My daughter in Greek and Russian

I wish you could hear what I hear, the sound of an 11-year-old girl reading ancient Greek. As the words of Matthew tumble from her nimble tongue, I am amazed at everything she knows -- and everything I don't.

This is the child diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, the fancy name for high-functioning autism.

She and her sister decided to learn the Greek alphabet a year ago as part of a unit study of ancient Greece. They read, wrote, drew, sculpted, painted, and cut and pasted their way through endless projects on everything from Aesop and his fables to Pericles and the Golden Age of Athens. They explored the inventions and the brilliant mind of Archimedes and together we marvelled at Eratosthenes' ability to measure the circumference of the earth with neither mapping satellite nor the internet to guide him.

I printed out a chart from an online site with the Greek alphabet characters and the girls learned their names and their phonetic sounds. Then they learned to write them. Then they wanted to write them in meaningful ways.

So I went out and bought a very elementary introduction to the language known as New Testament (koine) Greek. I figured the first book (of a series of eight) would be enough. It would be fun for awhile and the girls would move on.

I had no idea, and maybe that's the way it was supposed to be.

Book One of the strangely titled, but highly effective series, "Hey Andrew, Teach Me Some Greek" quickly segued to Book Two and that led to Book Three. The books are each intended to take anywhere from six months to a year to complete, I'm told.

My oldest did just the opposite, completing the first six books in one year. Her younger sister isn't far behind, having completed four of them in the same period of time.

As my older daughter headed full bore into Book 7 a couple of weeks ago, with her sights firmly set on finishing Book 8 sometime next spring, I was left to wonder, "what next?"

I got my answer this afternoon.

I wrote to the author of the "Hey Andrew" program to ask her whether a Book 9 might be in the works. I neither read nor write nor speak Greek, ancient or otherwise, so I cannot tell by looking at Book 8 where it leaves off. At what level IS a student once they're done with the series?

The author kindly wrote back to explain that upon completion of Book 8, a student is ready for a text used in colleges at the sophomore through senior levels. They are ready to begin reading the New Testament in Greek.

When I read this, I caught my breath. What if my daughter could do that now?

I found a NT Greek text online and brought up the first page of Matthew. Calling my daughter over to the computer, I asked her whether she saw anything on that page she could read.

"Yes!" she said, emphatically. Softly, she began to read.

In a language I cannot ever hope to understand, my daughter read to me the beginning of the genealogy of Jesus. In ancient words, the ancient names of Abraham, Isaac, Jesse, David, and many others rolled off her tongue.

Could she tell me what she'd just read, I asked. She could. Would she like to read more? Yes. Did she want me to order her a New Testament written in ancient Greek? Oh yes, please.

So what's with the Russian?

Some years back I'd bought a fun little book that depicts objects from the Hermitage art museum in St. Petersburg alongside the Cyrillic alphabet characters that begin their names. Unbeknownst to me, my Greek-speaking daughter memorized the Russian alphabet at some point but never bothered to share this with anyone.

Back in April she came to me one night and said she wanted to learn Russian.

At the time she'd just begun her fifth book of Greek and I asked whether taking on Russian might be too much. After all, she still had to study math, writing, history, etc.

No, she said. Russian would not be hard and I should order her some things to study. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find Russian-language learning materials, with instructions in English, for someone not even in high school? Most Americans don't tackle this language until they go to college, so I could not find anything at our local homeschool store. I finally found an audio CD-based program for her to use. A 10-week worktext lasted three weeks with virtually no mistakes. . .

Today we drove an hour or more to pick up a Cyrillic-language typewriter I bought on eBay and had to have serviced before it could be used.

My daughter is ready to type her thoughts in Russian and has spent the better part of this evening doing just that. She told me she'd translate for me any time I want to know what she's written.

There's no way to predict how she will make use of her skills in Greek and Russian, but I have to marvel at God in His infinite wisdom. We never knew, but He always did.


"For God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty." (1 Corinthians 1:27)