'¡Qué padre!' (or 'You'll never look at a goat the same way again...')

For the devil smelled a rat, and perceived that if the languages were revived a hole would be knocked in his kingdom which he could not easily stop up again.

In proportion then as we value the gospel, let us zealously hold to the languages. And let us be sure of this we will not long preserve the gospel without the languages. The languages are the sheath in which this sword of the Spirit is contained; they are the casket in which this jewel is enshrined; they arc the vessel in which this wine is held; they are the larder in which this food is stored; and, as the gospel itself points out, they are the baskets in which are kept these loaves and fishes and fragments. If through our neglect we let the languages go (which God forbid!), we shall not only lose the gospel, but the time will come when we shall be unable either to speak or write a correct Latin or German. As proof and warning of this, let us take the deplorable and dreadful example of the universities and monasteries,in which men have not only unlearned the gospel, but have in addition so corrupted the Latin and German languages that the miserable folk have been fairly turned into beasts, unable to speak or write a correct German or Latin, and have well-nigh lost their natural reason to boot.

It is inevitable that unless the languages remain, the gospel must finally perish.

--Martin Luther, excerpted from his 1524 treatise To The Councilmen Of All Cities In Germany That They Establish And Maintain Christian Schools

שלום עליכם ("Shalom Aleikhem!", "Peace be upon you!") 

So, what do Spanish, a talking goat named Black Phillip, and this Hebrew greeting have in common?

"I'm a baaaaaaaad goat."

Absolutely nothing, really; however, I thought I might spend some quality time posting here in Indiana on this Father's Day about languages (since I'm still batchin' it with the cat while my wife is in Texas on business and able to spend time with our extended family)... Why? Well, it really has more to do with my present change of vocation and impending change of geography, than anything else. But the real catalyst is a witch. Confused? Keep reading...

The current seminary course I'm taking deals with history, and last week's discussion dealt with the first European immigrants to the New World, practically all of whom were Protestant Christians who brought their religious beliefs with them. One night last week, on the recommendation of the professor, I watched The Madness of King George (about George III, who reigned during the Revolutionary War), which I had not heard of and thought was very good-- I recommend it, even if you couldn't care a whit about history! Anyway. Last night I did a search on "history" through Google Play and among the titles was one that seemed more suited to the horror genre, The VVitch, which (!) came out two years ago. Well, turns out that the original title was The VVitch: A New-England Folktale. So before I paid, I looked it up and found out a few interesting things about it. The film's writer-director did in-depth research on the period of the story, early 17th century, down to the clothing, living conditions, lighting (natural and candle), customs and superstitions, and dialect of English spoken by Puritans at the time. Actually, it was a pretty good movie, all things considered (good acting, great cinematography, building suspense, etc., though a tad gory in some places)...

The drawback to the director's efforts toward near-authenticity comes in the dialogue-- the dialect is an English one, replete with Early Modern English second person pronouns (as clear, thy, thee, etc.)-- which is difficult to understand in some parts of the film. (Except when Black Phillip speaks-- he's clear as a bell...) There's a very good post about all of this on the blog The Past in the Present.

I got up this morning still dealing with a sinus infection (it feels like dry pocket from a tooth extraction, but in my sinus cavity) and after a pill-poppin' frenzy and a couple of cups of coffee, I decided to work on a reboot of what little Spanish ever knew in preparation for the Rio Grande Valley. One of the websites/apps I recommended to my high school Russian students is Russian Pod 101, and there's also a Spanish Pod 101. My entire Spanish language career consists of being in a 7th grade Spanish class in NJ long enough to learn the alphabet before my family moved to Texas and then I somehow escaped any classroom instruction in any foreign language through high school (though kids in most places in Texas can get enough Tex-Mex to be dangerous). Some 20 years later, I took the equivalent of two college semesters' worth of Spanish, at the same government language school where I was assigned as a Russian instructor, just to see if how I would do on a proficiency test. I came up average in Reading and "functional" in Listening. A speaking test wasn't offered. (Just as well.)

Now it's almost 20 years after that, and I feel like I'm back at square one. So this morning I dabbled in español for about an hour... As I moved through some of the podcast and video content, vocabulary and grammar started to come back to me, but, man o man (not mano a mano), do I need work!

Oh yeah, the "¡Qué padre!" in the post title is nothing more than an exclamation in one of the videos that reminded me of my Spanish instruction while still in the Navy-- in Mexican Spanish it means "Cool!" (or even "How cool!").

And about the Hebrew greeting to open this post? Well, that's a horse (or goat, maybe) of a different color entirely...

My seminary program requires only Greek of the two biblical languages typically assigned to four-year students (and I took intensive Greek-- "Greek Boot Camp," as it's referred to so endearingly around campus). Last semester I got the idea that since I'd still be at the seminary for the remaining two courses over the summer, why not see if I could just sit in on Hebrew 1? So I bought the books and on the first day of class (last Monday), I realized what I had done. What was I thinking?! Summer Hebrew is just as intensive as Summer Greek! As the graduate assistant was at the board going through the Hebrew alphabet, dageshes and all, I made the decision to NOT bite off more than I could chew and postpone any Hebrew instruction for the foreseeable future...at least as foreseeable as today.

The Master's Seminary of the non-denominational, but very Baptist-y, Grace Community Church (pastored by John MacArthur) offers a free online Hebrew 1 course (+ materials). This morning I tried-- and very much liked-- the first lesson (though each is over an hour long). One of the first things the professor did was to give the class some rudimentary everyday Hebrew, thus the שלום עליכם above. I don't know how devoted I can be to an hour of Hebrew from time to time, but I'm going to give it a try. In the meantime, I remain a little more savvy in a Romance language... Here, I'll show you:

After I finish this post, I'm going to text my wife ¡Te quiero a morir! (lit. "I want you to death!", but a Mexican idiom that translates "I love you very much!"). That's about all the Don Juan (or Don Quixote-- I always get them mixed up) I have in me...

...for now. [evil grin]

Остерегайтесь говорящих козлов!

[Okay, I can see that was uncalled for. "Beware of talking goats!" in Russian. But do. Beware. Talking goat...bad. Talking donkey...good (can see an angel...ref. Numbers 22). Talking horse...Mister Ed.]

To all of you Dads out there, Happy Father's Day! (BTW, any smooth-talkin' hablo-un-poco-de-español hermano can be a father, but it takes much more to be a Dad!)

Peace out, ya'll.

P.S. My eldest daughter sent me a link to a webpage explaining the origin(s) of Father's Day. Check it out...