2 posts tagged “languages”

When the girls out here— and the guy I just held the door for— say "thank you," they in fact say "thenk yow", or "think yo," or something between, and then they shuffle off in their flip-flops.  I can't reproduce this pronunciation at all; I've only ever heard it on this coast.  Got any data on this?

After two and a half weeks away from home, I'm not sure exactly what I'm missing.  The library?  Certain cafés?  My bicycle?  (I hardly ride it these days.)  A sense of proprietorship?  My time being my own?  Conversations?  (I can hardly talk these days, either.)  I keep fixing on the library— by which I guess I mean several different libraries— because it's concrete: I can go in, grab a stack of books, borrow and return them along with their contents, which I often do return, lightly used, forgotten after a year or so.  It helps.  But I think what I'm looking for is just creative potential, the free exercise thereof, pure and simple; and in light of its formlessness I obsess over particular stupid insufficiencies.

Such as this: I need to choose a third language for my comparative literary studies.  So many options!  So many languages!  So little certainty about the job market!  What should I do?  Some candidates:

Italian
Pros:
- is beautiful
- I can already half-read it
- Dante, Leopardi, Svevo, a ton of modern poets
- adds depth to European studies
Cons:
- few jobs
- material is somewhat limited, except a few major authors
- would get addicted to living in Europe, not want to leave ever, alienate family and friends

French
Pros:
- would not run out of material
- have to learn it anyway
- favorite book is in French
- not too hard to learn; can basically read it now
Cons:
- every comparatist studies French
- no idea about the job market
- but it's probably glutted
- might get fat, tie scarf badly, lose job

Latin
Pros:
- relieves guilt of not knowing Latin
- I <3 Vergil
- can become pleasantly obsessed with Rome
- no one would fault me for it
Cons:
- dead
- but studied incessantly anyway
- would need guidance towards interesting projects

Ancient Greek
Pros:
- could write that dissertation on Musil and Greek philosophy
Cons:
- hard

Portuguese
Pros:
- bonus for Spanish hires
- Pessoa!
- Brazil!
Cons:
- might run out of things to read/study.  But maybe not.
- feels irrationally like a cop-out.

English
Pros:
- I am fluent in English already
- among greatest literary languages on earth
Cons:
- would have a hell of a time coming up with original research.
- probably couldn't use it as a third language anyway— would be ridiculous

Russian
Pros:
- know alphabet, some words & phrases
- no shortage of materials
- redeem lost undergraduate honor
- Tsvetaeva!  Tsvetaeva!
Cons:
- job market sucks
- slavists seem cliquey
- have an irrational fear of daily life in Russia
- as with French and English, everyone else seems to know more about it than I do.

various languages spoken in Middle East (Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, etc.)
Pros:
- interesting cross-cultural projects
- long varied literary traditions
- philosophically/religious-ly eclectic
- languages are beautiful
Cons:
- probably can't deal with politics (geopolitics, not culture-war politics)

Korean
Pros:
- Korean/Latin American comparative work would be great fun
- have generally had positive experiences with Korean literature
Cons:
- jobs? interest?
- white(American-)ness may be a disadvantage, or perplexer
- no one to work with at my university (but could visit another school for a year, and/or go abroad)

Chinese
Pros:
- would be awesome
- many interesting internal/comparative projects
- possible early modern/postmodern massive comparative dissertation project too heady even to think about, like five ice creams: if scaled back, could be productive
Cons:
- insanely hard language, so hard that I hardly dare mention the idea to people
- see "white(American-)ness" above
- canon is riddled with hair-raising misogyny, but I'm not much good with women's lit/gender studies.  People must find ways past this, but I'm always less desensitized than I think I am.

An invented language of my own design
Pros:
- no trouble with identity politics
Cons:
- would also have to write own literature; am terrible critic of own work.

What do you guys think?  Am I leaving anything out?  Am I screwed?