Languages
Let me now turn to talk about the one thing that I enjoy most. It is language learning. It is the one thing in which I have ever managed to stay consistent. It gives me a sense of progress and something not too difficult to engage with during my first cup of coffee early in the morning. It brings me close to the world and makes me feel I am spending my time in a useful way, even if it's not obvious. More than anything, it isn't particularly tied to any technology and yet it can benefit from the use of the technology that connects people from the whole world. It opens up a body of literature I would only have partial access otherwise. It is a skill I could brag if I were the kind that likes to brag. In fact, it makes me feel a little less useless for not having much in the way of skills.
It also engages with many of my favorite topics, such as phonetics, writing systems, and etymology. It also encourages me to learn more history, and to learn about how other cultures think and solve their existential and philosophical issues.
I like both ancient and current (aka "modern") languages. It feels cool to be able to read a text that most people couldn't anymore, and I also engage with cultures mostly through what they have written. Ancient languges connect to current ones through etymology, and I like to trace continuities of thought and culture through the use of words, it also gives me a deeper understanding of the terms we use today, especially loaded and troublesome terms that get thrown around by people who want to influence and control others.
Quite often, I am very unsure about my place in the world. I don't have any "marketable" skills and that makes me anxious. I take refuge in my language learning though it is by no means ideal, for my command of the languages I am learning is far from proficient. I feel I must get up to speed with my languages, put them to use, get to a point where I could make myself employable using them. I also don't want to be employed. Currently, I don't need to. The future, however, is always uncertain. On the other hand, it is only fitting to my nature. I've always eluded "ordinary" work, and languages are a good way to keep doing so. It is not obvious how Latin and Ancient Greek can make me employable. It's more obvious how Mandarin is a valuable skill in the market, but that is only a happy side effect of learning it. I mostly get around this potential usefulness by instead reading about culture and society from imperial China.
I learn other things. I learn all sorts of things. Some are related to the cultures whose languages I like to learn. Some are trying to mitigate my anxieties about lack of "useful" skills. But the one constant that is always in my life is language learning. Even if sometimes I take breaks and go for a completely esoteric one like Sanskrit.
Perhaps in my next post, I can write some tips on language learning.