an English speaker I would have thought K.Greek is not that much worse
than German and certainly easier than Russian or Polish. In theory that
should give an indication of the hours required.
But the range of b-greek materials is average - though a bit topheavy - and
the lack of a decent modern Harraps/Collins/Robert/Sansoni/Kenkyusha
standard dictionary is embarrassing. That's supply and demand at work of
course.
Best
S.
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