German ....

[l.m.fosse at easteur-orient.uio.no]

I refer to the recent postings by Witzel and Dominique, where it is implied
that we should be able to read Indological literature in more than one
language (English). I would like to second that! I was educated in a high
school system where the students got a reasonably good grip on German and
enough French to be able to cope later on. It has been an enormous help in
my studies. Both within the fields of Classics, comparative Indo-European
linguistics and Indology there is a huge and highly important research
literature in these two languages, and we cannot expect it to be translated
into English (who would pay for it?) Any person who has the brains to learn
Sanskrit can easily pick up enough French and German to be able to read
research papers and scholarly books. It is only a question of making a
small, concentrated effort. The world abounds in language courses for
German and French - there is really no excuse!

(And while you're at it: don't forget Italian, a must for Tibetologists!)

Best regards,

Lars Martin Fosse



Lars Martin Fosse
Research Fellow
Department of East European
and Oriental Studies
P. O. Box 1030, Blindern
N-0315 OSLO Norway

Tel: +47 22 85 68 48
Fax: +47 22 85 41 40

E-mail: l.m.fosse at easteur-orient.uio.no