Since we’re basically just on a Shakespeare tangent now, and I really like talking about Shakespeare—I was lucky to have an extremely thorough education in Early Modern English starting from a very young age (starting around 7, I think). Essentially, my theater did Shakespeare completely uncut, and before memorizing your lines you had to listen to cassette tapes where the founder of the theater took you through the full meaning of every single line. I think he recorded these with multiple sources open in front of him, and he’d already devoted decades of study to Shakespeare by the time I was born. And then school gave me a thorough education in literary analysis, and putting all that together, I claim I have a better understanding of Shakespeare than the vast majority of Shakespearean actors, and probably the majority of Shakespeare scholars as well. (I believe most professional Shakespearean actors have no fucking clue what they’re saying most of the time, and how in heck is the audience supposed to understand what’s going on if the actors don’t?)
My vocabulary in Shakespearean English is more limited than my native English vocabulary, but I’d still say I’m comfortably fluent in Early Modern English, perhaps even better than I am at French. My friends say that it’s really fun to read through Shakespeare plays with me because they actually know what’s going on. Shakespeare is really funny! In addition to being really beautiful and moving and incredibly fun to act.
Anyway, I’m sorry your school sucked and also that all schools suck. I wish I could give everyone the education in Shakespeare that was given to me. I have ideas on how to make that happen, but alas, doesn’t seem like a priority with the world the way it is.
Since we’re basically just on a Shakespeare tangent now, and I really like talking about Shakespeare—I was lucky to have an extremely thorough education in Early Modern English starting from a very young age (starting around 7, I think). Essentially, my theater did Shakespeare completely uncut, and before memorizing your lines you had to listen to cassette tapes where the founder of the theater took you through the full meaning of every single line. I think he recorded these with multiple sources open in front of him, and he’d already devoted decades of study to Shakespeare by the time I was born. And then school gave me a thorough education in literary analysis, and putting all that together, I claim I have a better understanding of Shakespeare than the vast majority of Shakespearean actors, and probably the majority of Shakespeare scholars as well. (I believe most professional Shakespearean actors have no fucking clue what they’re saying most of the time, and how in heck is the audience supposed to understand what’s going on if the actors don’t?)
My vocabulary in Shakespearean English is more limited than my native English vocabulary, but I’d still say I’m comfortably fluent in Early Modern English, perhaps even better than I am at French. My friends say that it’s really fun to read through Shakespeare plays with me because they actually know what’s going on. Shakespeare is really funny! In addition to being really beautiful and moving and incredibly fun to act.
Anyway, I’m sorry your school sucked and also that all schools suck. I wish I could give everyone the education in Shakespeare that was given to me. I have ideas on how to make that happen, but alas, doesn’t seem like a priority with the world the way it is.