Author Archives: G Barto

I recently picked up Learn Python the Hard Way: A Very Simple Introduction to the Terrifyingly Beautiful World of Computers and Code (3rd Edition) by Zed Shaw. Shaw’s approach to teaching you Python is to have you set up your computer … Continue reading →

If you speak French, but want something more exciting than that dreary Parisian accent and all that goes with it, why not give Québecois a look? Actually, there’s long been a good reason not to… decent materials are virtually non-existent. … Continue reading →

A little while back, I wrote about the question, Do you really want to be fluent? Here’s a chance to see where your language skills now stand. Just remember, C2 isn’t your automatic goal. If you only need to be … Continue reading →

I’ve previously written about the University of Texas’ Early Indo-European OnLine site as the place par excellence to get started with ancient Indo-European languages, especially languages like Avestan, Old Persian and Tocharian where resources are otherwise scarce. If you want … Continue reading →

The other day, I got The Ancient Languages of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Aksum, which collects a handful of articles from the larger Cambridge Encyclopedia of Ancient Languages. I got it, in particular, for the article on Sumerian, which gives an … Continue reading →

It’s a serious question. Few of us take a painting class with the expectation that we’ll be able to do our own take on the Sistine Chapel when we’re done. Few of us take a yoga class with the expectation … Continue reading →

The other day, I took the opportunity to read Babel No More: The Search for the World’s Most Extraordinary Language Learners. It was an interesting read, not least because one of the featured “characters” is Alexander Argulles, a one-time regular … Continue reading →

My usual timetable of looking at multiple languages has been almost completely given over to Sumerian lately. Part of the allure of language learning, I think, is making the exotic familiar. And the more you explore languages, the harder it … Continue reading →

You often hear about the idea of learning language like a child with reference to speaking it in, say, a direct method. I haven’t seen much about reading in this vein, however. And yet, the reader, which has been with … Continue reading →

It has long been a tradition to start Greek with Xenophon’s Anabasis. And it’s even been a tradition for close to a century to assert that there ought to be a better way. That goes back to Pharr’s Homeric Greek: … Continue reading →