Learning foreign languages: A true story

Studying a foreign language at school or even at university tends to be a waste. Rarely do the students concerned progress to anything like native fluency. They are even lucky to remember enough to be useful on holiday in the country concerned. So why do it? I would generally advise against it.

There was a young Australian girl, however, who decided to make a big effort to learn French. She studied it at High School and later at university. Why did she do that? Because her "ex" was a keen student of German. Good female logic.

And her efforts had some success. She learnt enough French to move to France and become an English teacher there. With her Australian background, she also of course had some interest in England and holidayed there from time to time and made some friends in London.

On one occassion her English friends were putting on a dinner party for people they knew and included in the guest list a young up-and-coming Frenchman. He knew little English but that problem was solved by sitting him alongside the Australian girl, as she was the only other person who spoke French.

The two have been married for around 50 years now and live in grand style in central Paris with a country house in Normandy and a beach house in Brittany. So studying foreign languages CAN pay off sometimes

An anachronism survives

Cutting-edge medical science seems to have given me hopes of two or more years of life

And while I am far from alone in it I appear to be one of the few still alive who had the benefit of a good classical education. That makes me an anachronism, a person from a bygone time

During my days in High school I gained a knowledge of the language and literature of three foreign languages plus ancient history and classical English literature. I entered High school at a time when a classics education was no longer compulsory but it was optionally available and I took good advantage of that opportunity

My classical education would once been have deemed incomplete without some knowedge of ancient Greek. To call a person "Greekless" was once to call them uneducated -- but to a small extent I remedied that deficiency by private study and can to this day recite two famous passages in Greek and debate the grammar involved. ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος etc

But the point of a classical education is not to know the declension of the Latin noun "mensa" but rather what goes with classical study: The introduction to assumptions and ways of thought from different times and places. It enables us to transcend our awareness of our own times and places. It "broadens" our minds, if I may be so old-fashioned as to use that phrase. It liberates us from seeing anything in our present as being inevitable or normal. It uproots assumptions

And of the three foreign languages I studied, the one I enjoy most to this day is Latin. German and Italian are more useful to me because I also like classical music and most classical music emanates from German and Italian sources. When I hear the great Bach aria "Mache dich mein Herze rein", I actually understand what the singer is saying. And when I hear the Monteverdi madrigal "Chiome d'oro" I marvel at the fact that blonde hair was admired even in Renaissance Italy -- 400 years ago.

But Latin is the language that I enjoy most for itself. I like it in part because of its succinctness. The most famous example of that is of course "veni, vidi, vinci" but a 19th century British General in the Indian wars allegedly did even better with "peccavi". And Latin is also a powerful way of putting something. "de gustibus non disputandum est" is hard to argue with.

So the point I am making is that a classical education opens doors to both enjoyment and wisdom. To have lost it is a serious deprivation. So the fact that I write from that perspective will help keep a small amount of that perspective alive and functioning for a while.

I am aware of an appearance of inconsistency in praising the classics while it is Cemiplimab that is keeping me alive but there is no opposition between the classics and science. And as someone who has had 200+ scientific papers published in the academic journals I am an embodiment of that. I even know what heteroscedasticity refers to.

And a classical education can in fact the helpful in science. Academic writing is notoriously hard to follow but a person with a background in Latin will usually be able to write English more clearly. So an academic colleague once said to me: "John, we don't always agree with you but at least we understand what you are saying"

Medical Event

At age 80, I can reasonably expect some health problems. And I am no exception. I am at the moment battling two types of cancer -- SCCs in my upper body and metastasized prostate cancer in my lower body. Both are treatable. I underwent the first treatment steps today. I got an anti-androgen medication (injected Firmagon) for the prostate problems and a monoclonal antibody -- Cemiplimab --for the SCCs in my upper body.

Cemiplimab is an extremely expensive medication that has only recently emerged from clinical trials. The Australian government put it on the "free" list just in November last year so I am lucky to be getting it

Zoe and Anne are both out of town but I am pleased that in my time of trial I have received affectionate messages from both of them -- and Jenny has stepped up to become my live-in carer

Saturday update: They talk about the luck of the Irish. I do have substantial Irish ancestry and some of that luck seems to have rubbed off on me. I went to the Wesley for my treatment, which is a major Brisbane private hospital. And it turns out that I was the first to get Cemiplimab there. It came on to the free list just in time for me to get it

Reprieve

My cancers have now been identified. I am full of cancer so should be facing death soon but it has emerged that I have two types of cancer and both are treatable. Both have in fact been successfully treated in me before.

PET scans have revealed that my upper body is riddled with SCC metastases and my lower body is riddled with prostate cancer metastases. Between them they eat up my energy but other symptoms are mild.

I have had immunotherapy for SCCs in the past which has worked well and I have previously controlled prostate cancer with antiandrogens. The prostate cancers will not go away but will stop growing and may shrink to some degree. In some cases anti-androgens have controlled prostate cancer for up to 10 years. Patients just die of other things

Anti-androgens do however damage energy levels so I am out of the fryingpan and into the fire on that one. I will continue to live but in a semi-invalid state. That is not a big bother to me as I will be able to continue blogging, which is most of what I do anyway

A hug postponed 50 years

Around 1970 I was part of a social group that included an attractive lady I will refer to as KC, she was tall, smart, was very good humoured and had a good figure. I was sweet on her. Another male in our social group was, however, also sweet on her so I deferred to him and did not pursue the lady. I thought he needed her more than I did. He was in rather poor health.

And they did form a relationship until he fell in love with China instead. He went and lived there and married a Chinese lady. So she soon sought others and ended up the wife of a rather prominent person. He was a lucky man to win her. They have been together now for over 30 years.

So it is a long time since I have seen her. Rather wonderfully, however, another member of our old social group brought her over to see me today. We had some very lively chats. She was still the good-natured and good-humoured person of old. It was a great pleasure to see her.

As she was leaving, however, I gave her a hug, a hug I had never given her before, given the circumstances.

She and I used to be about the same height but I have shrunk over the years while she has not.