Thread:User talk:WaitingforGodot/Language and Ph.D. programs/reply (4)

HAH.. to each their own. I think on the experts I know (mostly from TV) Lawrence Krauss, marcus De Savouy, even deGrasse Tyson all talk about learning other languages to at least communicate in those languages. And our immediate forefathers were very fluent in multiple languages. Often writing in latin and French even if they were german or english. Language opens up ways of looking at teh world, and seems integral to being a rounded person.

BUT, maybe I can agree that if it's not your cup of tea, so be it. one *should* learn, but then again I *should* have learned to spell better and to know numbers better.

But I also agree that phd programs are simply not as rigorous as they were when say, my father got his degree. I know about what he knew as a MASTERS. oh well. :-)

Having said that, i do STRONGLY agree that it's dumb to think you will be good enough in a language to read articles or original source material. Experts who spend their lives studying the art of translation will be far better at translating a work than I. and while it was fun to read Foucault in French, i got WAY WAY more from reading it in english.