My dad had to learn both Old and Middle English as part of his English doctorate, but he didn’t know German. I guess he could have learned pretty easily. He was great with languages. He was actually offered a job by MI-5 as a Russian translator in the 1950s, but as he was a socialist, he told them to fuck off.
He learned Russian because he loved Russian classical music. Really. And then he studied the language the rest of his life. I remember him doing self-written grammar conjugation flash cards when he was in his 70s.
Neat! As a German, I can actually read and understand this.
My dad had to learn both Old and Middle English as part of his English doctorate, but he didn’t know German. I guess he could have learned pretty easily. He was great with languages. He was actually offered a job by MI-5 as a Russian translator in the 1950s, but as he was a socialist, he told them to fuck off.
He learned Russian because he loved Russian classical music. Really. And then he studied the language the rest of his life. I remember him doing self-written grammar conjugation flash cards when he was in his 70s.
Seriously? As a native English speaker, I cannot.
That’s because England got invaded by French speakers and it fucked up the language in all sorts of ways.
and the norse!
and my ex!
That’s cause the English language was basically replaced after 1066. Old English is very similar to Germanic.