I think that the more languages in the world do not have their own book like this, but these books have a difficult language in the meanings and it is difficult to learn. But the solution is to learn from content that interests us.
Who says we get off topic?? :)~~
@Colin - Ooooh! I luuuuv 24! What was the missing German Bauer line? Was it “Verdammt noch mal!”??~
@Dobie42 “I think the main problem is that some people on this thread are using the thread as an excuse to rant about what they like/don’t like about the bible…when that wasn’t the question in the first place…”
I think I´m the only one who did that and I only wrote one post about it.
"By your standards, the standards of those who see the bible as fiction, then nobody should use fiction to learn, period, because it’s not true…Doesn’t make much sense, does it? "
Did anyone on this thread make that argument?
“There are plenty of forums and sites for you to discuss the bible in detail, this is not one of them.”
No one discussed the bible in detail…
ad SanneT: (…) Swedish friends once gave me some Watchtower material in English which I unfortunately left in an hotel in Stockholm. From what I remember the language used in the stories was fairly normal, ie not antiquated. (…)
Well, the Watchtower is a “religious comic” showing green meadows, happy housewives and fathers dressed in suits coming home to a room full of pious children. It reads like a report from “God’s suburbia”.
Of course, you also get the occasional horror story about how terrible mankind is and that we are all doomed…“fortunately”, the last paragraph or so of every story reveals that there is hope and that we will all (or at least a few hundred thousand) be saved if we follow Jehova’s rules.
So much for the content of the Watchtower. This does not have much to do with the Bible, however. They only cite a few passages from the Bible in each issue, the rest is written in modern language.
I know the Watchtower pretty well because one of my aunts has been providing us with tons of these religious mangas for years and years.
The original question was, I quote “Can you learn a language by studying the Bible translation in that language?”.
I guess the answer depends on what kind of language you would like to be able to use.
Sure, you will learn the tenses, adjectives, adverbs etc. It might get tricky when it comes to the word order and the spelling (especially in German), because we simply don’t speak and write like this anymore.
You will still be comprehensible, but you’ll sound a bit strange, to say the least. Try talking to a native speaker of German the way the Bible is written and wait for their reaction.
You will certainly learn some aspects about the language, but irrespective of whether you consider the Bible and its stories “interesting” or “intelligible” content or not, I wonder how anybody would be able to learn how to speak comprehensible English based on phrases like these:
(…) And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?¨¨ (Genesis 3:11) (…)
Some of the German versions sound similarly outdated. There are newer ones, even so-called “Jugendbibeln” (Bibles for the youngsters) which are written in modern style. But I don’t think the OP was referring to that kind of bibles.
If you use many other sources, I guess the outdated language of the Bible will probably not cause too much harm, but I doubt it would be of any linguistic help to someone beginning to learn a language.
It is one thing to enjoy reading older texts and yet another to assume that you can actually learn a language from scratch (and I think that was the OP’s question) by using outdated material (outdated linguistically speaking, if you are a devout Christian the Bible will, of course, never be outdated for you).
I sometimes find it interesting to read texts on religions but the days where I enjoyed reading a religious text itself are long gone. I have read the Bible, the Thora, the Qu’ran and quite a few other religious texts in various languages. I cannot think of a single incident where what I had read came in handy for me at a later point of time (linguistically speaking).
I’m not referring to the content here. It is always good to know why people think you are going to hell 
One might think from reading this forum that Bibles are all written in antiquated language. There’s nothing especially holy for me as a Christian to read antiquated language - and personally, I can’t stand reading all the “thee’s, thou’s, shouldest, wouldest, etc”.
Funny enough, I do know that both my mother and her mother initially learned to read at public school from the Bible. Thank goodness I had “Run, Dick, run!” instead. And I did hear of a Korean man back in the 80s who learned to speak Japanese within 6 months of using only a Japanese Bible.
I’d much prefer to read: (Genesis 3:11) God said, “Who told you you were naked? Did you eat from that tree I told you not to eat from?”, from the contemporary ‘The Message’ version I use everyday. I have no interest in foreign language Bibles that aren’t written in contemporary language, either. I find linguistically-outdated Bibles, er, *outdated *, for me too!
I think the real key is to combine your passion and interests with your language learning - be that from manga, the Bible, cooking books, soap operas (No! Not “Neighbours”!!), or whatever - especially in contemporary language.
Having said that, I still own useful language materials that have vocabulary such as PABX switchboard, telegram, tape recorder, LP record, Ronald Reagan…ah, the bad 'ol days…:)~
“soap operas (No! Not “Neighbours”!!)”
Dammit!!!
@Colin - hahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!
@Julz “And I did hear of a Korean man back in the 80s who learned to speak Japanese within 6 months of using only a Japanese Bible.”
Uhm…no.^^
He would already know many of the Chinese characters that are used in Japanese but how did he learn the pronounciation of them? And what about the two syllabaries? What about listening comprehension? At which point can you´ve that you learned "learned Japanese? I think there are several possibilities…
- He learned to read some Japanese by reading the bible and using at least a dictionary.
- He was a genius. The Einstein of learning Japanese.
- It didn´t happen.
- It was a miracle.^^
- It was like “Chinese whispers”, a certain amount of distortion in the telling and re-telling of the event. But miracles do happen!
- It did happen.
- It was no miracle ^^
- According to You Tube/internet ^^, Koreans can pick up fluent Japanese within a year, generally speaking.
- I never said he was fluent after 6 months ^^
- I didn’t ask about the pronunciation. Who knows, maybe someone taught him how to pronounce the kana (doesn’t take long). My Bible from the 80s has furigana.
- He was able to travel and speak to groups of Japanese people without an interpreter. Just sayin’
- I like using ^^ from my French keyboard:)~
- His English, on the other hand, was terrible. “Brushes an shishters!” (brothers and sisters)
@ Julz - Your weird Australian numbering system is something I didn’t learn from Neighbours.
Anyway, if the story is true, which apparently it is, my guess as to what happened is that he learned how to read basic Japanese in 6 months from a Japanese bible. If he had an audio version too, he might have learned some basic spoken Japanese too. At the end of the 6 months, he was probably approximately Benny fluent.
I wondered, “What strange Australian numbering system?”
I see, two sentences are numbered 4! We all write these posts quite quickly. Julz will not be offended, that’s for sure. What a great sense of humour you both have!
@Julz "According to You Tube/internet ^^, Koreans can pick up fluent Japanese within a year, generally speaking. "
I just googled “similarities between Japanese and Korean” and it seems like they´re more similar than I thought.
The “let´s learn a language with nothing more than a Bible”-method is much more effective when you already know a similar language…
Let´s say someone locks me up in a cell and the only things in it are a bed, a toilet and a Bible. My kidnappers tell me “We´ll open the door as soon as you can understand the gist of what´s written in that Bible over there!”.
I´d be able to figure out a Dutch Bible within a few months, but I´d probably commit suicide if they gave me a Bible in Chinese.
@Paul - (I’ve only just seen your last post). I’m assuming you meant it was a parallel text, then.
Problem with your scenario… It would all unravel anyway, as…what on earth would you use for loo paper?!! Huh, huh?!
Even I would have to succumb to the obvious solution. God would understand:)
On a serious note, I reckon Paule would learn to read Chinese much more quickly than he thinks - if his life and liberty depended on it.
(One of the few things life has taught me, is that we always tend to underestimate ourselves. The human mind and spirit are actually capable of some pretty extraordinary feats if the chips are really down…)
“I’m assuming you meant it was a parallel text, then.”
Nope. Only a Chinese or Dutch Bible, nothing more.^^
I was assuming that the kidnappers don´t really care about the sanity or hygiene of their hostage.
@Paule
I see. Well that’s certainly a tough hypothetical learning environment!
Personally, if I were in that situation (and if my life depended on it) I would be looking for a pentecostal tongue of fire, I guess! (The flip side of that is, after leaving the prison, I’d probably have to spend the rest of my life as a China missionary…)
(Aber wer weiß? Vielleicht würde ich eine nette junge Chinesin als Ehefrau kriegen? Dann könnte das Wort “Missionar” noch viel interessanter werden - wenn du verstehst, was ich meine! :-D)
There are children reading this forum, a bit of judicial editing required here, methinks, although it is not a bad play of words.
@Sanne
Gemacht. Ist es in Ordnung so, Mutti?
Übrigens: ihr musst mir verzeihen - ich kann einfach nicht anders…irgendwie…
(Bin wohl einsam in letzter Zeit…)
Du bist ein Musterknabe! Taschengelderhöhung fällig!