From wikipedia:
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| George Henry Borrow (5 July 1803 - 26 July 1881) was an English author who wrote novels and travelogues based on his own experiences around Europe. Over the course of his wanderings, he developed a close affinity with the Romani people of Europe, and they figure prominently in his work. His best known book, Lavengro, is largely autobiographical. |
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Also from the same page:
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George Borrow was a fabled linguist adept at acquiring new languages. He informed the British and Foreign Bible Society that-
I possess some acqaintance with the Russian, being able to read without much difficulty any printed Russian book.
He duly left Norwich to arrive in Saint Petersburg on the 13th of August 1833. As an agent of the Bible Society Borrow was charged with the duty of supervising a translation of the Bible into Manchu. As a traveller however he was overwhelmed by the beauty of Saint Petersburg, writing --
Notwithstanding I have previously heard and read much of the beauty and magnificence of the Russian capital……There can be no doubt that it is the finest City in Europe, being pre-eminent for the grandeur of its public edifices and the length and regularity of its streets.
During his two year sojourn in Russia Borrow called upon Pushkin but the poet was out on a social visit. He left two copies of his translations of Pushkin’s literary works and later Pushkin expressed his regret at not meeting.
Borrow described the Russian people as --
The best-natured kindest people in the world, and though they do not know as much as the English, they have not the fiendish, spiteful dispositions and if you go amongst them and speak their language, however badly, they would go through fire and water to do you a kindness.
Borrow had a life-long empathy with nomadic people such as Gypsies, and was fascinated by gypsy customs, songs and dance. He became so familiar with their language as to publish a dictionary of it. He visited Russian Gypsies who camped outside Moscow in the summer of 1835. His impressions formed part of the opening chapter of Zincali: or an account of the Gypsies of Spain (1841).
With his mission of supervising a Manchu translation of the Bible completed, Borrow returned to Norwich in September 1835. In his report to the Bible Society he confessed --
I quitted that country, and am compelled to acknowledge, with regret. I went thither prejudiced against that country, the government and the people; the first is much more agreeable than is generally supposed; the second is seemingly the best adapted for so vast an empire; and the third, even the lowest classes, are in general kind, hospitable, and benevolent. |
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On learning Latin, from his work, Lavengro (my emphasis in bold):
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The very first person to whose care I was intrusted for the acquisition of Latin was an old friend of my fathers, a clergyman who kept a seminary at a town the very next we visited after our departure from ‘the Cross.’ Under his instruction, however, I continued only a few weeks, as we speedily left the place. ‘Captain,’ said this divine, when my father came to take leave of him on the eve of our departure, ‘I have a friendship for you, and therefore wish to give you a piece of advice concerning this son of yours. You are now removing him from my care; you do wrong, but we will let that pass. Listen to me: there is but one good school-book in the world - the one I use in my seminary - Lilly’s Latin grammar, in which your son has already made some progress. If you are anxious for the success of your son in life, for the correctness of his conduct and the soundness of his principles, keep him to Lilly’s grammar. If you can by any means, either fair or foul, induce him to get by heart Lilly’s Latin grammar, you may set your heart at rest with respect to him; I, myself, will be his warrant. I never yet knew a boy that was induced, either by fair means or foul, to learn Lilly’s Latin grammar by heart, who did not turn out a man, provided he lived long enough.’
My father, who did not understand the classical languages, received with respect the advice of his old friend, and from that moment conceived the highest opinion of Lilly’s Latin grammar. During three years I studied Lilly’s Latin grammar under the tuition of various schoolmasters, for I travelled with the regiment, and in every town in which we were stationary I was invariably (God bless my father!) sent to the classical academy of the place. It chanced, by good fortune, that in the generality of these schools the grammar of Lilly was in use; when, however, that was not the case, it made no difference in my educational course, my father always stipulating with the masters that I should be daily examined in Lilly. At the end of the three years I had the whole by heart; you had only to repeat the first two or three words of any sentence in any part of the book, and forthwith I would open cry, commencing without blundering and hesitation, and continue till you were glad to beg me to leave off, with many expressions of admiration at my proficiency in the Latin language. Sometimes, however, to convince you how well I merited these encomiums, I would follow you to the bottom of the stair, and even into the street, repeating in a kind of sing-song measure the sonorous lines of the golden schoolmaster. If I am here asked whether I understood anything of what I had got by heart, I reply - ‘Never mind, I understand it all now, and believe that no one ever yet got Lilly’s Latin grammar by heart when young, who repented of the feat at a mature age.’ |
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It looks like Borrow literally spent three years memorizing a 500 year old grammar book, while also reciting to himself by using music. From a Multiple Intelligences perspective, he was perhaps a musical/rhythmic learner.
Here's an account on learning Manchu mentioned in Herbert George Jenkins' The Life of George Borrow:
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Shortly after appearing before the Committee Borrow returned to
Norwich, this time by coach, with several books in the Manchu-Tartar
dialect, including the Gospel of St Matthew and Amyot's Manchu-French
Dictionary. His instructions were to learn the language and come up
for examination in six months' time. Possibly the time limit was
suggested by Borrow himself, for he had said that he believed he
could master any tongue in a few months.
After two or three weeks of incessant study of a language that Amyot
says "one may acquire in five or six years," Borrow, who, it should
be remembered, possessed no grammar of the tongue, wrote to Mr
Jowett:
"It is, then, your opinion that, from the lack of anything in the
form of Grammar, I have scarcely made any progress towards the
attainment of Manchu: {97a} perhaps you will not be perfectly
miserable at being informed that you were never more mistaken in your
life. I can already, with the assistance of Amyot, translate Manchu
with no great difficulty, and am perfectly qualified to write a
critique on the version of St Matthew's Gospel, which I brought with
me into the country . . . I will now conclude by beseeching you to
send me, as soon as possible, WHATEVER CAN SERVE TO ENLIGHTEN ME IN
RESPECT TO MANCHU GRAMMAR, for, had I a Grammar, I should in a
month's time be able to send a Manchu translation of Jonah." |
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He apparently spent around three weeks to learn Manchu. I also recall reading somewhere that in order for him to learn Chinese, he had learned French first, since Chinese bilingual dictionaries only existed in French during his life.
There are a lot more interesting statements in his own writings, but I do not have the time to read through and post all of them. For those interested, his book titled Lavengro means 'word master', and he was said to have spoken 20 languages fluently.
Edited by JasonChoi on 02 April 2008 at 10:35am
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