[Canada_Rockies]

Here in Canada, men who are fluent in French are far more common than men who can quote Shakespeare.

Take the Chaucer first if it's permitted. The rest of English literature flows easily after that. (Alright, not Beowulf.) I do realize that the likelihood of anybody actually needing this advice being on here are vanishingly small.

Multidisciplinary liberal arts : so profoundly enriching yet so hard to make a living and such a luxury these days.

We do have a few people with studies behind them on the forum, don't we? I think the modern trend towards only money earning studies is sad. Life is so much richer with literature and music.

[monochrome]

Here in Canada, men who are fluent in French are far more common than men who can quote Shakespeare.

Take the Chaucer first if it's permitted. The rest of English literature flows easily after that. (Alright, not Beowulf.) I do realize that the likelihood of anybody actually needing this advice being on here are vanishingly small.

Multidisciplinary liberal arts : so profoundly enriching yet so hard to make a living and such a luxury these days.

Forty years on I can recite more 70’s Pentax lens lens data than lines of Shakespeare.

A broad liberal education has always been a luxury. It was our parents’ conceit that such course of study was appropriate for the Middle Class. I’m fortunate they encouraged me, but I attended night courses for 15 years to become proficient in business, and have been an autodidact in many respects afterward.

[Canada_Rockies]

Forty years on I can recite more 70’s Pentax lens lens data than lines of Shakespeare.

A broad liberal education has always been a luxury. It was our parents’ conceit that such course of study was appropriate for the Middle Class. I’m fortunate they encouraged me, but I attended night courses for 15 years to become proficient in business, and have been an autodidact in many respects afterward.

Yeah, all my money making courses were taken at night classes and on weekends. It was hard on the wife and kids because Daddy had his nose in the books, but the kids found it worse: there was no sympathy for a couple of hours of homework a week ...

[edom31]

Life is so much richer with literature and music.

This is the best I've read in our forums!

[Racer X 69]

Life is so much richer with literature and music.

Yes it is.

Literature for education and entertainment.

Music to soothe the savage beast.

[Racer X 69]

Boot: a compartment, usually on the rear of an automobile, in which one carries luggage.

Except on the VW Beetle, Chevy Corvair and the Porsche 911.

add station wagons, SUVs, Rancheros and their like

They don't have trunks at the front, do they?

[aslyfox]

They don't have trunks at the front, do they?

true

and one might question truck vs car

so I deleted it

but not in time apparently

[UncleVanya]

As an English Language major in the 70’s (note - not a Literature major) I agree with your assessment. I learned Middle English taught as a foreign language. We of course read and read aloud Chaucer to demonstrate competence, and translated to modern English hundreds of lines weekly. Honestly, that course - 401 / 402 required for the major - was the toughest course I took as an Undergraduate. Tougher than Logic. Tougher than Probabilty and Statistics. Yikes.

Logic and Stats were fun for me. I tutored stats to help myself learn it better.

[tim60]

Frankly, I do not consider English a language. It is an amalgam of only the good lord knows how many other languages. I believe the grammar is based on an old Celtic language sometimes known as Anglish (the language spoken by the Angles) but I could be (and usually am) completely off the mark.

The Angles were invaders after the Romans left. The Celts were in these islands before the Romans.


And are they Celts or Selts? And is the adjective Celtic or Seltic. My confusion on this point is that in Australia we pronounce those things with the C not the S but here there is a soccer business called Seltic, in a part of the country where the original inhabitants were Celts (or Selts).

[pschlute]

We of course read and read aloud Chaucer to demonstrate competence

My favourite was the Nonnes Preest tale. There is a line in there which could be used as a response to a long winded forum post..." Ye seye right sooth, this Monk he clappeth lowde"

[tim60]

In the mid 1400s King James the IV tried an experiment by putting two newborn infants on an isolated island with a deaf and dumb nurse to care for them, hoping to discover the true language that they spoke. The results of this experiment are lost in time and folklore, the experiment may not even have happened. Some people said they spoke perfect Hebrew, however Walter Scott said it was more likely that they bleated like the sheep on the island.

Was that James IV of Scotland? Precision is required even if there is no competition with England, since James VI of Scotland became James I of England.

[tim60]

Hi Peter

The only language I can think of would be the Australian Aborigine ,though they have many dialects as well

Dave

There were about 200 to 300 distinct tribes which had distinct languages, not dialectal variations of one language.

[Cerebum]

gonna need some more SMU's.... I've started my M42 collection...

Oooh, m42 lenses now you are entering my world what are you getting?

[cyberjunkie]

Multidisciplinary liberal arts : so profoundly enriching yet so hard to make a living and such a luxury these days.

The late CEO of Fiat-Chrysler, Sergio Marchionne, a very successful businessman, said many times that his career would have been impossible without his university studies in Philosophy. Such studies, not a business course, where the foundations upon which he built his career.
Never sympathised for the man - requiescant in pace - and with the elite he served. However I fully concur with his idea that only classic/artistic/humanity studies can provide the ample cultural horizon that is the necessary precondition of innovation.
Great corporations have been brought to their knees by square-head bean counters and head cutters, with no moral, no sense of beauty, and no real awareness of where the world is going.

Not so surprisingly, many famous scientists, and some of the great lens designers, were talented musicians.
I don't believe that it was a kind of side effect of their genius, instead I believe that understanding music and learning how to play at a high level was an important part of their formative process.

[pepperberry farm]

Oooh, m42 lenses now you are entering my world what are you getting?

starting off simple & straight-forward: Super Takumar 55mm f1.8, with the original hood...