sophistry | (no subject)

So I'm dipping in and out of Liberty, by Lucy Moore, which is about the lives and times of some of the women of Revolutionary France (so far: interesting! and not too dense, which is a good thing for post-study leisure reading), and oh Christ, how I miss French. I'm in town tomorrow for a revision session; it may be time to stick my head into Modern Languages and that other place whose name I can never remember, and scope out what there is in the way of literature en français for the summer. Possibly also Laser, for some French films ~~with Guillaume Canet in them~~.

Also toying with the idea of taking a class over the summer, either in Italian or Portuguese (I cannot for the life of me dig up any Catalan classes; annoying! unsurprising, but annoying). Cons: expensive, summer cycles have tendency to overlap with end of exams, after finishing exams will probably want to spend summer vegetating; pros: will learn better in class than teaching self, languages ♥♥♥♥, always get sick of vegetating eventually.

Italian will probably win out over Portuguese, since a) I love Italy, b) as Classicist, am more likely to wind up spending time in Italy than Portugal, and c) have in fact no reason to want to visit Portugal or Brazil at all. Plus which, I am not sure that it isn't still too soon, and that if I try to study something so similar to Spanish, I won't just end up in convulsive allergic fits on the classroom floor, screaming something hateful about the subjunctive. So basically, I don't know why I want to learn Portuguese at all, except that it looks cool, and sounds so pretty when they speak it in Master & Commander.¹

Then again, I am coming around to the idea that maybe I have been unfairly judgmental re: German, all these years - a development for which I can probably blame, in no particular order:

schiarire, Benno Fürmann and Daniel Brühl, Kurt Wagner, and the immeasurably vast tracts of cool scholarship (Classical and otherwise) written auf Deutsch. At the very least, it would be excitingly different from my Romance languages. BUT AM I READY FOR SUCH AN ~ADVENTURE~.

In conclusion, I may or may not be studying something casually this summer, but I have no idea what. This post has been a constructive use of my time.

¹I know, I have a problem. I had to leave a bookshop today before I spent nearly €40 on a big, glossy, illustrated hardback all about the great naturalists of history. Linnaeus! Humboldt! Banks! Did want.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

I can't believe I'm in the same list as Daniel Brühl!

I rec Portuguese over Italian as I think it would be harder for you to learn on your own than Italian is (given your Spanish experience). However I do rec the German over either of these on the basis that (a) it is not a Romance language so it will cause you to grow many many new neuron connections (b) it is however helpfully related to English (c) the genitive case compels you. You know you love the genitive. You know it.

So basically, I don't know why I want to learn Portuguese at all, except that it looks cool, and sounds so pretty when they speak it in Master & Commander.

I desperately wanted to learn Czech after a brief visit to the Czech Republic simply because I thought it sounded gorgeous when spoken and I liked the sharpness of the look of the words in print. But given that I have only just had a basic Spanish lesson, it is not likely. I've forgotten a good deal of the French I once had, but I continue to believe that it is there below the surface. XD

It is not remotely practical, but I still would love to learn Czech. :/ So on the basis of... nothing... I would vote for the Portugese. Because it is pretty. On the practical side, Italian vs. German... augh. I think I would lean toward German, also due mostly to

schiarire. She clearly has no concept of her vast influence. >.>

Well, I'm not in a place to say, really, because I'm particularly interested in learning Spanish.

I'm biased towards German, since I'm a minor, but I agree with most of what

schiarire said. The Genitive case IS fun, and you get to come up with new, slangy words like "Downgeloaded." It *is* a real word, I heard several people in Husum saying it. In context (and auf Deutsch) "Ich habe meine Email Downgeloaded." ((I downloaded my email)).

Seriously though, German is the way to go.