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 Language Learning Forum : Lessons in Polyglottery |  | |
| ProfArguelles Moderator United States foreignlanguageexper Joined 7043 days ago 609 posts - 2102 votes  | Message 9 of 19 30 March 2008 at 10:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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Mr. Frisch,
I am happy to hear that Latin is congealing your relationship with her descendants. What methods are you following? I am sorry that you are not as happy with your Turkish as you could be. I suspect you are probably more advanced than I am, but if your main problem is lack of materials, I would again direct you to those that I found my attractive (Jansky’s book, Jaekel’s Dictionary) via the Scriptorium. In what field will you receive your doctorate, and when do you expect to receive it? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6452 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 10 of 19 31 March 2008 at 8:23am | IP Logged | ||
Professor Arguelles,
For Latin, I use the most recent Assimil course and the book "Latin For Beginners" by D'Ooge (available on the textkit-website). I have worked through the Assimil Turkish course several times and the textbook by Ersen-Rasch (which I don't recommend for self-study). I don't think I need another introductory book, I have internalized enough of the grammar to actually read and there is not much new vocabulary for me too learn in those textbooks. My main problem is that although I must have mastered more than 3000 words, I still find it tiresome to read because there are still too many unknown words in a normal text (scientific/literary terms are usually derived from Arabic/Persian, so there are few cognates with languages I know). I have several easy bilingual texts at my disposal, but maybe a graded reader is what I'd really need at this point of my studies. By the way, I don't know if you have the grammar by Lewis, but if you don't I can only recommend it. It's one of the few grammars I have seen that are comprehensive and concise at the same time. Thank you again for your advice and for your interest in my progress, Marc Frisch PS: My PhD thesis is in pure mathematics, so the only languages I get to practice during the day are French and English... Edited by Marc Frisch on 31 March 2008 at 8:23am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Leopejo Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5896 days ago 675 posts - 724 votes Speaks: Italian*, Finnish*, English Studies: French, Russian | Message 11 of 19 31 March 2008 at 9:33am | IP Logged | ||
QED... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ProfArguelles Moderator United States foreignlanguageexper Joined 7043 days ago 609 posts - 2102 votes | Message 12 of 19 06 April 2008 at 9:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Pure Mathematics! And yet you have your wide interest and competence in languages as well — how wonderful it must be to be so balanced! In the Renaissance all our minds would have matured along your lines… Tell me, can you actually think in numbers? I have heard that mathematicians can do this.
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| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6452 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 13 of 19 07 April 2008 at 8:30am | IP Logged | ||
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I think it is a big mistake that today's scientists become so specialized as they do, many of them not being capable to see beyond their own noses. Many of the most influential mathematicians or scientists in history had rather broad interests and in the Greek antiquity it was unthinkable to separate natural sciences, mathematics, and philosophy. Actually, it used to be quite common for scientists to be polyglots and this has changed only in the last 50-60 years or so, when English became the universal language for scientific publications. Before, people had to be able to read several languages, most commonly English, French, Italian, and German.
I'll just cite one rather recent example (about 20 years old) from mathematics where an idea inspired by classical literature led to the invention of a new mathematical method, the so-called Horace method. This is a method used in the highly abstract context of algebraic geometry, where the main idea is to subdivise a problem which is too hard to solve directly into three subproblems which can then be solved independently. As the name suggests, this idea was inspired by the battle of the Horatii against the Curiatii as counted by Titus Livius and much later in French by Corneille. By the way, I think it's rather natural that someone intrigued by mathematics has an interest in languages and vice versa. I see both a language and a mathematical theory as logical systems in which one uses certain rules (grammatical rules resp. axioms) to derive interesting statements (sentences resp. theorems). It's not a coincidence that both 'sentence' and 'theorem' translate to the same word in German (Satz). As to your question, no, I don't think in numbers and neither do I often think in language when I do mathematics. I rather think in terms of shapes and symbols. I'd be surprised if any mathematicians think in numbers, modern mathematics has become so abstract in most areas that one hardly sees any numbers in a mathematical text (but rather symbols representing them). Edited by Marc Frisch on 07 April 2008 at 8:33am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ProfArguelles Moderator United States foreignlanguageexper Joined 7043 days ago 609 posts - 2102 votes | Message 14 of 19 13 April 2008 at 6:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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Mr. Frisch,
I think you are absolutely correct in that it should be natural for those intrigued by mathematics to have an interest in languages and vice versa because of their similarities as systems. That is why I include a stab at mathematics as an integral part of the formative year of studies in my plans for an academy of polyglottery. If there were one thing about myself that I could change, it would be to have better balance, a better grasp of mathematics and the hard sciences. In the circles of my own personal acquaintances, most mathematical/hard scientist types ignore languages not only because they can due to the universality of English, but also because they have an active disdain for them; most soft scientists (i.e., humanistic types), on the other hand, seem to ignore mathematics and the hard sciences because they are truly hard for them and/or are genuinely uninteresting for them. It is truly depressing how far the spirit of the contemporary mind has fallen from the holistic universality of the renaissance mind, the medieval mind, or the antique mind... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| KSaku39 Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6617 days ago 30 posts - 31 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 15 of 19 11 May 2008 at 1:35pm | IP Logged | ||
It's funny you should say that, because I learned over four years of scholastic math in under a year by studying intensively with your methods for language study, complete with color-coded excel charts, half hour increments, early rising, and monastic devotion. I did give up language learning during that time, but I doubt that's really necessary. Edited by KSaku39 on 11 May 2008 at 1:38pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ProfArguelles Moderator United States foreignlanguageexper Joined 7043 days ago 609 posts - 2102 votes | Message 16 of 19 11 May 2008 at 9:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am extremely happy to hear this. It confirms what I have been told on occasion by some of my more assiduous real-life students, namely that what I teach them transcends language acquisition and goes to the very heart of the learning process itself, causing them to examine both the principles and the purpose of the search for knowledge. To contribute to the formation of other minds in this fashion is indeed most gratifying. Thank you for letting me know.
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