If you're planning on going into the humanities and doing any kind of graduate work, what I didn't realize as an undergraduate is that it is not possible to learn too many languages. There will always be more crucial languages that you just don't know yet, so you might as well learn some of as many as possible now.
The languages I don't know this week are Russian and Greek. The poem I only just discovered and really do need to read is in Greek. The critical edition has notes in German, which I can at least work through, but working through the apparatus isn't at all the same as reading the text. Unless secondary sources translate enough of Meliteniotes' Sophrosyne, I'll be needing to find myself someone competent in the reading of Greek in the next few months. (Although further work indicates that I might be able to read it with French annotations instead of German. Either way, not the text.)
As for Russian... well, I'm more certain I know people who can read Greek at the moment.
Update: At least I've found a five page English summary of Sophorsyne, albeit one which doesn't focus on the elements I'm most interested in. Still, it's very useful as a guide and for narrowing down where I do need to look!
The languages I don't know this week are Russian and Greek. The poem I only just discovered and really do need to read is in Greek. The critical edition has notes in German, which I can at least work through, but working through the apparatus isn't at all the same as reading the text. Unless secondary sources translate enough of Meliteniotes' Sophrosyne, I'll be needing to find myself someone competent in the reading of Greek in the next few months. (Although further work indicates that I might be able to read it with French annotations instead of German. Either way, not the text.)
As for Russian... well, I'm more certain I know people who can read Greek at the moment.
Update: At least I've found a five page English summary of Sophorsyne, albeit one which doesn't focus on the elements I'm most interested in. Still, it's very useful as a guide and for narrowing down where I do need to look!
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owlfish- S. Worthen
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However, it does seem to be important to be able to speak and understand American Englishes and it's useful to understand Canadian English. The past five years really opened my eyes to the fact that these languages are not even close to British English, notwithstanding the superficial similarity in vocabulary and syntax.
If you actually want a chance to brush up on Russian, I'd happy track down the article and send it to you. I'll be able to tell you generally what about the article I'm most interested in, since it's an expanded version of a shorter paper I already have in English. The note at the end of the English paper tells me that the Russian paper focuses on things of greater interest to me, however.
Good luck on the exam. Have fun socializing. That's the part I miss most about the Latin exams.
Thanks also for the good wishes. I don't have my hopes up, but I need to take it. Oh well.