Scriptorium Foreign Languages (Arabic, Sanskrit, Chinese)

[DYSHERNANDEZ]

Hello, teacher. Alexander Arguelles. That´s so awesome. You are so smart. May I ask you one question for you? How many languages can you speak?.

I am Donny Hernández from NIcaragua.

[Heriopasu]

Non-native Arabic speakers who have had experiences learning Arabic through the English language: Do you guys have any particular English-Arabic/Arabic-English dictionaries that you find good (in comparison to other dictionaries that you have used in the course of studying Arabic)? I am thinking of buying one.

PS: Prof. Arguelles, I am a big fan. Some day I will be like you!

[africaRBG]

@Heriopasu hello! i have a dictionary that is arabic-english and it is called "al-mawrid" by Dr.Rohi baalbaki,,it is an excellent dictionary, i recommened it fully.

[slothofastudent]

I love this exercise! Will come in handy when I ship out to DILFLC in the next few months.

[LadyPLo12]

Wow :D

iam an arab and i wish i could speak and write chinese

[N8Magic315]

When you do this exercise, what is the standard length of the passage. That is, is it the same sentence repeated for several pages,the same paragraph repeated for pages, or is it several pages of the target language written down?

[VanXIInX]

this guy is very intelligent

[darkguyitsme]

nice vid. i have to say although ur arabic pronunciationis a bit off but u really know how to annunciate the words and its really clear and i could understand every word without u having to wright them down. also ur hand writhing is really beautiful.

[chriswils45]

Very interesting that you have included Chinese in your regimen! Somewhere you mentioned Korean as being the one language you can speak better than you can read. I am interested in Korean myself, and so if this is still true for you, may I ask what makes this language unusual in this regard? If it is because of the great demands of the hanja, are you studying Chinese to deepen your knowledge of Korean?

[ProfASAr]

@chriswils45 There is nothing inherently unusual about Korean in this regard. It is the circumstances of my life that are unusual here. For the most part, I am an armchair scholar, and there are many languages that I have studied rather thoroughly without ever actually speaking them. As I lived in Korea for many years and ended up marrying a Korean woman, though, I have had great amounts of conversational practice in it. Much more so than reading practice. That's it.

[lazyboy87s]

اسلام عليكم

sanskrit aati hai?

我很佩服你的才华，可以学会世界上历史最悠久的三门外语~car­ry on and u would go farther

[alekx58]

thankx i ve got clear thankx to yours thankyou

[ippolytos1]

Um, I'd say he doesn't sound good either.

I pronounce sanskrit much more like an indian. (and Im a sanskrit scholar) so I know he says the ones who pronounce it well arent as good at the language forms. Well I understand both actually. AND I always thought that knowing languages like this would make me closer tot he others who do it. Every time, I feel more repelled, usually!!! But my students come to ME.

[mawlanaomar]

Ok everybody, stop criticizing the man he is speaking these languages as second language, better than many who don't speak more that their native language.

[pok0000]

Have you ever tried to speak Greek?I m just curious how you would sound.I ve watched many of your videos that i find very interesting.

[pok0000]

Have you ever tried to speak Greek?I just curious how you would sound.I ve watched many of your videos that i find very interesting.

[zippo004]

"It is said that a long time ago witches lived in a(the) big kingdom."

[Orpheas89]

Professor, what does the line in Arabic mean and where does it come from?

[Beijing292]

actually, the Chinese version consists of two sentences, i.e. a question and a statement. Thus there should be a question mark after the third character and an exclamation mark after sentence two.

[Chezrocksall]

@YoshiroShin Well complements are great right? Do you not acknowledge the guy? Don't you think that he is good at what he does? A lot of people are complementing him because they know he is very good and comstructive criticism is very good too, and I agree with you on that. But the thing is that if you don't want to acknowledge him for what he is doing, then you are making a big mistake. A lot of people are complementing him because they love what he does and for you to treat that like som

[ManicEightBall]

hen hao shuo de.

I love these scripts. They're so different from our alphabet.

[YouStoleMyTube]

Those three languages have very beautiful scripts. The written language of some languages just blows my mind.

[elvein1]

He does have videos.

[margellini]

i'm so going to try this :)

[Chezrocksall]

@wakold Well I dont know but I guess thats just his decision. But I have a video were I speak 38 languages and I have other videos of me speaking in some of those languages.

[wakold]

Why doesn't the guy post videos of him actually speaking all these languages he supposedly know? Reading, writing,listening and speaking are all very different aspects of language learning, and unless you can be fairly proficient in these 4 categories, it's hard to say "I know this language".

[Chezrocksall]

@wakold Everybody please check out my video where I speak 38 languages that I know on one video. I need a whole bunch of comments. Thanks.

[BlaqHQ]

His penmanship is beautiful but he sounds Russian

[svsimon]

I imagine that the scriptorum technique is of better use when learning a language built up through a more fix alphabet (like english, hindi or arabic)... is this of any truth? I have just begun studying chinese and do not really know how to go on learning the characters... What I am asking really is if this technique that you are presenting here is applicable on all languages or if there are better ways to learn sertain (written) languages?

[clarinini]

I suppose that would be somehow seen as "showing-off", but I'd like it, if you could make videos of you speaking some of the foreign languages you've learned (as opposed to reading texts aloud). Not in the purpose of testing yourself, but rather to server as an encouragement for other language learners!

[kyriaco95]

It would be great to hear you speak Modern Greek, Professor!

[mynameismarvin]

as a native chinese speaker myself, i would suggest that you should first practice pronouncing each character one by one according to their own tone because in the video, the way you slur the words, umm I just won't understand if I didn't see what you were writing. And oh yeah, try to learn traditional chinese, it's used in taiwan, hong kong and other overseas chinese communities.

[archa000]

Ok it's clear with Arabic - a symbol means a letter. Sanskrit - if i'm correct has syllabes. But how it is with chinese - you just have to learn each character, what it means?? Is there a system in that whole thing or it's just like I said - you have to know what every character means??

[Jirkenz131]

Holy crap. Just the fact that you can write, comprehend, and translate so many languages is freaking amazing. People need to back off about the accent. Yeah, I bet they can speak as many languages as this and have a perfect accent too. You're awesome, dude.

[YoshiroShin]

@Jirkenz131 I'm sure he has enough people praising him for his current abilities to the extent that he probably doesn't feel discouraged or anything too negative when someone constructively criticises him and therefore doesn't need more people like you telling him how amazing he is (cont)...

[YoshiroShin]

@Jirkenz131 ...(cont) moreover no one needs to or even should back off on constructive criticism because I'm sure he actually wants to improve his skills and become even better but that would be kind of difficult if everyone around him only kept telling him how amazing he is instead of pointing out areas to improve on. I know that he can easily improve his accent rather than just leaving it which is why I wanted to help him. He can choose whether or not to take my advice.

[YoshiroShin]

... I'm not sure how this comment approval thing works or if you'll ever read any of this, but ignore the very first one... but continuing:

You see it just sounded to me you weren't "dentalising" the dental consonants and instead were pronouncing them retroflex style, like the "t" - त that you seem to be saying like "ट".

You also should work on vowel lengths and aspiration or breathiness of certain consonants. Studying Hindi phonology will help you greatly.

[YoshiroShin]

Sir, I read that comment criticising your Sanskrit pronunciation and I must agree, but in an attempt to assist you (keeping in mind that your skill is infinitely far above mine) I submit to you that I believe the following to be the main issues...

[goodmaxgood]

i'm jealous

[mashmusic11235]

@XxRomanov93xX Yes, all of the Chinese characters have a pronunciation and a tone (tones are necesarry because there are only 4000 some syllable combinations in Chinese (compared to some 8000 in English)). To be considered 'literate' in Chinese, you need to know some 2000 characters, all of which (plus some extras, if you're an avid reader) are learnt by the end of high school. (English speakers know almost all of their vocabulary by middle school)

[thundernuts0]

Do you ever get confused?

[hilbert2547]

mmh it should be zamain tawilin after mundhu. Why do you use accusative? It should be genetiv

[LavensKraw]

He's reading from a source, writing down what he reads, and the reading what he wrote. Any errors are, most likely, in the source he's reading from.

[y11971alex]

I'm sorry to say this, but your Chinese pronounciation could be improved. I as a native Chinese speaker of 14 years cannot understand your speech, but can identify your written words as "simplified Chinese."

[TJRHINO29]

@y11971alex damn give the guy a break for an american that was great your a native speaker 14 yrs???????

[nameurself]

Good sanskrit for a westerner. Good job Prof. As an South Asian, I'm really ashamed to say that not many people speak or know sanskrit or even take interest to learn it in Greater India or in India for that matter. Especially the younger generations. What a shame! and here a westerner has already learned to read and write Sanskrit.

[1616ho]

well, i am a native speaker of chinese and i have to say your pronunciation is not good. I could hardly understand you before you wrote it down....especially the wrong tones.

However, i am still impressed by your linguistic skills.

[truth867]

The thing i dont get is why is the verb- to live, not in accordance to its doer which is apprantly feminine, or is it of of thoes words that u must know if it is feminine or masculine before hand

[addafyaan]

هل ما كتيته بالصينية والسنسكريتية يحملان نفس المعنى للجملة العربية ؟

وهل السنسكريتية مستعملة في هذه الأيام ؟

[addafyaan]

هل ما كتيته بالصينية والسنسكريتية يحملان نفس المعنى للجملة العربية ؟

وهل السنسكريتية مستعملة في هذه الأيام ؟

وما هي أصعب لغة واجهتك إلى الآن ؟

[addafyaan]

هل ما كتيته بالصينية والسنسكريتية يحملان نفس المعنى للجملة العربية ؟

وهل السنسكريتية مستعملة في هذه الأيام ؟

وما هي أصعب لغة واجهتك إلى الآن ؟

[NV417]

lefty

[yenyu1215]

you can try to learn traditional chinese characters ^^

[lomanchun]

pitches of Chinese can be improved, but still this is really cool

[amaam89]

You have a good mastery of the language, but you have one of the weirdest Arabic accents I have EVER heard....weird...Almost like your trying to sound Afro-Asian or something...Not necessarily a bad thing but it sure is weird to me.

[kenan6346]

wow, that's just cool :D

I bet that arabic was a helluva lot easier to write left handed than right handed

[tristbjorn]

Actually it's hard on lefties as well, coz the letters are constructed to be written with the right hand.

[paradigmmaker]

nah its actually better to write with ur write

[camillerocks911]

Haha it is, although I personally mangle Arabic when I try to write it ^^;

[MansourJeddah]

Really nice to see..!

By the way left hand writing MUCH better than  right hand writing..

Cheers

[nobelbachelor]

nice video and i just love the way you're writing arabic, at the beginning it doesnt look like arabic but when you finsih writing it looks like perfect arabic hand writing...wow

[skeptikulo]

Nossa, eu estou espantado. Parecem 3 pessoas diferentes falando, mas é a mesma pessoa!

[AmeRosexx]

What dialect of Arabic did you learn? Or is this just MSA? I'm Egyptian, and you don't sound Egyptian, but I don't think you necessarily sound "standard" either. Your accent is very interesting, I'm always fascinated to see how non-natives pick up the Arabic accent, even though MSA is not really a real accent :P That's pretty good, spelling in Arabic sucks - it's hard to transcribe for English speakers.

[ProfASAr]

It is trying to be MSA, but as I lived in Lebanon for two years and all of my teachers were from that region, I may have picked up more of a Levantine lilt than I know.

[downpm]

how many languages do you speak fluently?

[mawlanaomar]

@AmeRosexx ايوه ابو العريف انته يا بتاع الاكسنت، يا مخ الراجل عمال يحاول يتكلم لغة عربية فصحى خواجة وبيتعلم وماله لما لغته مش ولا بد على الاقل اهو بيحاول مش تقومي تتكلمي عليه قال يعني انتي مقطعة اللغة يعني

[robotwarsfan03]

help me with russian :D or finnish either one

[blackjamm]

The Chinese accent is a bit too forced. Since I learned Chinese in Taiwan, my accent is ugly sounding anyway, but I'd say that, apart from practising the tones, you might want to lower the pitch of your voice slightly. Your characters need practise too, but I know plenty of native speakers who only write with computers nowadays, so no worries. 加油！

[izzyinthesky]

To clarify, these are the correct tones for your sentence:

2 3 1(or the short tone)? 2 3 4 1 2 3 1.

And this is what you're saying in the video:

2 3 1? 2 2 2 2 2 3 1.

And it's the 2 2 2 2 2 that immediately sounds strange/non-native in Mandarin.

[izzyinthesky]

It will help to frequently listen to and repeat the 4 tones of Mandarin, which will VASTLY help to improve pronunciation, which is just okay right now. E.g. the first three words (Why hurry?) are alright, but Sunday (lee bai tian) is quite off and reveals your non-tonal-language background. Keep perfecting your third tone ("lee"), fourth tone ("bai"), and first tone ("tian"), the all other pronunciation becomes simple. You want something like . \! -- (low, downward exclamation, flat).

[loki2504]

Why don't you learn traditionnal chinese?

[OskarNordisk]

Reading about your philosophy and seeing your videos encourage me and give me inspiration to continue studying languages.

So far I actively speak and study the following languages in varying degrees(descending): Swedish, English, German, Spanish, Italian and Mandarin Chinese. In addition to these languages, I can also make my self understood in Norwegian and Danish by adopting my Swedish with changes of words and idioms.

Thanks for sharing all these materials!

[Garc1993]

Professor, your videos are always quite interesting. I'd like to know if you have knowledge of the Ladino language. If so, I ask if it is possible for you to create a video which establishes the grammatical, phonetic, and lexical similarities and differences between Ladino and Spanish.

[harrypotter271828]

Brilliant!! You know how to write chinese!!!

[forsakentoyou]

i am fan of your videos. One of my dreams is to be Polyglot. Spanish is my native language. I speak english, french, and the i got inspired by your videos to learn Icelandic now. I want to ask you this: which languages do you speak? which one was the harder to learn to you, which is you next language to learn?

Congratulationss, and thank you very much!

Valparaiso, Chile

[abohalah2020]

رائع جدا

عربي وانجليزي وصيني

اللي عطاك يعطينا

وعيني عليك باردة

للأمام دوما

[jianghanshuaige]

急什麼，你禮拜天才走呢！in Chinese means: Don't hurry, it is Sunday when you are leaving!

His Chinese pronunciation is OK, although a little bit weird to me as I'm a native Chinese speaker...anyway, he's a talent!

[Drahcir14]

May I ask, are you naturally left handed or are you doing it for the benefit of the right to left writing system?

[Chunkerss]

can somebody please translate this phrase into Sanskrit for me: "Life's what happens whilst you're busy making plans". please ASAP! i would appreciate this very much...

[ProfASAr]

"By what evil soul was this mouth of destruction told to you?"

Parsing:

The first block contains a compound noun "destruction-mouth" + a dem.adj. "this" both in the neut.nom.sing + a 2nd.sing dative pronoun.

The second block contains a masc.inter.pron. "what" in the instrumental + a neut.nom.sing past part. "told."

The final block is an adjectival noun "evil-self" in the masc.sing.instrumental.

Thus, the agent is in the instrumental and the subject appears as the object.

[avanwell]

विनाशमुखमेतत्ते केनाख्यातं दुरात्मना or wihout sandhi: विनाशामुखम् एतत् ते केन आख्यातं दुरात्मना means: "Which rascal told you this opening to destruction?"

[yukikonakamura]

Great!

What does the Sanskrit text here mean?

[nashixe]

I do like your videos, Professor - though I have to say your Sanskrit pronunciation is completely off. In a language that puts emphasis on clarity of pronunciation, that is a pity.

[ProfASAr]

You are quite right, but that is the way my American professor taught me and the other American students to read it in the American college where I studied it for two years. I wonder if Indian scholars learn to pronounce Latin much better than this? I have ordered CD-Rom's of spoken Sanskrit from India several times, but these have all been defective and my requests for replacements were ignored, e.g., Bhasika by Vishwashanti Media, Bangalore and the Bhaktivedanta Ashram in Orissa. What to do?

[nashixe]

I understand. Barring accent, I think it is possible in the phonetic scripts to write out any language clearly - so while accent remains another matter, perhaps the Indian scholars do get the consonants right.

[Jonzwelet]

Indians use English all the time and yet it is very hard to understand the speech of most because of the very different rhythm of their languages. So, I find it hard to imagine that their school Latin would be at all intelligible. Let's hear one to find out! Are there any who know it? How widely studied is something like Latin in India anyway? For all our cultural imperialism, I bet Americans study the classical languages of other cultures much more than "others" study ours.

[regan262]

"I bet Americans study the classical languages of other cultures much more than "others" study ours." Open your eyes and look past the USA..

[3yalex]

I hope one of those professors wasn't Wendy Doniger—her Sanskrit, while not perfect, is vastly different from yours.

[davidwelsh]

@ProfASAr There are audio files for Deshpande's Sanskrit Primer available to download from the website of the Center for South Asian Studies at the University of Michigan. I can't post the link in the comments section, but if you Google "umich sanskrit primer audio files" the relevant page should come up as the first result.

[ellasevia]

I love the sound of Arabic!!

[MrSuperflex]

Would it make any difference if I typed the text in on a computer rather writing it down by hand? I am studying French, so learning the alphabet is not an issue. My reason for asking is, however, that my hands and fingers tend to ache after handwriting just for a short while.

I've been applying your methods to my studies recently, and I must say that, so far, I am extremely pleased with the results, so Id like to thank you for sharing your techniques on the internet! - Thomas

[ProfASAr]

Typing material can also be a useful procedure, but it is an utterly different exercise and so it will not bring you any of the benefits of this one. Writing by hand make take some getting used to, but it sounds as if you may be trying to do too much, too soon. Work your way into the practice slowly.

[bipolarteddybear5656]

I noticed you're left handed

I'm right handed but sometime I like to write or sign my name with the left

because its a little more difficult the writing with the right I tend to pay more attention to the strokes

my question is do you think that's a good thing or a bad thing.

on the one hand I'm more attentive but on the other I might be too overly focused on the curvature of a single letter/character/what have you that I lose sight of what the words actually mean

[ProfASAr]

I think that deliberately cultivating ambidexterity is one of the few things we can do to literally and truly stimulate our brains to see and do things in a different fashion, and therefore that this is a very good exercise indeed.

[Quantumlogik]

haha u hold your pen like a feather pen

[cleopatraLuv]

ana awza alem al arbic kaman!

[sjheiss]

I love your pronunciation of Arabic. :)

[Alexdebeste]

does the arabic sentence translate as:

The wizard tells that he used to live in a large kingdom in the past?

I have been studiying arabic for well over a year now.

[cleopatraLuv]

wow thats soo kool!!!!!

me too!!!

[simply0saad]

That is really close but it actually says:

It is told that long ago wizards have lived in large kingdom.

I hope this might help and it is not my intention to point out any slight mistranslation :)

[Alexdebeste]

although I know all the words, the Arabic sentence is actually hard for me to translate to English, but I will try:

the wizard told that he used to live in a large kingdom in the past?

[chhian]

i am very impressed, as a sinophone, for your written chinese characters... but meanings in chinese depend much on its tone... you didn't pronounce some of the words in a correct tone and that might affect its meaning

p.s. do you write traditional chinese? you are writing simplified chinese... also... do you speak dialects of chinese other than mandarin?

[chhian]

i am so impressed that you could write such perfect chinese characters (i am a sinophone)... but well as a kind of tonal language, chinese words depend on its tone to diffrentiate its meaning.. but your tone is a bit strage

p.s. do you know how to write traditional chinese? you are writing simplified one

[leoinkhaki]

your 急什麼 is nearly perfect.

[Senyoretta22]

you did a good job in he arabic sentence but you pronounced some of the letters incorrectly :)

good job anywayz :)

salam

[22poopoo]

Yeah, I'm studying Arabic, and his aiyn especially sounds funny. But he is totally amazing, how he knows so many languages and is fluent in his writing too. I'm stuggling with arabic, he is better than me but he can speak like fiftly launguges it seems.

[privatekept]

I notice you are left-handed. Have you ever tried flipping your hand over to the more natural position when writing from right to left?

[AlmightyJesus]

that is so god damn awesome

[skeeterses]

Professor Arguilles, could you make a Youtube video of yourself reading a Korean text or speaking Korean one of these days?

[madamebovary123]

you are left-handed :)

[TheDarkPan]

For those interested in everyday Arabic (as versus the book standard read here), I recommend Routledge's "Colloquial Arabic of..." books (especially the older versions) and the publications of Georgetown University Press. The latter will also be (re?)releasing an Egyptian Arabic reference grammar in April 2009 which I hope to compare against the excellent "as simple as possible" work of Russell McQuirk. The pocket-sized Lonely Planet Middle East Phrasebook is an excellent modern-day word source.

[natsu76]

you write pretty neat pinyin :D

[PKNproductions]

natsu, thats not pinyin. Pinyin is when you write chinese with the alphabet.

Example:

rén rén shēng ér zì yóu zài zūn yán huò quán lì shàng yī lǜ píng děng tā men fù yǒu lǐ xìng huò liáng xīn bìng yìng yǐ xiōng dì guān xì dì jīng shén xiàng duì dài

(for the record, thats article 1 of the Universal Decleration of Human Rights)

[simonsko1]

I've got two questions for you:

1. How many languages do you speak?

2. What does those sentences mean?

[morrieta]

good for a polyglot, however you could work on your sanskrit more. the pronunciation is difficult so need to practice.

Namaste

[cutyourdamngrass]

lol your Chinese sounds funny, but pretty good for a Westerner. Some sounds in the second half of the sentence (after, "what's the rush?"), such as the word Tien, or day, you pronounced in the second tone instead of the first tone. The second tone of Tien changes the word to "lick" or "to fill out [as in an application form]" instead of the word "day," which is pronounced in the first tone.

Very impressive though; I can't imagine how you can learn so many languages.

[tr1ad]

Impressive that you know the case-markers in Arabic. I'm learning them at the moment and they're fascinating yet a pain in the ass.

[seriousgeorge001]

Just out of curiosity, what is YOUR inspiration for learning so many languages?

[ProfASAr]

The fact that there are so many languages, and the fact that several score of these have been used as cultural vehicles for ways of thinking and expressing that are utterly different from my own. Imagine each such language as a different scenic path through a fascinating and ever changing landscape - not learning many languages would be akin to walking the same straight and narrow path every day of my life. Please visit my website if your really want a full answer to your question.

[verntiki]

I have come across Alexander today and i have to say that

I have been blown away by his talent and passion. I adore his interesting, people-friendly and modest approach to his linguistic talent. I have the greatest respect and continuing interest for him. The videos commentaries are fascinating and highly watchable many times over. I'd love to see other languages as well as the Germanic ones - as I'm sure other viewers would encourage. Keep up the amazing work Alexander !!! You have a new fan.

[milkshakeblue]

I really like the fact that you actually reply to our comments. Your answers to the questions that people posted were quite helpful. Thank you for showing interest, and keep us posted!

[abosaleh911]

يحكى أن السحرة سترسل عفاريتها يوماً إليك

[3qxvESC]

That's impossible! I can't believe it! One pearson, how many languages! I'm from Poland, do you watn to learn polish? Do you know polish language? I'm learning greek now, I want to learn Swedich and Icelandic :) In school I'm learning English, German and Russian :)

Do you know one of Slavic languages?

Well, can you speak polish?

Proszę spróbować polskiego, to naprawdę piękny język, inny niż wszystkie :) Ciekawi mnie, jak radzi Pan sobie ze słowiańskimi językami... :)

[darknesstoholy]

Heh, it has a very strong Germanic accent, that is, its constants and vowels are a bit more articulated than blended. Still, you have done well Professor.

We should totally get married. :P

[saxquiz]

That's pretty amazing. I've never been impressed when people know a number of Romance languages, but knowing several languages that aren't related to each other is really a great accomplishment! I can't imagine how much work it takes to keep those languages from leaving you. What is the Arabic supposed to say? It has been said that a long time ago a witch lived in a big kingdom? If that's what it says then I think it should be عاشت ساحرة.

[justunas]

I'm really impressed!! Looking at all of your videos I can't believe it's the same person! Incredible :-)

However I have a more demanding question - do you know any Lithuanian? Would be interesting to hear you reading it. Some say it's the oldest and most conservative living indoeuropean language. It has many archaic features and many similarities to latin, sanskrit. The bigest obstacle to foreigners is the moving accent.

[Irtidad]

Your Arabic is reallly quite good. A bit of an accent, but still very good.

[areitu]

So do you feel like I do, and think that tones in Mandarin makes up for the lack of conjugation? :)

[ProfASAr]

I would not have thought of it quite that way on my own, but now that you phrase it so, I rather like the analogy...

[Irtidad]

Hmm, I think I would disagree. Phonetics and the grammar of specific languages are usually distinct phenomena.

[Razekial]

Arabic has such a beautiful alphabet. Though your handwriting is so good that even writing in the Latin alphabet must be a nice sight. :)

[shedsevenfan]

This is truly impressive!

[ferki1234567]

I love your series, professor. As an aspiring polyglot (though not, I confess, with the same sort of desires in mind as yourself, at least not from what I gather from your website - I just love to play with words) these videos have been an excellent resource, as I'm sure your subsequent videos will be (please continue to make them! :D).

große Glück, langes Leben und vielen Dank!

[kronos77]

Professor, When doing the scriptorium exercise, how much attention should be given to perfect spelling? I have tried this exercise and run across words whose spelling I am unsure of. Should I immediately consult the text or wait until I finished and correct myself?

[ProfASAr]

You can do it in two different ways:

A) as an exercise in detail, in which case you should immediately consult the text and even stop to use a dictionary if necessary (I do not do this in the video as it would be tedious to watch).

B) as of form of dictating to yourself, in which case you should wait until you have finished in order to correct yourself; if you do have to make many corrections, you should do the same passage again. This dictation is best left until you are more advanced.

[braziliaan]

Simply amazing! I'm impressed by your knowledge. I'm your fan!

[SlavicResistance]

You are my personal hero.

[xxxqwertxxx]

That's really amazing. I applaud you for tackling three languages that so many westerners would be completely intimidated by. (Myself included) ^^

[any5thing]

Professor,

This is extremely helpful. Thank you very much for sharing this video!

[Slovikbob]

This is extremely impressive i have always been a fan Prof Arguelles.

[Amolitura]

hallo Professor!

bitte poste weiter. auch wenn du nicht perfekt bist! Lass dich nicht kritisieren, von leuten die keine sprache können, außer ihrer eigenen!

well done - keep going!

and dont stop posting!!!!!

[euvucan]

your mandarin is far from perfect

[ProfASAr]

I know perfectly well that my control of the Mandarin tones is still very weak at this point, and it may always be. I do not know the other languages perfectly either, and in this video I mispronounce the two short Sanskrit u's as long. I am NOT presenting either this video or the shadowing one as a claim to have mastered these languages, but rather only as a demonstration of techniques for studying them efficiently and diligently as I myself will do every single day for the rest of my life.

[Jonzwelet]

Quite amazing: how many other people do you suppose there are in the whole world who know these three different, difficult languages? Not very many, if any, I imagine.

[ProfASAr]

How many people both desire to learn these three languages and are willing to study them systematically over a span of many years?

[maisyll]

does the line super scripted over the sanscrit show a word or a sentence?

[ProfASAr]

The superscript is a simple convention of the Devanagari alphabet. The line does not indicate a sentence; it may be over a single word, but generally it covers a block of several words written as a unit because their final and initial sounds merge together.

[Milehighkingpin]

Very impressive, Professor.

I might add that you write these three scripts very beautifully.