Are You Educated Enough?

Guest   Sun Feb 17, 2008 9:51 pm GMT
I have to be careful around the local ancient languages expert in my city. I don't want to offend him by saying "I just can't see investing time in dead languages like Sanskrit." because he is a great language resource.

Anyway, Prof. Arguelles thinks that the educated Westerner ought to know Latin & Greek, English and at least French, Spanish or German, Russian, and Persian or Arabic or Sanskrit or Hindi or Chinese.

What do you think? Do you fit his idea of an educated person?


A well-educated Middle-Easterner “should” know: a) Arabic, b) Persian, Turkish, & Hebrew, c) English & French, and d) Latin or Urdu or Japanese

A well-educated Indian “should” know: a) Sanskrit & Persian or Arabic, b) Hindi/Urdu & Bengali, Marathi or Gujarati or…, c) English, and d) Italian or Korean or Swahili

A well-educated Easterner “should” know: a) Classical Chinese, b) Mandarin, Japanese, & Korean, c) English, and d) Greek or Pali or Persian

I found this information on a few sites. If this is interesting to you, please go to the source and contact Prof. Arguelles and be VERY, very polite. He is rather strict about this, imo. No chit-chat, casual style!

Arguelles supposedly speaks 26 languages. That's kind of impressive. Actually after a person learns four languages, then they start to get much easier. I can't even tell you how easy they get, who would believe me!

Keeping them fit, keeping up the languages is another matter.
Guest   Sun Feb 17, 2008 10:33 pm GMT
They get easier to learn the grammar, but the vocabulary is a bitch, and that is what puts people of going beyond 2 foreign languages. Fuck I hate vocabulary!

Latin and Greek? C'mon, get over it!
JLK   Sun Feb 17, 2008 11:53 pm GMT
I don't think polyglottery has anything to do with being educated. I pursue it, because languages interest me, nothing more, nothing less. It is irrational for Mr. Arguelles to demand so much out of "educated" person. Most of the world's most brilliant intelligentsia, writers, statesmen,etc.. were monolinguals. I question how well rounded one could be when you would have to dedicate so much time to becoming "educated".
Guest   Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:02 am GMT
"Most of the world's most brilliant intelligentsia, writers, statesmen,etc.. were monolinguals
"

Yes, look at Bush for example.
Guest   Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:07 am GMT
If anything, learning languages is a barrier to greatness. Instead of giving oneself to pursuits beneficial to all of mankind and those which lead to fame, language learners choose a pursuit which can only have personal results and go no further. No polyglot is going to change the world or human perceptions just because they're a polyglot.
Guest   Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:41 am GMT
There is nothing wrong with being a polyglot as long as you use your skills to benefit others. This could take a number of forms, but I reject ideas such as creating an intellectual caste.
Guest   Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:43 am GMT
Statistically speaking, polyglots tend to be more cultured and open-minded than non polyglots. That is a fact.
Guest   Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:47 am GMT
"cultured, open-minded" is not the same as "educated"
Guest   Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:54 am GMT
I guess it depends on what you want to use your education for. I'd suggest that all educated Westerners (and Easterners, too), should know:

- Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Calculus, Analysis, Statistics, etc.
- Group and Set Theory
- Differential equations (ordinary and partial)
- Tensor Analysis and Differential Geometry
- Calculus of Variations and Integral Equations
- Operational Calculus and Transforms
- Chaos Theory
- Numerical Methods
- etc., etc.

There simply isn't enough time to study everything important, or even more than a microscopic fraction of what's out there.
Guest   Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:59 am GMT
Good point. The guy who suggests you know 10 languages will laugh in your face for suggesting that maths stuff, but the guy who suggests you know maths stuff will laugh in the face of the guy who suggests 10 languages. Everyone thinks their own shit is more important than the other guy's shit. I suggest people stop telling people what you need to know to be 'educated'. You can be educated in many different ways, and be an expert in one feild and an ignorant in another. The days of polymaths are over.
Guest   Mon Feb 18, 2008 1:21 am GMT
What is the difference between cultured and educated?
Guest   Mon Feb 18, 2008 1:24 am GMT
cultured:

marked by refinement in taste and manners; "cultivated speech"; "cultured Bostonians"; "cultured tastes"; "a genteel old lady"; "polite society"

educated:

possessing an education (especially having more than average knowledge)
Ditto   Mon Feb 18, 2008 4:17 am GMT
you mean an educated polyglot?
Guest   Mon Feb 18, 2008 5:26 am GMT
That's actually a very ridiculous statement for a 'language expert' to make. He should know better than anyone...

Why is Greek a more 'educated' language than Swahili? Is a person who knows Swahili less educated than one who knows Latin? He should know that any language no matter what opens one's mind and grants great knowledge. Just because Latin has influenced English? Who cares? Why do you need to understand your own language so well to be educated?

He's just a fool pushing his own perosnal opinion with no foundation at all.
Guest   Mon Feb 18, 2008 5:41 am GMT
It seems that Prof Arguelles is not going to tell his family physician that "Doc" is not educated with less than six languages.

In a longer version of his views, AA does not believe that a person is necessarily undereducated without six languages. It is only in his ideal world that he wishes such things.

"In general, I think that well-educated individuals in my ideal world should know a) the classical language(s)..."