User talk:Richard Maxwell
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[edit] Thanks
Thanks, and nice to hear from you. I certainly intend to follow up your thoughts if and when there's a new edition of the Dictionary of Languages. I guess, meanwhile, we'll be meeting on Wikipedia from time to time ... Best wishes Andrew Dalby 15:39, 22 March 2007 (UTC)
- You asked about my education. I won't add this information to Andrew Dalby, because it's bad form to expand your own Wikipedia biography, but, since you ask, I'll tell you and put it on my user page.
- I don't claim to be a great linguist: if I have a skill in this area, it's simply that languages don't frighten me. I was at Bristol Grammar School, where I learned some Latin, French and Greek; then at the University of Cambridge. There I studied Latin and Greek at first, afterwards Romance languages and linguistics. I got a bachelor's degree in 1970. I gained familiarity with some other languages because of my work at Cambridge University Library, where I had to work with foreign serials and afterwards with South and Southeast Asian materials. To help me with this -- I didn't know any of the languages in advance -- I took classes in Cambridge again (in Sanskrit, Hindi and Pali) and in London (in Burmese and Thai). I never got far with the last two because I didn't remain in the Oriental field for long enough. I did a part-time Ph.D. in ancient history (in 1987-93), which improved my Latin and Greek. Living in France makes me go on learning French, and Wikipedia and my writing make me keep in practice with other languages.
- All the best Andrew Dalby 16:30, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
