@Orfew and @Kasia ... in my Senior year in a US High School, we were required to take a semester on Latin and Greek roots to English. We even learned some Olde and Middle English. Although, I do not speak Latin or Greek like The Master, @dougsmit , that education has always been remembered by me, and has helped me immensely throughout my travels. It has helped me understand various languages in my business travels. And, it has really helped in this Hobby. Enjoy the read. I was going to kid y’all about a boring storyline, but I “get it”. I actually enjoy reading dictionaries, this book, and other hard references. ...Now, if I can only “get” Pudonghua (Chinese)... tried/trying... just a hard one for my Western brain. Regards, Brian
When I see 'NF' in reference to music I immediately think of my favourite artist Neil Finn - but I know you can't possibly mean him! As far as what I'm currently (re)reading. Primarily for research regarding a new purchase. And what I'm listening to:
Neither do I. I took Latin in high school and credit the vocabulary boost to upping my SAT score to the point I got a great scholarship in college saving me a lot of money. I don't know if that would work today since the tests are different. I have volunteered with a couple high school Latin teachers who hardly taught the language at all but went heavy on culture and things that could help a student with English and other languages. I also took Russian which was different enough that it pointed out how languages work. In those days, almost no one taught Chinese or Japanese in high school. Today I feel lucky to be semi-literate in English and am useless in Greek, Latin and Russian but I still support a balanced education including things other than STEM. The biggest gain in education is learning how to learn. I pity those who thought they were set for life based on their mastery of Windows 98.
More than agreed. I have 6 Daughters whom had varying degrees of learning through their school years. Late 20’s thru 30’s now. I always advised them to learn how to read, comprehend, and to always ask questions. From there you can learn anything. Everything else would fall in to place.
Brian, just make sure you get the inflections of "ma" correct. You do not want to call someone's mother a horse.
It is a story that I have told to people. I learned a little Cantonese, and their word inflections are even MORE complicated than Mandarin. LOL, I can follow a little Chinese in 3 dialects, but, most of that is probably my reading body language rather than hearing the language. I just try using pleasantries, they smile or laugh, then we move on in English... I lose. However, sometimes it can be a little advantage when folks don’t think I understand when they have side conversations in their native languages...
A Universe from Nothing by Lawrence Krauss Misquoting Jesus by Bart Ehrman both eye opening. Meditations , by Marcus Aurelius - a timeless masterpiece.
Panini. Interspersed with Rodeo, F9mily and C7osure. (Trying to shake OTR out of my head but it's tough when its in every cafê playlist). I didn't realise til today that there was a "what are you listening to" thread. Seems to be mostly about books tho. For reading, "The Onion" is the only news I need.
You must've pulled those off my bookshelves. Krauss and Ehrman have both been fundamental for my understanding of the universe and the ancient world.
Didn’t see these but I highly recommend both. The Kenneth hall lecture course is especially good. I was reminded of scribes and scholars after seeing David’s comment regarding misquoting Jesus. Misquoting Jesus is a good textual criticism introduction but is heavily New Testament focused, where as scribes and scholars is broader including all classical literature.
I'm a big fan of "The great courses". I'm also a fan of Kenneth Harl (guy knows his ancient coins). And lastly, I'm a massive fan of the wars of the Greeks! So can anyone guess why I almost didn't even give this excellent read a chance (yeah yeah. I based a audio book on its cover)?
Currently reading Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, and I spent the day listening through Can's first few records. Eco is a little irritating, but there's a lot of good stuff in there too. Can were pretty much faultless for the first five or so albums, and are a good opportunity to check out my new Fidelio X2 headphones.
I'm reading The Lost World of the Golden King, a histiographical work on the study of the Greco-Bactrians, largely focused on its numismatic history.