Friday, April 5, 2013

Resource Review: The Singing Grammarian

Yikes. What a title: The Singing Grammarian. Here’s a quick look at the “cover art” even though this is a digital product: Singing Grammarian 18 Video Bundle   [Video Download] -     <br />        By: H. Daniel Zacharias<br />    <br />

 

This is produced by Kregel’s Academic and Ministry publishing group, and they provided me with a copy in exchange for the review. They did not insist that I say nice things, just that I say things. So: Things.

Good things:

1. Cost: this product is available through Christian Book Distributors (the picture is linked) and at the time of this review costs less than $20. For that, you get 19 videos that run through the grammar concepts for first year Greek. That is an excellent value.

2. Concepts: the concepts are titled rather than keyed to a specific grammar textbook. This is helpful: when you’re on Subjunctive, just take the track for it. This will work with you whether you’re learning Nouns first or Verbs first. It can even work if you’re going old school and doing 8-declension methods.

3. Correct: this should be stated: the Greek is right, based on the textbooks available to check it.

4. Coupled: video is coupled with audio, so there is a full-on learning experience. You may not understand the language after this, but you will be able to do the endings/paradigms. (Of course, you may have to sing through them constantly, but that’s a small price to pay.)

5. Complete: except vocabulary, I do not see anything missing here.

Medium things:

1. Availability: it appears to only be available from CBD or direct from Kregel. That’s not bad, just a minor annoyance because I would have to go out-of-the-way to buy it. I would, if I knew about it—but it’s still a trifle not positive.

2. Acoustics: it’s not meant to be a rock-and-roll album, and so the music production isn’t the best. The focus is lyrical, though, so you’ll cope, too. After all, getting lost in the rockin’ guitar riff during the second declension genitive, and you’ll miss a lot!

Bad things:

1. Restrictions: well, it’s a video product. You can only watch it on devices that play back MP4 video files. That’s not much of a bad, but you would be advised to double-check your system.

2. Resources: again, it’s a video. Total space needed is a little over 1.6 GB, so make sure you have the resources to store The Singing Grammarian. A nice dedicated thumb drive is perfect here: take it with you if you need to.

I hate to over-shill a free product, but this is one of those times when something is just plain useful. If you want to learn New Testament Greek, you will want to find the ways that help you memorize the crucial building blocks of the language, and you should try The Singing Grammarian to help you out. Here’s a sample video:

Again, I was given access to the videos by Kregel Academic & Ministry in exchange for the review.

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