Teach Yourself Books

[Phillip Ernest]

On Sat, 17 Mar 2001, Stephen Hodge wrote:
>
> Not quite the same view but similar are quoted with approval in the
> introduction to the 1955 ed of Biblical Hebrew in the once prestigious
> Teach Yourself series (R.K. Harrison):  "[Hebrew] is the eternal
> mother-tongue of all true religion" and "This is the language which
> God spoke".  One assumes that his motives are to encourage the study
> of Hebrew among Christians as he deplores the lack of interst among
> theology students.

This is ther first time I have heard mention of this fascinating series on
this list.  I really did 'teach myself Sanskrit' with Michael Coulson's
excellent book, and did the same with the much less challenging Teach
yourself Latin years ago.  Did anyone else on the list learn Sanskrit this
way?  In fact, I would be very interested in hearing from anybody who
worked through the whole of one of these books on his or her own and
became proficient in a
language on that basis.  Too bad there are no Dravidian volumes.  There
are books for self-instruction in Tamil and other Dravidian languages
listed in the back of my Hippocrene pocket Apte Dictionary, but I inquired
through the U of T bookstore and found that they are out of print.  I
worked part way through Teach Yourself Hebrew years ago, but I got drunk
and lost it.  Too bad: it seemed to be a pretty easy language to learn how
to read.  Or maybe it was divine grace: it is God's own language, after
all.

P. ERnest
University of Toronto