Because you've all informed me that I should use grad school as a time to explore my passions, whatever those are, and that nothing I do during this time will ever be regrettable later, I've decided to take Latin this fall even though it will probably never help me in any way. Why not, right? I've done some Greek, a little Russian, even less French--may as well add a smattering of Latin. But today, I looked at the syllabus for the first time and discovered that the required text for the class costs $75. $75! Who charges that for a Latin book? What is this, some kind of science class? And there are no decent used copies! People, when you told me to enjoy myself in grad school, you neglected to mention how pricey this would be. Now I have to seriously weigh the hedonic value of half-learning another inapplicable language against how much more I would enjoy two new pairs of shoes. Decisions!
Watch out for next semester's dilettantish undertaking in personal enrichment and whim-fulfillment: Sanskrit! Biblical Hebrew! Korean! The possibilities for self-improvement are endless. With every passing semester, I become a better version of myself.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
14 comments:
Where are you getting two pairs of shoes for $75? (Not counting canvas sneakers.)
6pm. I don't mean to suggest that hedonic value trumps thriftiness.
A science book would be about $300 or so.
A political theory book usually costs $4 or so.
Miss Self-Important, you have seen the way I dress, and even I was going to ask the same question as Phoebe.
6pm sells men's shoes too.
Fab!
What Latin textbook is $75? ! Is it special for Harvard students or something?
Extra fee because it helps you save the world.
Arethusa: Learn to Read Latin, plus "workbook." (Also, workbook? Is this seventh grade?)
Workbooks are becoming increasingly popular, even for the dead languages. Gone are the days when students could be expected to do the lengthy, mind-numbing drills in Chase and Phillips or even the older editions of Wheelock (which also has a workbook now) on their own, without having lines to write the answers on.
Well, finally! All these years, I've been doing poorly in classes b/c whenever I was assigned drills, I had nothing to write answers on except my own limbs. This is frankly a godsend.
Publishers and authors like workbooks for one pretty obvious reason: once used, they have no resale value. (I knew a philosophy prof who put his kids through college by writing a workbook to accompany a standard text on symbolic logic.)
German publishers like Klett and Hueber, which sell textbooks for students of German on the international market, have taken this one step further: The workbook and textbook are bound together, thus quashing the potential resale value of the latter.
Latin? Excellent choice! Explore your passions . . . especially when they help keep some classicist employed!
To follow up on Arethusa, it's not just workbooks that students need now. In the case of the Keller & Russell "Learn to Read Latin" book, you're also paying for the large, brightly-colored covers and (relatively) pretty text on glossy paper.
(That said, one of the classicists I most respect as a teacher has high praise for "Learn to Read Latin." And, IIRC, it's admirably rigorous.)
Post a Comment