What Should I Do With the Rest of My Life? Learn Sanskrit? Read Tacitus?
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- Опубліковано 28 кві 2023
- Merlin's 10th birthday, my own 59th birthday, and the Academy's 1st anniversary are all coming up! Opening my Academy this past year has been the realization of a lifelong dream, and I want to express my gratitude to all those who have helped make it happen. You can subscribe to my monthly newsletter here: www.alexanderarguelles.com/ne... Last week, students requested a new course in Sanskrit, so I am announcing that as well as our next reading for Great Books of the West.
If you enjoy learning from my videos, then you might also enjoy learning by interacting with me in my virtual academy: www.alexanderarguelles.com/ac... You can join me next week to follow the Path of the Polyglot; read French, German, or Spanish literature; learn to read Medieval languages; practice spoken Latin at various levels; participate in Great Books seminars; study the comparative history of religion; or get support for guided self-study of languages including Latin, Arabic, and now Sanskrit.
If you are in a position to support my educational efforts, please consider making a contribution at: ko-fi.com/alexanderarguelles
If you enjoy learning from my videos, then please subscribe to my monthly newsletter here: www.alexanderarguelles.com/newsletter/ You might also enjoy learning by interacting with me in my virtual academy: www.alexanderarguelles.com/academy/ You can join me next week to follow the Path of the Polyglot; read French, German, or Spanish literature; learn to read Medieval languages; practice spoken Latin at various levels; participate in Great Books seminars; study the comparative history of religion; or get support for guided self-study of languages including Latin, Arabic, and now Sanskrit.
Felicem diem natalem Merlin, Magister, ac Academia!
Gratias tibi ago, Chad.
Happy Birthday! May God bless you with good health and many years of life, you're a living legend and inspiration for all of us, even though I'm not blessed with your calling, determination and high IQ :)
Thank you for the kind words and wishes.
First, I'd like to wish you a happy birthday. I know what you're feeling, as I am fifty-six, and kind of in the same mindset. Personally, I am just sticking to improving what I already know and study. You might say that I am just going deeper into what foundations I have built. Take care to both you and Merlin, who should be teaching you some magic, or at least, make you a better mouser...
He has indeed been mousing lately...
Dear Professor,
You arrived on UA-cam pretty late on your language learning journey. I believe a lot of us would greatly benefit from seeing you documenting your process of learning a new language. After all, one of your most viewed videos is the one where you show your daily language routine, back in the day. If you decided to tackle a few languages from scratch and document your experience month by month, it would be a invaluable source of knowledge, wisdom, and inspiration for the polyglot community.
Thank you for the suggestion, but I have been posting on UA-cam since 2008.
The pursuit of knowledge is endless, professor. I hope that you have lots of new discoveries to encounter on your journey. This thirst for knowledge could make anyone jealous. I wish I could see some other videos on the brightest moments during your journey and what you have learned about life and cultures. Nowadays it is diificult to really expose yourself to foreign media and cultures because of the globalisation but you manage to overcome this which makes me wonder if I could myself do the same. Thank you
Thank you for the ideas for future vidoes!
Happy birthday, Professor and Merlin! One of the reasons I value this channel is it seems to me your prime goal in learning foreign languages is to read and appreciate literature in its original form. On just about every other channel, the goal of the host is to learn a foreign language in order to chat with the locals. I'm certainly not bashing that goal, but for those of us who are introverted and prefer books, our goals are rather different. When people find out I'm learning Russian (I started at age 49) they can't imagine why. I tell them if Tolstoy, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Chekov, and Alexievich had written in Czech or Polish or Swahili, well, that's what I would be studying instead. Also, when people talk about learning foreign languages, they almost never mention the sheer beauty of language (any language). We can all admire beautiful architecture, painting, music, and so on. But many folks simply aren't attuned to the beauty in language. But I know you are. Anyway, sorry for rambling. Always love your videos. Keep up the great work.
Right you are, sir, my main goals are to read literature in the original, and to appreciate the beauty and fascination of foreign languages. Conversational abilities are nice to get in the bargain, but never the target for me.
Good that you want to be giving!! I'm hoping to join your courses soon.
It will be great to have you - which ones are of interest?
Happy double birthday, professor! The hunger for knowledge is something beautiful and neverending.
Thank you kindly.
Happy Anniversary, Professor! The world is a better place with you in it.
You are very kind - thank you.
You are an amazing person. I'm sure your knowledge will be used for many years to come. The internet is kinda cool
You are very kind.
Happy Anniversary to you and Merlin💝
Thank you very much.
Herzlichen Glück wünsche zum Geburtstag 🎉Prof. und Merlin
Vielen Dank!
Happy Birthday, Prof! 🎉
Thank you kindly.
Happy Birthday, dear Professor. Thank you for nudging me in the right direction all those years ago. Thank you for your endless service to polyglots all over the world.
You have made a world of difference to hundreds of language learners.
It is always gratifying to hear this - thank you!
Happy birthday dear teacher.
Thank you very much.
Happy Anniversary Alexander, thank you for everything. I think returning to Turkish would be interesting to you :D
I recently realized that I did build quite a foundation in Turkish so that returning to it would not be an issue, if only there were more time in a day.
Happy birthday!
Thank you.
Happy belated birthday, Professor and Merlin! Getting to speak with you both this past year has been such a pleasure, and I hope the Academy continues to maintain its successful course under your leadership!
And your words reminded me of Smeik’s riddle: „Was wird immer kürzer, je länger es wird?“ While it is true that people like you and I have been fortunate to pursue our interests while still earning a living for our families, I think people like you and your father (and no disrespect intended to other members of your family, but I am only mentioning the ones whose careers I am familiar with) have “given back” more than your fair share in terms of the knowledge, processes, insights, and (in tour father’s case) literature that you have shared with the wider world. I hope to follow this example in the future (the word “Prateek” comes from a Sanskrit word roughly equivalent to the German “Vorbjld,” but I have work to do before I become such a role model for others)
Thank you so much, Prateek! Having discipuli like you over the past year has been one of the most satisfying aspects of opening the Academy. It is so much easier to "give back" when there are those who want to receive. The fact that there are numbers of people, like you, who are willing and able to participate in a wide variety of language circles shows that there is hope for polyliteracy to develop as a discipline. I wish you, your wife, and your new baby boy all the best in this coming year, and I look forward to the time when you can rejoin more classes. I am particularly eager to get you back into conversational Latin ASAP as I have a plan to develop a forum for scholastic debate with you all...
Happy Birthday!
Thank you.
If it weren't for finding your channel, I would still be struggling through Duolingo, haha. I never thought it was possible to learn a language as an adult. In the US, we all take language courses, but I've never known even one person who went on to become fluent in this or that language. I've been learning Spanish for about a year now in hopes to provide better care to my patients in the ICU. Even crazier...is that I've also found extra time to learn some French because my girlfriend is learning it, and why wouldn't I want to share in that journey? Also my long term best friend, he found materials to learn Hidatsa, his culture's language. We will both learn it and one day we hope to speak Hidatsa to each other!
Always nice to hear that I have had a good influence - thank you.
Mr. Arguelles, I wanted to congratulate you and Merlin on your birthdays! Thank you so much for the wonderful videos you put out; I appreciate them a lot, especially since it's difficult to receive intellectual stimulation of the sort here where I live in Mexico. Keep up the hard work, you are truly doing God's work (especially with the Academy, wonderful idea). Wishing you many more years, with great health and vigor.
Regards, Emmanuel.
Thank you kindly, Emmanuel.
I'm from U.K and living in Guadalajara, you?
@@dustsettles6099 I'm based in Puebla at the moment. I've heard great things about Guadalajara, hope you are having a great time there
What a cute cat!
Thank you!
Very deep questions.
Such is life...
Happy anniversary dear Alexander :)
you could start reading more about religion, life purpose and philosophy
Thank you kindly. I have never stopped reading such books.
I am quite late, but happy birthday! I am not exactly looking to become a polyglot, but rather to know a few languages fluently or close to that, and your teachings are going to help me in that undoubtely. My mother tongue is portuguese (I'm brazilian) and I have learned spanish, english and german so far. Plan on starting japanese soon while I keep training my german (the other ones I don't need to train, I get enough exposure online). My main fear is the human limit, whether I am able to know one more language fluently or not, and by the looks of your knowledge, looks like so. Unfortunately I can't have a daily routine like yours as I am a computer science graduate (I need to learn tons of programming languages and math already) but I hope that by dedicating at least 30 minutes everyday to learning a new language I can achieve what I want - especially because i watch tons of anime, so a lot of exposure from japanese too. That being said, amazing content!
Thank you for your kind words of appreciation. I am happy to help and inspire.
Sanskrit is such a great foundation for so many languages. I wish I had time for it. I’ve come across some of it as a learner of Thai and have dabbled in Bengali and Nepali in the past, both of which I hope to return to studying some day. I don’t think a pursuit of your passion for languages has been selfish. Although I approach self study differently I’ve always been encouraged by your videos.
Thank you for the kind words. Joining our group might help you make time for it...
Happy Birthday to both of you. I have to ask these questions also. I been working in higher education maybe too long.
Thank you.
Happy Birthday
Thank you!.
Thank you perfext timing in my life
You are very welcome.
生日快乐❤🎁🎂🎉。Professor.
谢谢。
Much respect to you, Prof, and Happy Birthday! 🎉🎂🎈I’m 2 years older than you, and recently started learning (Pakistani) Urdu😁 Always excited when you upload ❤️
Urdu is a ‘Hindustani’ language. It is one of the derivatives of Hindustani, the other being Hindi. Please don’t call Urdu a Pakistani language, it’s absolutely outrageous. You will find more Urdu speakers and scholars in India.
Thank you!
@@rishabhaniket1952 - I speak and write Australian English - It would be very silly for someone to say, “Please don’t call English an Australian language, it’s absolutely outrageous! You will find more English speakers and scholars in America!” 😎
Urdu *IS* the official national language of Pakistan, but I said specifically “(Pakistani) Urdu” as I’m using naskh and nastaʿliq style script - as opposed to Devanagari script. I specifically want to communicate with my friends in Lahore in both written and spoken language - not get into political debates.
@@rishabhaniket1952 Urdu is the national language of Pakistan, so it's far from "outrageous" to call it a Pakistani language. Yes we know it's widely spoken in parts of Northern India as well, but i think we needn't clutch our pearls.
@@JulieStudies as a Pakistani I’m so esteemed to hear that you’re learning Urdu! If you’d like to ask anything please feel free!
Thanks for this great video professor. To answer your title question, I'd choose learning languages and reading Tacitus, if possible. If you ever create a Great Books for East or West in the evenings or weekends again (New York time), I'm rejoining! Also, I think Merlin is the bee's knees.
Thank you, Briana, and Merlin says thanks as well.
Your cat is enormous and beautiful, hello! and thank you for the nice weekend.
Merlin says thank you!
I am also was born at 30 of April
It was a good day to be born.
Happy birthday!!
Thank you.
생신 축하드려요 교수님 늘 건강하시고 행복하십시오 한국 오시면 꼭 한 번 만나 뵙기 소망합니다. 윤창록 올림
감사해요, Ricardo!
Unrelated, but may be of interest to your students. On UA-cam they have modern popular songs in ancient languages, such as PUMPED UP KICKS in Old English, HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN in Old French, also SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT and LITTLE DARK AGE in Classical Latin. No idea how good the translations are, though
Thanks for sharing those leads.
Happy anniversary! Any news or updates on your book?
Thank you - I am working on the manuscript as I use it for my lectures in my Path of the Polyglot class.
@@ProfASAr looking forward to it!
I’m 20 years old and I want to live a life like you! Can you tell me some regrets you have and or advice on things you wished you’ve done?
Wish I had written the great American novel by now!
Also, Happy Birthday! Did you pick Merlin up abroad, or is he a fellow American?
Merlin was born in the Arabian desert.
Languages have mysterious underlying beauty and learning them is a delightful process nevertheless like everything else one should be trying to enrich oneself by knowledge ( of languages in this case ) driven by either passion i.e. love for a particular language or for a specific purpose such as communication necessity or being interested in literature written in that language rather than being driven by a latent quantitative greed for accumulating the number of things ( languages ! ) whatsoever , actually so far as the knowledge of number of languages( in a superficial fashion of course) is concerned, one can never excel the so called Artificial Intelligence .
Thank you for articulating this so nicely.
Learn Tamil a great classical language
Next life!
Idk why but this video has been pretty sad to me
I don't know why either.
Memorize the Bible
OK, Kalki 666!
@@ProfASAr hahah I wasn’t always a Christian . But now my heart belongs to the LORD.
59? Looking like 45
Thank you kindly!
Or Its time to read about islam
We started the Sacred Books of the East a year ago by reading and discussing the entire Koran.
@@ProfASAr
Btw, "Qur'an" is a more accurate transliteration of the word as it begins eith the Arabic letter Qaf. The 'Q' is a deeper version of the English /k/ and the apostrophe represents a glottal stop. but I'm sure you already knew this since you speak Arabic 😃
How did you feel after reading the entire Quran? Did anything resonate with you? 🙂
what to do with the rest of your life?
revert to Islam
read about Islam and follow the truth
Qur'an 109:6
@@ProfASAr
َQur'an 18:29
May Allah guide you to the truth
Read Dostoyevsky.
I have!
Definitely a fine choice.
Learn how to code!
Hmmm...
@@ProfASAr it tends to be easy for linguists, it really feels like learning a new language (with some math here and there)
Best wishes on the various noteworthy dates. :) I turn 61 this summer; our big Bernese Mountain Dog is 11 1/2 and slowing down; and I've been having many of the same thoughts. A concept I've been finding useful is adapted from Jim Collins' business book: From Good to Great. He expounded on an old Greek text (Πόλλ' οἶδ' ἀλώπηξ, ἀλλ' ἐχῖνος ἓν μέγα. -- Ἀρχίλοχος), perhaps more than was originally intended, but laid out something he called the Hedgehog principle. He noted (or overgeneralized) that companies that made the jump from average to outstanding asked and answered 3 questions that I paraphrase for the business context. What are you passionate about? What can you be best in the world at? What not only pays the bills but gives the freedom to pursue and expand on the first two answers? On a personal level, I ask, who am I? Who is that unique immutable person I am meant to be, and that comes out whenever I don't let the negative side of the world suppress it? What am I truly good at doing (and that leaves me energized when I do it)? Not a particular skill per se, but that something deeper that empowers the various skills I've excelled at. How can I turn that combination of who I am and what I am good at into part of the general human κληρονομία using it in the sense of Aristotle ("ὧν οὖν οἱ πρεσβύτεροι ἡμῶν ἐμελέτησαν, ταῦτα καὶ ἡμεῖς μελετῶμεν, ἵνα καταλάβωμεν τὴν ἐν τοῖς καλοῖς κληρονομίαν."), but not limiting it to familiarity with established tradition but adding my unique experiences, ponderings, and collected wisdom to the mix. Some form of "Ὁ βίος βραχύς, ἡ δὲ τέχνη μακρή." I suppose. And instead of the business profit side, I'm trying to figure out, to use a modern concept, how to be an influencer not only to the current generations around me but to the next. ...Yeah, I make it sound more epic than the grungy reality of nearly imperceptible progress in creating a combination of a transcendent fixed point to be an anchor or mooring point of soul and spirit and navigation tools for the sea of the urgent mundanity of life and the high noise to signal ratio of the world of so-called discourse that marks much of our increasingly virtual world. Anyway, where my thoughts tend to head on the bright days when I feel like Δῶς μοι πᾶ στῶ καὶ τὰν γᾶν κινάσω rather than on days more like "Τίς ὁρμήσει με, τίς με λύσει τῶν βροτῶν ὁ πλέον τάλας, κοιμηθεὶς δεσμωτήριον βίον;" Again, best wishes. I'm confident you'll find a good course forward.
Thank you for all the kind words of wisdom, Gandalf, it would be good to speak again some time soon.
Happy birthday!
Thank you.