Each day was made up of four hours of classroom work with our professor in the AM, followed by three hours of lab work (back in that day, it was tapes and earphones). Needless to say this was full immersion.

Prior to being commissioned as an Officer in the Chaplain Corps of the United States Navy (and prior to attending seminary), I served as an enlisted man in the Navy – from 1958 to 1970.

Most of that time was spent in the Naval Security Group, the Navy’s arm that supports the work of the National Security Agency in their mission of providing communications intelligence. Twice during that time the Navy sent me to study a foreign language.

First came Modern Hebrew (the language that was invented in 1948, albeit based on the ancient Hebrew alphabet and core words). I spent a full school year (September to May) at the Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service in a small class of 7 men (5 completed the work) taught by an Orthodox Jewish Rabbi. Each day was made up of four hours of classroom work in the AM, followed by three hours of lab work (back in that day, 1959-60, it was tapes and earphones). Needless to say this was full immersion. Those who graduated ended up with a vocabulary equal to a Masters Degree graduate in Israel.

Several years later I was assigned to the Army Language School in Monterey, California (now known as the Defense Language Institute, West Coast) where I entered the six month program in Russian. Again, seven hours a day. This was the short course, enabling us to do intercept work of Russian military communications, but short of speaking the language fluently. Again, full immersion.

I give you this history by way of giving my highest recommendation to the Reformed Theological Seminary’s Summer Institute for Biblical Languages at the RTS Jackson campus. What follows is from their press release, but I wanted you to understand how valuable this type of language study really is.

The RTS Jackson Summer Institute for Biblical Languages (SIBL) has been created in order to provide thorough, intensive introductions to all three biblical languages.

Hebrew and Greek will be offered each year during the summer, five days a week, three hours per day, for seven weeks. During this seven-week period, students will complete a full year of language study (Hebrew 1 and 2 or Greek 1 and 2). Aramaic can be offered every other year or as needed by request (two hours a day, five days per week for three weeks – 2 credit hours).

These courses are intended to provide a better educational context for the biblical languages given the increasing part-time nature of student enrollment. Any RTS student at an RTS campus can take these courses for credit.

Additionally, pastors who would like to brush up on biblical language skills may find it to better fit their current ministry contexts. Also, RTS alumni can take the courses for free.

Benefits to this system are:
1) Complete an entire year of language study in 7 weeks;
2) The intensive, immersion context is better suited for language acquisition than intermittent exposure during a regular academic year full of other distractions. Your proficiency after 7 intensive weeks will normally be better than after one year at a regular academic pace.
3) This intensive environment also creates strong community. We eat together. We play ultimate Frisbee together. We study together. We worship together!

Do you love the Gospel? Then come study the biblical languages in Jackson, Miss, during the summer. If God has called you to Gospel ministry then he has called you to study the biblical languages, all of them, not just to get by and use the tools, but to know better God’s Word and be transformed by that Word into a minister of God’s gospel! Martin Luther once said, “Without the languages, the Gospel will surely perish!”

Source: http://www.rts.edu/newsevents/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=1423