Languages

The first foreign language I started learning was French, in school of course.  In Grades 5 through 7 we used the same textbook and learned the same things over and over. (This was the era of "natural" learning.) It wasn't till Grade 8 that we started to learn conjugation.  But in the mid-70s I read several Asterix books in their original French and enjoyed them greatly.  In ASTERIX AND THE POT OF GOLD (the one where he and Obelix have to make up a stolen pot of gold) there's a hilarious part where they join a "new wave" acting troop lead by a guy who resembles David Bowie!

When I was 15 I decided to start learning Latin.  I even took a couple of college-level correspondence courses.  I tried learning a bit of German, but that was a bit too challenging for me. (Moira's the German expert in this family.)

When I was 23, just after graduating, I took some time off and learned a bit of Koine Greek, the Hellenistic version of the language in which the New Testament was written.  I also tried learning some Spanish and even a bit of Hebrew, but Hebrew was also a bit too complicated.

Then my main foreign-language interest was Chinese.  In my late 20s and early 30s I gradually learned to read about 1200 characters. (Speaking it is beyond me, however.) When I was 34 or so, I actually spent some time learning Esperanto!  Then at age 38 I got interested in Japanese and learned enough to read that language.

When I was 40 or so, I actually started to learn Dutch!  It happened because I was taking this creative writing course in the TDSB night-school program, and there was this Dutch nurse also in the course...  Maybe I'll take it up again someday.

My most recent linguistic interest is Classical Greek, actually the language's previous form between 600 and 200 BC or so.  I got interested in that when I saw this movie of the Terence Rattigan play THE WINSLOW BOY, in which British schoolboys were learning Greek.  With this language, as with several others, I've been using a book from the TEACH YOURSELF... series. (In addition to the book, the series also has supplementary exercises online.)