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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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 Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 4:08 pm Post subject: |
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| Gimbap Lover wrote: |
| mithridates wrote: |
| I've already got a few mostly useless skills of my own, like runic and Ido. On top of that I'd like to know how to use an astrolabe, learn Old English / Anglo-Saxon, Manchu (Xibe), and just about any previously widespread skill that has since died out. Cool thread. |
Classic mithridates. Pompous, pretentious and always reaching for the obscure to feign genius. |
I read him as pretty earnest. But then maybe I'm biased because I'm not intimidated by him in any way. Nor am I jealous of the fact that his language abilities now are superior to what mine will ever be. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 6:05 pm Post subject: |
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| rchristo10 wrote: |
| 2. Esperanto--The International Language (and write a book like Umberto Eco...and then visit that little island where people actually speak a dialect of this man-made contraption). |
You mean neutral Moresnet? That idea never got off the ground. Unless there's another island where they actually got it to work that I've never heard of. |
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Murakano
Joined: 10 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 7:53 pm Post subject: |
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| Southampton University offer a BA(Hons) in Football ("saaaccer") |
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gyopochris
Joined: 05 Apr 2011
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 10:13 pm Post subject: |
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| The OP post about Russian made me: Lol |
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schwa
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Yap
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| Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 2:02 am Post subject: |
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For me, it'd be a toss-up between etymology & entomology.
Digging back to the birth of words & studying how meanings change over time. I admire the guy who created www.etymonline.com
Bugs enthrall me. Not just the big flashy ones but even moreso the tiny common critters that people barely notice. |
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MollyBloom
Joined: 21 Jul 2006
Location: James Joyce's pants
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| Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 4:52 am Post subject: |
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| mithridates wrote: |
| learn Old English / Anglo-Saxon |
I know you and I often have crossed paths with good knowledge of language/etymology, but I think you might find amusing the fact that I once had the pleasure of studying under Daniel Donoghue, a mind-blowing-incredible-wowzee AS scholar who, in my opinion, is the world's foremost AS scholar out there. He was amazing: he was short in stature, with delicately ruddy cheeks, and always wore those tweed suit jackets with the leather patches at the elbows. In his class, when he spoke AS it was absolutely mesmerizing, and I kick myself every day that I didn't (audio) record his classes. I hung out with him a few times in his office, and he told me some cool stories about Seamus Heaney, a close friend of his (Donoghue edited Heaney's translation of Beowulf). I can still recite some lines from that poem, mainly because that class had such an impact on my studies.
Peter S. Baker's Intro to Old English is a good book to start out with. And, of course, get the Beowulf translation by Heaney. Donoghue's Old English Literature is an interesting book to get started with as well.
Some good websites:
http://faculty.virginia.edu/OldEnglish/Beowulf.Readings/Beowulf.Readings.html (I would open the link to the audio in a new tab so that you can read the text at the same time. If you click on the audio it opens in a new page and you can't read the text!)
http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~beowulf/main.html
http://www.heorot.dk/beowulf-on-steorarume_front-page.html |
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flakfizer
Joined: 12 Nov 2004
Location: scaling the Cliffs of Insanity with a frayed rope.
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| Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 5:18 am Post subject: |
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| Kuros wrote: |
| Gimbap Lover wrote: |
| mithridates wrote: |
| I've already got a few mostly useless skills of my own, like runic and Ido. On top of that I'd like to know how to use an astrolabe, learn Old English / Anglo-Saxon, Manchu (Xibe), and just about any previously widespread skill that has since died out. Cool thread. |
Classic mithridates. Pompous, pretentious and always reaching for the obscure to feign genius. |
I read him as pretty earnest. But then maybe I'm biased because I'm not intimidated by him in any way. Nor am I jealous of the fact that his language abilities now are superior to what mine will ever be. |
I agree. I never thought Mith came across as pompous. The guy just seems to know what truly interests him (languages/linguistics and space exploration) and talks enthusiastically about those subjects. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 3:16 pm Post subject: |
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| MollyBloom wrote: |
| mithridates wrote: |
| learn Old English / Anglo-Saxon |
I know you and I often have crossed paths with good knowledge of language/etymology, but I think you might find amusing the fact that I once had the pleasure of studying under Daniel Donoghue, a mind-blowing-incredible-wowzee AS scholar who, in my opinion, is the world's foremost AS scholar out there. He was amazing: he was short in stature, with delicately ruddy cheeks, and always wore those tweed suit jackets with the leather patches at the elbows. In his class, when he spoke AS it was absolutely mesmerizing, and I kick myself every day that I didn't (audio) record his classes. I hung out with him a few times in his office, and he told me some cool stories about Seamus Heaney, a close friend of his (Donoghue edited Heaney's translation of Beowulf). I can still recite some lines from that poem, mainly because that class had such an impact on my studies. |
I always wondered about that since I think I remember Heaney himself saying that he wasn't an expert on Old English, just a really gifted writer and translator. His translation of the Tao Te Ching was the first one I ever read too.
One thing I've always wanted to find is a marked-up version of Beowulf, something like this. Heaney's translation is more like a reworking of the poem and the copyright-free versions I've found online are not all that impressive, but something like that image that does all the dictionary work for you as you read along would be ideal.
Moldy Rutabaga on this site (Ken Eckert) also knows quite a bit about Old English. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 3:26 pm Post subject: |
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| flakfizer wrote: |
| Kuros wrote: |
| Gimbap Lover wrote: |
| mithridates wrote: |
| I've already got a few mostly useless skills of my own, like runic and Ido. On top of that I'd like to know how to use an astrolabe, learn Old English / Anglo-Saxon, Manchu (Xibe), and just about any previously widespread skill that has since died out. Cool thread. |
Classic mithridates. Pompous, pretentious and always reaching for the obscure to feign genius. |
I read him as pretty earnest. But then maybe I'm biased because I'm not intimidated by him in any way. Nor am I jealous of the fact that his language abilities now are superior to what mine will ever be. |
I agree. I never thought Mith came across as pompous. The guy just seems to know what truly interests him (languages/linguistics and space exploration) and talks enthusiastically about those subjects. |
Pretty much. This thread just happens to coincide with a lot of the weird things I've picked up and the ones I hope to learn later on.
Since you brought up space, a reminder that Dawn will be arriving at Vesta in just three months. Vesta's going to be the first fairly sizable body we get to see close up for the first time in a long time. Pretty much all other missions over the past two decades or so (besides some new closeups from Cassini) have been to places we've already seen before, albeit in lesser detail. |
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Fishead soup
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 5:43 pm Post subject: |
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The Modernist/Postmodern historical dialectic.
The blurring of the distinctions between high art and popular culture
Starting with Warhol and following through to Wrestlemania.
Semiotics
K pop from a feminist perspective. Male voyourism" Your gaze hits the side of my face" Barbera Krugar. Comparing K pop celebrities to Thai bargirls.
The Myth of the Submissive Asian women from a Post-Modernist perspective.
American Cultural Imperialism and the Changing face of Asian culture. |
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brento1138
Joined: 17 Nov 2004
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| Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 6:19 pm Post subject: Re: Useless subjects you would like to be an expert in. |
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| Astronomy, astrophysics, that kind of stuff. |
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brento1138
Joined: 17 Nov 2004
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| Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 6:20 pm Post subject: |
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| mithridates wrote: |
| I've already got a few mostly useless skills of my own, like runic and Ido. On top of that I'd like to know how to use an astrolabe, learn Old English / Anglo-Saxon, Manchu (Xibe), and just about any previously widespread skill that has since died out. Cool thread. |
I've seen you post a couple times in language related posts. What languages are you fluent in? Obviously English & Korean. What else? |
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myenglishisno
Joined: 08 Mar 2011
Location: Geumchon
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| Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 7:13 pm Post subject: |
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I want to be a dyslexic, agnostic insomniac.
So I can lay awake at night and wonder if there really is a Dog. |
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SeoulFinn
Joined: 27 Feb 2006
Location: 1h from Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 11:43 pm Post subject: |
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| I'd like to be an expert on something as useless as Korean studies... now wait a minute! Oh bummer! |
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Tundra_Creature
Joined: 11 Jun 2009
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2011 12:31 pm Post subject: |
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| If I had the time and money, I would love to study world folk/fairy tales. ...Though I suppose I could just go to the store and buy the books and read them on my own. |
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