Introductory Post
Hi everyone! I have no idea how I missed out on this community for so long, but better late than never. Guess I'll do the whole intro thing. I'm a native speaker of English, and know the following languages:
Latin: I've studied Classical Latin throughout high school and most of college, and did a year of Medieval Latin for my Master's degree, so that adds up to about 8ish years. I don't necessarily feel comfortable saying I'm "fluent" since I obviously don't have the opportunity to speak it, but I do like to toy with composition once in a while. I'm pretty solid with it, though.
Italian: I only studied it for two years and used to be far more fluent (I lived with a host family in Umbria for three months in an immersion study abroad program five years ago). I can speak it, but it's broken at best right now. I am much more confident in my reading knowledge.
German: I've studied this off and on for about four years, and again, I'm much more confident with reading than speaking. However, my mother is a German teacher and taught me several songs and basic words when I was very young--I almost feel like my brain processes those words differently when I'm working with German. It's weird but neat.
I also have a rudimentary understanding of Middle Egyptian hieroglyphs, thanks to the fact that I went to a big research university that offers courses in Egyptology. It's rusty, though.
I've just recently been given Mitchell & Robinson's Guide to Old English as I've wanted to teach myself OE for ages; has anyone had experience with this book? I've heard good things about it from some of my old MA coursemates but thought I'd ask a wider forum--also, any recommendations for other tools for someone who is self-taught?
On the "to learn someday" list are Icelandic, Welsh and Manx. A friend of mine (who is working toward a PhD and deals with OE a lot) said on a recent trip to Iceland that between the German and the OE he knew, he could actually get a halfway-decent sense of what people were saying. For those of you that happen to know Icelandic, do you think there's any truth in this?
I've heard that Welsh is difficult and Manx even more so (I only know a few words and phrases of the latter courtesy of the SO's family); I've never had any experience learning a Gaelic language. For those of you that managed to do it, any tips?
Okay, that's about all, looking forward to being here!
Latin: I've studied Classical Latin throughout high school and most of college, and did a year of Medieval Latin for my Master's degree, so that adds up to about 8ish years. I don't necessarily feel comfortable saying I'm "fluent" since I obviously don't have the opportunity to speak it, but I do like to toy with composition once in a while. I'm pretty solid with it, though.
Italian: I only studied it for two years and used to be far more fluent (I lived with a host family in Umbria for three months in an immersion study abroad program five years ago). I can speak it, but it's broken at best right now. I am much more confident in my reading knowledge.
German: I've studied this off and on for about four years, and again, I'm much more confident with reading than speaking. However, my mother is a German teacher and taught me several songs and basic words when I was very young--I almost feel like my brain processes those words differently when I'm working with German. It's weird but neat.
I also have a rudimentary understanding of Middle Egyptian hieroglyphs, thanks to the fact that I went to a big research university that offers courses in Egyptology. It's rusty, though.
I've just recently been given Mitchell & Robinson's Guide to Old English as I've wanted to teach myself OE for ages; has anyone had experience with this book? I've heard good things about it from some of my old MA coursemates but thought I'd ask a wider forum--also, any recommendations for other tools for someone who is self-taught?
On the "to learn someday" list are Icelandic, Welsh and Manx. A friend of mine (who is working toward a PhD and deals with OE a lot) said on a recent trip to Iceland that between the German and the OE he knew, he could actually get a halfway-decent sense of what people were saying. For those of you that happen to know Icelandic, do you think there's any truth in this?
I've heard that Welsh is difficult and Manx even more so (I only know a few words and phrases of the latter courtesy of the SO's family); I've never had any experience learning a Gaelic language. For those of you that managed to do it, any tips?
Okay, that's about all, looking forward to being here!