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Sanskrit difficulties | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Lessons in Polyglottery |  | |
| nissimb Tetraglot Groupie India tenjikuyamato.blogsp Joined 6195 days ago 79 posts - 102 votes  Speaks: Marathi*, Hindi, English, Japanese Studies: Korean, Esperanto, Indonesian | Message 1 of 3 24 December 2008 at 9:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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To Juan,
I just recently abandoned my hopes of learning Sanskrit -a language and culture I'm powerfully attracted to- because of the scarcity of audio materials as well as the difficulty and inconsistency of its writing system(s). I wish I had your ability to successfully approach languages with few or inadequate learning resources Well, I have done three years of Sanskrit in school but have forgotten most of it, so probably you must be knowing more about Sanskrit than I do, but this is just a suggestion-don't worry too much about pronounciation. If I am not mistaken, your primary interest in learning Sanskrit is reading Indian classical texta, isn't it? You would hardly have a chance of actually conversing with someone in Sanskrit (even if you come to India) or listen to Sanskrit recitations or radio broadcasts (Yes, we have one in India!!) In that case, as long as you know the basic rules of pronounciation and how the pronounciation changes when words are combined (so called "Sandhi"), do you really need to worry whether you are getting it 100 percent right? As long as you get a good grip on grammar and comprehension (which, of course isn't easy), you would be able to read what you intend to read.I don't want to hijack this thread, so I will create a new thread elsewhere and try to put up whatever online resources and links that I can find for Sanskrit. In the end, it is great to see someone interested in our classical language, which is difficult even for us to learn, so please try not to give up your Sanskrit :D Nissim 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Juan M. Senior Member Colombia Joined 5680 days ago 460 posts - 597 votes | Message 2 of 3 25 December 2008 at 1:02pm | IP Logged | ||
I wish to thank you, Moses and Jon for your enthusiastic encouragements. I had only been studying Sanskrit for a couple of weeks, with my objective being, as you say, to read the great works of Indian thought in their original language. Being a novice in language learning though, I question whether I would be able to achieve the kind of mastery over Sanskrit that would actually provide me a greater understanding of its literature over a translation, and if it makes sense to forgo the great amount of time required for such an undertaking, time that perhaps could be put to better use by simply engaging in the content of the Upanishads and Mahabharata right away (even if in translation) rather than becoming enmeshed in its language. I was also frustrated by the variety and inconsistency of its writing systems. I began studying Sanskrit at the excellent website http://acharya.iitm.ac.in/sanskrit/tutor.php and became upset when upon receiving my copy of the very widely recommended Introduction to Sanskrit by Thomas Egenes, I discovered that a few of the aksharas that I had learned were printed completely differently! This makes me wonder if I'll continue to encounter inconsistencies as I move on to other resources and books. Edit 13/Oct/2009: I have since resumed my study of Sanskrit with Introduction to Sanskrit by Thomas Egenes, and really must say I could not have asked for a better textbook. I wholeheartedly recommend it! Then there is the whole business of romanization. Clay Sanskrit Library for example has begun publishing excellent bilingual editions of a wide range of Indian classics, many of which I've seen available through them alone, but the Sanskrit side of all of their books is printed in romanized script only! That would make the difficult Devanagari script simultaneously essential for learning Sanskrit while purposeless for actually reading it!! Finally there is the matter of selection and availability. Can one have access to a wide range of printed books in Sanskrit beyond the great masterpieces? Learning a living language such as German is easy for me, as one can dip into it at will. Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I feel though that for some classical languages what one engages in is a line-by-line translation rather than true assimilation. Can the average student of Sanskrit (or Latin, or Aramaic) produce fresh ideas in it with some degree of accomplishment? Whatever I decide with regards to Sanskrit though, I will certainly carry on my study of Indian thought--even if it be in translation--as it represents some of the finest achievements of human philosophy/religion, and perhaps the source of much of the rest. My apologies to Mr. McCormick for abusing his thread with this discussion :-) Kind regards. Edited by JuanM on 13 October 2009 at 11:09pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Juan M. Senior Member Colombia Joined 5680 days ago 460 posts - 597 votes | Message 3 of 3 31 December 2008 at 9:20am | IP Logged | ||
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Here is what seems to be an excellent program for learning Sanskrit in a natural way:
http://www.vedicbooks.net/samskrit-bhasha-shikshanam-vcd-alb um-i-40-lessons-on-20-vcds-p-13773.html 1 person has voted this message useful |
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