Comments on: What Is My Next Language?

By: Chris Slee

Chris Slee — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 04:39:34 +0000

That’s not a bad idea. In fact, both Spanish and German are on my secondary languages list. There’s a whole school of Spanish fencing which, while very influential in its day, is virtually unknown today except in name only.

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:15:31 +0000

Had a thought: have you considered Spanish? Sure, it’s another romance language, like Italian, and it’s not got the same degree of renaissance connection, but it does have lots of cool history to work with, such as the Reconquista and the colonisation of the Americas. And of course, the latter factor also means it is much more widely spoken than Italian.

By: Chris Slee

Chris Slee — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 01:25:47 +0000

In the non Indo-European space, I was looking at Cantonese since I’ve been to Hong Kong and watch Hong Kong action movies. The problem for me is that most east asian languages are tonal which adds a huge layer of difficulty to the whole process. Mongolian is one of the few languages of the east which is not tonal.

I did Latin for four years until my brain seeped out my ears. I’ve done a smattering of Ancient Greek as well. I have read the classics (or at least simplified versions thereof) in the original.

Learning, say, Renaissance Italian is on the cards. I’d prefer to learn the modern language first. It’s like a foreign language student immediately diving into Shakespeare before learning modern English. … Actually, that may not be such a bad idea.

By: Cameron

Cameron — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 11:20:46 +0000

Languages,
your comments suggest that other than the joy of learning a new language etc that this study serves purpose in your ongoing noble affair with all things renaissance/medieval and martial. So wouldn’t learning the languages of the time and place be the logical step?
Just my humble observation.

By: Adam

Adam — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 11:11:20 +0000

Mongolian is cool (and there ARE companies that run tours there, so tourism is possible, though I am not sure how practical self-guided vacationing is). Italian’s probably more practical, though. You can use it if you return to Europe, or to watch awesome movies like “Zombie Lake”.

Or you could have a tilt at Japanese or Mandarin, which are also very different from a romance language but probably more likely to see use than Mongolian.

Of the two you listed, I’d go for Italian (or maybe Latin, if you can find a course … read some of the classics in their original tongue).