SJS –
I did not have the privilege of attending a Yeshiva, so I have been one of those who very much wanted to learn but did not have the background to understand even a single line on the page of a Gemara. When I discovered the Artscroll translations, I bought a few to begin learning them. I found them to be extremely helpful; with effort and reading all the commentaries, I felt that I understood what the Gemara was saying. Then I’d go onto the next page. After a while, I felt that there was something lacking in the learning I was doing. I read books describing the beis midrash atmosphere, of pairs engaged in a very lively discussion over the sugyos. I didn’t see any lively discussion in my learning. To me, the learning felt no different from university studies. Open the text, read, understand, move on. And there were no exams or essays to motivate me. A week passes, and more than half of what I learned I forgot.
I wanted to be able to learn Gemara in the original. The way it’s supposed to be done. So I joined a beginner’s Gemara class offered by a local Kollel. What a difference! The amount of Gemara covered in each shiur is far less than what I’d cover in the same amount of time by myself with an Artscroll, but we’d learn and review, and review again. Through the review each piece of the Gemara we learn goes inside me, it becomes mine. I remember it even after weeks have gone by, and I keep thinking about it during the day, even when not in the shiur or actively reviewing. It is such a different experience, and I don’t feel I am giving it justice with this description. IY”H I will continue to progress and learn and gain an ability to learn Gemara independently.
I do think the Artscroll has its place. If I didn’t have access to a shiur with a rav who knows Gemara, then the Artscroll would help me to ensure I wasn’t completely off the wall. But it’s definitely no replacement for the beis midrash style learning and the review. I think that’s why you might hear people “knocking it”. It’s not a criticism of the learning of people who don’t know Aramaic. I am one of those people (hopefully I won’t be in the near future!), and the rav teaching the shiur told me how valuable the learning we’re doing is. It’s a criticism of using the Artscroll as a “cheat sheet” rather than parsing the Gemara – in a beginner’s shiur even, if need be.
All that said, another person might be able to get that kind of learning from the Artscroll. A talented person may be able to retain what he learns and even learn Hebrew and Aramaic from the Artscroll. For me, however, I really needed a straight Gemara, a rav, a shiur, and a beis midrash.