David Bentley Hart: preference

Transcript context

…Final segment of our conversation: the David Bentley Hart production function. How did you learn all those languages you know? I don’t know, just studied them. See, the thing is, I know better linguists than myself, in the sense that I know people who can learn to speak a language in a few months and speak it as if they were native. Because of the way my brain is constructed, I have to learn the grammar first. I learn the syntax and then learn it on paper and then learn to speak it. Except for the things I got early in school. You go to French class and Spanish class, and you speak it before you really immerse yourself in the grammar. But my approach to most languages is like the approach I had to Latin and Greek as a kid. I learned the grammar first. Whatever the case, I have a talent for languages, but I still envy those who can just somehow absorb it without having to master the grammar first and then speak it like a native. I knew a fellow like that at Cambridge who now, still alive, has like 32 languages. Which languages do you know?…

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