May 10 2009
Languages
In my preparations for my wonderful future career as a perpetual student I’ve realized that by the time I’m thirty I’m going to have to know about a bazillion languages. When studying history it is good to know the languages of the regions you’re most interested in. When studying medieval history it is imperative to know the language of the vast majority of the available sources - aka, Latin. Semper ubi sub ubi! I studied it for three years in high school. All I can bring to mind nowadays is the insults we made up in class - tu es semi mortus canis in latrino bibit et in via dormit. But now going back through it, a lot of things are coming back to me.
In college I studied French and Italian, which was useful. French was horrendous, but came in rather handy the following semester when I was wandering around Italy saying, “Hey, is that a reflexive verb?”
So there’s three. Need to add German to the list, because, well, that’s the other main language of continential Europe. And since I’m obsesssed with the Dark Ages, Old English and Old Norse as well.
Like I said. A bazillion languages.
