I'm a first year undergraduate studying History & Politics. I particularly love a couple of areas of study, the Viking Age and Norman conquest (and I am very interested in migratory patterns post-Fall of Rome, e.g. to British Isles). My tutor said she speaks not just English, but also French, medieval French and Latin. I assume she learnt that in her post-graduate studies. But I would like a head start, because I am fairly certain I would like to specialise in this area. At the very least, a language like French would be useful to have. Where would I learn, say, French, or more contemporaneously, Old Norse/English? Would it be presumptive of me to learn those languages this early on? I am fairly certain at this point I will probably end up doing post-graduate studies if I do well enough currently.
Many thanks.
Well, learning a language is kind of a separate animal from regular college education and/or post grad work.
And generally, learning any modern, in use language, like French, German, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, etc. is always a plus and has tons of utility in just about everything. There's no greater time to start than today, besides yesterday!
Becoming fluent is a difficult and long road but if you enjoy learning, studying a language has immediate benefits and progress is usually very apparent, which is encouraging.
I would recommend getting a teacher/native speaker. You could go it alone but building a strong foundation that understands the basic building blocks of a language is SO important. This is how you should start if you don't want to just rote memorize things. Having a language partner who you can ask questions directly, give examples, check your syntax, pronunciation, etc. is incredibly valuable!
The best part is that with the advent of the internet, you don't necessarily need to hire a teacher! There's tons of language partner websites, groups, meetups, etc. If you prefer a more structured teacher, then of course tutors and schools are not out of the question either.
Having friends who can speak the language is a great motivator and I'd personally say it's pretty much a requirement if you want to get fluent. With constant, practical use of the language, it's easier to realize your own gaps in knowledge, what grammar/vocab you want to learn how to say, and of course, tons of practice.
Once you have a solid grasp on the basics, which is usually attainable anywhere from 6 ~18 months, you can continue confidently on your own, if you wish to do so. Fluency itself is almost like a mirage because it's a constantly moving target. Think about all the new phrases that get invented in English, all the internet slang, unique cultural references, idioms, etc.
And of course, there's always specialized jargon and fields filled with words that the average laymen don't really understand, never mind a foreigner trying to learn the language.
But it's certainly doable! Far too many people start and peter out very quickly before they even master the basics. Learning a new language is great!
Now the tricky business is learning historical languages, like Old Norse, Classical Chinese, ancient precursors to Japanese, etc.
You almost certainly require a teacher, if for no other reason than the number of text based resources available to learn, say, Classical Chinese, are much, much fewer than Modern Mandarin. These teachers are probably found in academic settings in very specialized courses.
What becomes immediately apparent is that learning a historical language is sometimes incredibly different from learning a modern language but for the most part, it's the same process. For some languages, a lack of complete understanding of the language is an obstacle since it works a lot of ambiguity in the process of learning the language.
Sometimes reading old texts feels more like decoding or trying to solve a puzzle than simply reading, and that's before even getting to the actual content itself!
But either way, you want as much time as possible to learn a language because it isn't something you can get good at with just a couple semesters of courses that meet twice a week. I might be blowing this out of proportion, but I believe that if one wants to attain fluency, a life style change is necessary. The language needs to become something you own, the way you own English.
It has to be something you can play with, think about things in, and something you can consume and digest without needing to constantly consult a reference book, looking up this word or that grammar. Anyways, I wish you luck! Learning any language is great fun and its useful too!
Cheers!
I will never, ever tell someone to learn a language later. If anything, it opens an entire world of modern literature on the subject. I work in South America, so many publications are in Spanish, in addition to primary sources. Thankfully I learned it years ago.
If your school is anything like mine was, you'll be able to take language courses alongside your history classes. I reccomend at least learning French now, if not Latin too. The medievalist I know took German, Latin, and a course in Old English. I myself have took Latin, classic Mayan, and contemporary Mayan. Not everywhere will have classes in pre-modern languages, but if you can get in one, go for it.
Languages are necessary for studying these periods for two reasons. You need to read what was written back then, and not through someone else’s translation, and you need to read what other researchers today are saying about it. Without both, you really can’t do much research beyond student papers. Waiting for graduate school to pick up the necessary languages is almost certainly too late, and there is a good chance that you might not even be admitted if you apply to study something like the Viking Age knowing only modern English.
You should first identify what languages you need and then start taking them as soon as you can. If you are interested in anything medieval, you should start taking Latin immediately. That will be the most important language by far. In addition to Latin, you should pick either French or German (I’d pick German if you want to work on the Viking Age, but both are good) and work on them while you are still an undergraduate. The good thing about the modern languages is, at least for scholarly purposes, you do not need to become a fluent speaker. You only need to be able to read them. (I’m not saying don’t become fluent, but you can work on that later).
Finally, you should think about what area you like and learn the other medieval languages necessary for those. Some of these can be held off until grad school, especially if they are not available in your undergraduate institution, but if they teach a class in Old English or Old Norse, why not sign up for that too. I would say learning languages is the most important preparation you could do as an undergraduate for graduate level studies. You should also keep in mind that each language you learn makes the next language a bit easier, especially when they are closely related.
Trust me, you can't start learning them early enough. Your undergraduate thesis will probably require you to read some French sources, and it's SOOO much easier to just read in the original if you can than it is to have to hunt down translations. I know because I am a Chinese history type who never had a class on Classical Chinese offered at my undergrad. It's a royal pain.
As to where you would learn the languages, wherever you can. Duolingo is an option for French, pretty sure, and Rosetta Stone as well. Plus, your university should have classes on French, even if they don't on Old English. For that, I'd guess studying German would be your best bet, maybe with some Latin thrown in (try Wheelock's Latin for that textbook--U of Chicago uses it for their intro classes, I think).