Hindi goes as well

[danohu]

What I didn't mention in the last post - because I didn't believe it - was that Sanskrit isn't the only course going. Cambridge is also closing the Hindi department. This is something like the fourth most widely-spoken language in the world, 400 million speakers (many more if you include urdu speakers, and speakers of hindi as a second language). How does nobody think it might be useful for somebody to be able to speak this language?

Comments

[oedipamaas49.livejournal.com]

yes. Studying bits of things is OK, but one of the best things about university is getting obsessively fascinated with some little corner. That's the only way you move beyond just paraphrasing what you've read in textbooks, and get to contribute original research.

One of the big problems with academic Sanskrit (outside India) is that people mostly come to it via some other route - generally, Latin and Greek, but sometimes theology. That means they end up with a fairly warped perspective. The advantage of starting on Sanskrit as an undergraduate is that you get the chance to study your subject in itself, not as a spin-off.

[adamdobay.livejournal.com]

Exactly, especially that everything Eastern requires a specific mindset. We are taught to believe that most of Eastern concepts rhyme with concepts of our Middle Ages Christian upbringing (some of which, like the system of penalties and rewards, permeate most non-Christian families as well), when they do not really. It took me quite a time to realize that Eastern thought is in some parts requires a radically different way of thinking. So the sooner you start that the better, and if you start out your Eastern studies based on Western&Christian stuff, well that's not very good.