So once again, I find myself petering out when working on the Conversational Galilean course. I don’t like the direction I ultimately took it as I feel I’ve backed myself into a corner. There is no proper vector for it to really come into its own. It was great to teach individual phrases, but without better structure, there is really no means to teach conversation outside of a few small exchanges.

As such, I’m starting the course over again, and this time I have the structure I need in order to teach core concepts, one at a time, each one building upon the one before it. There is a publication known as the NGLS or New General Service List. It is, in essence, a list of the most commonly used core concept words in the English language, and is often employed by people who are learning English for the first time. Where this list doesn’t have a 1:1 correspondence with Aramaic concepts, I believe that using it as a springboard to go over cognate Aramaic concepts will give this course the direction it needs.

The new Conversational Galilean curriculum will be as follows:

1. A unit about the Alphabet.
2. A unit about the Palestinian vowel system we’re employing.
3. A unit about Galilean Aramaic noun declensions.
   1. State (Absolute/Indefinite, Construct/Genitive, Emphatic/Definite)
   2. Gender (Masculine, Feminine)
   3. Number (Singular, Plural)
4. A unit about basic Galilean Aramaic verbs.
   1. Gender (Masculine, Feminine)
   2. Number (Singular, Plural)
   3. Person (First, Second, Third)
   4. Tense (Present/Participle, Past/Perfect, Future/Imperfect, Imperative, Infinitive, Past Participle)
   5. Active State (General/Peal, Intensive/Pael, Causative/Aphel)
   6. Passive State (General/Ethpeel, Intensive/Ethpaal, Causative/Etaphal)
5. Then, begin the NGLS list of core words and do individual units on cognates that include:
   1. Full declensions or conjugation tables where appropriate.
   2. Sentences that exemplify each appropriate word form.
   3. Audio recordings for each example.
   4. Brief exercises.

The old course materials will be online indefinitely, and a new post category will be started to house the new ones. Hopefully this will give the course the direction I feel it needs.

If you have any questions about this, please submit them in the comments below. I would love to hear from you. 🙂

Peace,
-Steve