I had no idea that was the case with PhDs in history! Is that in a particular field - surely it can't apply to every specializations!
Pilsner's audio tapes worked well when I was learning Japanese (although I stopped early on when we left Japan). They're a good intro to (very) basic conversations, and pronunciation, but they don't help much with reading or writing. The Rosetta Stone software is also supposed to be amazing, although I never fully tried it.
No, it doesn't apply to other specialisations - I can't imagine having to do a German test for Physics! LOL. But in history, you have to know a fair number of languages because the major works are in different languages and not as of yet translated (translation of books is a thankless and tedious job that no one wants to do - I suggested to my supervisor last year translating some of the utopias, and he said forget it, that it would be a waste).
I guess the German requirement is because almost all the top historians from about 1960-1990 were German-writing. But I'm not quite sure. It's a useful language, nevertheless.
I shall try Pilsner's audio tapes! Japanese sounds fun. Are you learning Korean? They have crazy writing! Just as crazy as Chinese, but totally mutually exclusive!
I'm picking up a few Korean words here and there from my students, but I haven't actively tried to learn it. For me, Japanese words were a lot easier to pronounce - Korean is really gutteral and sometimes I literally can't wrap my mouth around the sounds. The writing system, however, is much easier to learn than Japanese or Chinese. There are 24 characters (14 consonants and 10 vowels) and once you memorize the sounds, it's fairly easy to start reading!
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And sadly the only major thing I know about learning new languages is to study them constantly - like daily.
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(Ich schreibe nicht so gut - I've been concentrating on the reading part)
Yes, studying constantly is the best method. But I'm far too lazy ;)
Miss you!
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Pilsner's audio tapes worked well when I was learning Japanese (although I stopped early on when we left Japan). They're a good intro to (very) basic conversations, and pronunciation, but they don't help much with reading or writing. The Rosetta Stone software is also supposed to be amazing, although I never fully tried it.
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I guess the German requirement is because almost all the top historians from about 1960-1990 were German-writing. But I'm not quite sure. It's a useful language, nevertheless.
I shall try Pilsner's audio tapes! Japanese sounds fun. Are you learning Korean? They have crazy writing! Just as crazy as Chinese, but totally mutually exclusive!
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