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Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Weeding. I wonder if the really fun jobs require degrees that require withstanding terrific boredom to obtain? For example... oh, I don't know, let's just pick something at random... Library Science. Just about every single aspect of being a librarian appeals to me. The organizing, the helping people, and (in the case of Children's or School Media Specialist) the interaction with kids. I love the idea of it, I love what I've seen of it, I admire most of the people I know who are doing it. Why oh WHY do I dislike the learning part of it so much? I'm not averse to learning in general. In fact, if there were no expiration date on my life, I think I'd start by learning every known language on the planet. Perhaps because I'm unilingual, my desire to be omnilingual stems from the realization that there is a great deal of information out there in the world that lies behind a linguistic barrier. This past summer, I took two Spanish classes to fulfill a university requirement. I found the classes enjoyable and really had fun learning to communicate in another language - especially one so readily available on my local Telemundo and Univision stations. It's so frustrating to get past SPA 101 with flying colors and then realize that's it. No mas. Nada. My desire to learn other languages - like Spanish, but also my paternal family's Arabic - is somewhat scoffed at by my dad and my friends. "The whole world speaks English," they say. From my point of view there is truth to that statement, but isn't my point of view limited to the information that lies within my linguistic reach? Now I know why so many senior citizens like to take college classes, and where their lament that "youth is wasted on the young" comes from. We youth have already put on our running shoes and sprinted out of the gate to join the rat race. We shun more education than required of us and streamline our course load for a quick exit, snatching the sheepskin prize on the way out. When I retire someday, I'm going to learn as many frivolous things as my pension check allows. Photography, foreign languages, gardening, art history... My grandkids are just going to LOVE it when I join them for lunch in the student lounge. posted by hilary at 4:08 PM |  
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Perhaps we'll learn Arabic together ;)
I know i would love to learn a couple of languages myself.
I tried Latin, and it didn't go so well. Tried Italian, and it was better than Latin, but I still can't say much more than Gracie. I am now trying Ancient Greek, however, and it is going surprisingly easy.
So, give Greek a shot. You can read Plato, and be a total geek for learning an almost wholly useless language.
Also, I suggest finding a class on metal sculpture, because that's fun too. You get to play with blow torches.