Comments on: Polyglottalia

By: Ghil'ad

Ghil'ad — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 21:21:16 +0000

Have you studied both Hebrew and Israeli or Hebrew tout court? A lovely blog, obiter dictum!

By: Conrad

Conrad — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 03:49:03 +0000

Or, as they call it in theological circles, a “Great Conversation”!

By: Simon Holloway

Simon Holloway — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 03:16:12 +0000

You are quite correct and I am not unaware of the fact that studying Hebrew for such a length of time has familiarised me with so many of the tricky little subtleties of the language, while my experience with Greek and Latin has (necessarily) been markedly more superficial. My statements are general ones and, while I expect them to hold true in a general sense, I also look forward to being pleasantly inundated by difficulties in my new languages too!

As for your second sentiment, I couldn’t agree more. People also seem to think that I can “speak” these languages, despite the fact that the only other people to ever speak them all assumed room temperature over a thousand years ago. Makes for a very one-sided conversation…

By: Conrad

Conrad — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 01:36:10 +0000

Still, Latin and Greek have their difficulties too. . . the verb-system of Greek, for instance, is a bloody bitch. A lot of the Latin grammar we learn was not at all accepted by the ancients. Varro says things about Latin tenses that your average 1800 schoolmaster would find a bit odd. And if you think Hebrew is hard. . . try learning Chinese! You’d having trouble just using the dictionary.

Also, there is a difference between studying Akkadian, Ge’ez etc., and being fluent in them. I can pick up a Spanish paper and get the gist of it, without having taken a minute of Spanish–but I couldn’t converse in it, or read serious literature. There’s a tendency by laymen to assume that if you have the one level, you have the latter.

By: e-kvetcher

e-kvetcher — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 16:31:38 +0000

The funny thing about language is that it really is very different from learning calculus or organic chemistry, but so many people don’t realize it. It just has to do with the fact that your brain starts shutting down in terms of easy of language acquisition somewhere around puberty (Ironically, that is the age where most kids start learning a foreign language in school). Up until then, pretty much anyone can pick up a foreign language through immersion.

This is beginning to sound like I’m lecturing, but really just intended as a comment. Having spoken Russian as my native language I often have people react with amazement when they find out that I can speak it fluently…

By: Daniel

Daniel — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 23:13:14 +0000

Predictably small, and satisfyingly post-graduate. Coptic. Coming to a linguaphile location near you.

By: Simon Holloway

Simon Holloway — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 21:53:18 +0000

Sunny: I agree, whether or not you meant the suggestion literally! It would be a great idea to find a way of encouraging language-learning in kids, especially now that schools are dropping the systematic study of Greek and Latin altogether, in favour of 'more important' things. I think that coming out of school with a knowledge of the stories of the Bible and the stories of Homer, and being able to read both!, would be wonderful. Joel: Really! Australia is more monolingual than Nth America? That bit does surprise me, but I can take your word for it considering where you are! I don't think that learning languages simultaneously, though, should make them any more difficult. You know as well as I do how easy it all becomes once you're immersed in it. And, of course, three of them are introductory first-semester courses...

By: Joel Nothman

Joel Nothman — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 17:51:36 +0000

I would say Australia is one of the most monolingual countries around. Even in large chunks of North America there is large persuasion to learn Spanish, or French. This probably adds greatly to the difficulty… And then there’s the fact that you are learning a hell of a lot of languages at the same time =)

By: Sunny Schomaker

Sunny Schomaker — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 03:24:18 +0000

I will grant you that people get overly impressed with “knowing” languages, but I think that it is all the prescriptivist bullying out there (I am training to be a linguist, and one of the first things you learn is to check your rules by the door). Maybe the linguists and language teachers of the world need to start a PR campaign to encourage second (and third and fourth…) language acquistion.