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Preparation for the academy | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Lessons in Polyglottery |  | |
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6440 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes  Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 1 of 2 12 January 2008 at 9:12pm | IP Logged |
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Given that the academy does not currently exist, what are your recommendations for those who would be interested in a similar course of study, whether for personal evaluation of whether this path is suitable, or as a preparation to entry?
Specifically: Where do you recommend starting with reading world literature? For someone studying outside of a classroom setting, do you recommend focused reading of a few works (such as in your sequence of great books courses) from one civilization at a time, or browsing a wide selection to find the languages, areas, and times of greatest interest? Would you recommend a chronological or reverse chronological ordering? The former has the advantage of allowing one to see how ideas have evolved over time, but the disadvantage of being in the opposite order from that which you advocate for language study. Where would you cast your initial focus for people who currently have limited time? What split between great books and active language study would you suggest? How do you recommend dealing with books, authors, and schools of thought which one ends up strongly disliking? What about those which one is poorly prepared to understand? I have been reading a fair amount by Umberto Eco recently, and find it quite difficult in English, much less Italian, as I have a rather weak grounding in areas such as medieval European theology. To what degree do you think it is wise to focus on acquiring background knowledge to read significant works, vs studying the original language(s) which much of this background knowledge is in, vs reading the works themselves for a first time and accepting that initial understanding will be fragmentary in places? The other relevant topics (which languages to study, and how to study them) strike me as having been adequately discussed with regards to initial preparation. Similarly, you have mentioned the importance of meditation, focus training, and physical education. What other area(s) do you consider to be of major importance for this type of preparatory investigation? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| ProfArguelles Moderator United States foreignlanguageexper Joined 7257 days ago 609 posts - 2102 votes | Message 2 of 2 13 January 2008 at 8:58pm | IP Logged |
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Start with your own civilization and get grounded there before you branch out so that you have a solid basis for comparison. Work chronologically so that you develop the necessary frames of reference. A tried and true handbook or two on the developmental history of culture will be useful guides, but concentrate on primary texts. In other words, in your case, start with Homer and Vergil and Plato and Aristotle. Given that there is so much valuable material to be read, do not force yourself to plough through something you dislike; move on, but plan on having another look later because if something is a generally acknowledged classic, the problem is more likely with you than with it, and you may well appreciate its value at a later stage in life. Given your interest in languages, and given that through languages you get to literature, I would recommend a time division of 2/3 language study, 1/3 reading as good mental preparation.
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