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Is it important, or perhaps even necessary, to learn a languge when studying history? Mostly thinking of Latin, Greek, or Old English/Gaelic here. Would it be helpful when reading older Greek, Roman, or Medieval literature, poetry, or historical records to know the language it was originally written in or are the translations we now have fairly reliable and accurate?
Yes, it is very important to learn a language the deeper you get into the study of European history (not so much with American history). Although translations are available and useful, not everything you will need to study will be translated. Say you want to study the history of Mussolini's' rise to power. You'd be able to read some translations of primary sources, but you might also want to dig deeper and read documents stored away in some archive in Rome that haven't ever been translated. Furthermore, you would want to read secondary criticism that has not been translated into English. But like I said, if your topic is in American history then foreign languages are of less help, but they might come in handy depending on the specifics (e.g. learning Spanish might help if studying early California settlements).
Hmm, how do I put this? I'm not really talking about specific countries, more like specific periods. For instance, would it be beneficial to learn Latin if one's interests lie in the Medieval period and was that Latin used in England, Germany, France, etc at that time?A question: was Old English (Canterbury Tales type of old english) ONLY used in England or was it used in other countries?
Unless you're really going to get serious with your History education (i.e. Grad School & beyond), you don't really need to spend a lot of time on the languages. You only need the languages to research primary sources with. I would advise you to concentrate on getting the BA first, and then later take the languages if you go to the next level.
That's what I thought. It would probably be a good idea to start study languages casually for now just in case I do want to go beyond the measly BA.Go raibh maith agat(that's Irish for 'thank you' 8) )
I would say that languages are very important, especially for history outside the US. I had a passing familiarity with German before I started my Grad studies, but I have found that it is almost impossible to do substantive research into a foreign country without being able to speak the language. In studying 19th century Prussia, there is a wealth of information in German but very little attention has been paid to that in English. The only stuff translated is the main primary sources i.e. Delbruck and some limited amount of Moltke and Bismarck. I have found the Rosetta Stone software to be invaluable if you have the time to work on it every day. I plan on eventually learning French and maybe Russian, it helps that I took four years of mostly forgotten Latin in high school because I am least somewhat familiar with the verb and tense forms used in Europe.
I had heard of the Rosetta Stone program but didn't know how well it worked. I am going to have to take a foreign language translation exam as part of my current studies before too long. I already speak Spanish well enough but since I would prefer to study something more French or Italian I might want to study those languages instead. So I might have to look at Rosetta Stone.
Rosetta Stone is very good. I've been using the Arabic and would like to pick up a few more other languges. It's not cheap though.
I have access to a copy of Rosetta Stone (oh by the way, I've actually seen THE Rosetta Stone) And I'm working on German and Welsh.
