Foreign Language Acquisition
Steven Craig Miller
scmiller at www.plantnet.com
Mon Jan 24 16:36:52 EST 2000
To: George A. Goolde et al.,
<< I was, of course, referring to languages that are not spoken currently
in contrast to those that are. I, like Steven, am aware that "dead" and
"living" are not really fair or accurate labels. I just don't have any
others! >>
I was once told, in all seriousness, by one of my Jesuit professors at
St.Louis University, that one of his professors had once given a lecture,
where half way through he quoted from some ancient Greek source, only to
accidently finish the lecture in ancient Greek. Although I have no doubt
that my professor actually believed the story he told, I've always
suspected that his anecdote was apocryphal. I have been told another
anecdote by a person (I've forgotten the source) who claimed that he had
dinner with two priests who conducted most of the dinner conversation in
ecclesiastical Latin. This anecdote I found somewhat more believable.
-Steven Craig Miller
Alton, Illinois (USA)
scmiller at www.plantnet.com
FWIW: I'm neither a clergy-person, nor an academic (and I have no post-grad
degrees).
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