Languages & Literatures
with

Alexander Arguelles

Welcome! I have devoted my life to learning as many languages as I can, as well as I can, so that I can read literature in them with pleasure and understanding.  The purpose of this site is to share the benefits of my knowledge and experience with others who have similar aspirations.

Becoming polyliterate is truly a task of lifelong learning, and if you would like to achieve this, I would like to guide you in doing so as swiftly and efficiently as possible.

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What You Will Find Here

  • A Questions & Answers page where you can send me detailed written requests for consultation and guidance that I can answer in such a way as to form an ever-growing indexed resource and reference center.

  • A virtual Academy where you can read and discuss literature with me in French, German, Spanish, and Latin; engage in English-language seminars to go through the Great Books of Western and Eastern civilizations; and sign up for both group and individual consultations with me.

  • Updated and expanded Great Books lists for Western, Middle Eastern, Indic, and East Asian civilizations.

Latest Q&A Submissions

Four Theological Languages Through Intensive 4-Month Study

May 20, 2022

Dear Professor Arguelles, I thank you, first, for availing yourself to questions from the general public, and hope that I can contribute some to the commonwealth of polyglots as a whole in my inquisition. As I have a rather specific question, in a rather specific case, I would like to preface concerning my environment and the course of my studies up to this point. I have always been an autodidact and have always learned via librorum. I rarely have any occasion to employ my languages in conversation. Thus, while I can understand and read certain texts in certain languages quite

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3-Hour Per Day Study Plan

May 19, 2022

Dear Professor Arguelles, I am a 44 year old Australian currently residing in Los Angeles, California. I was a teacher of Mandarin Chinese for about 12 years, and a Chinese teacher trainer in Australia. I still do a little tutoring, but I currently find myself with the luxury of a lot of time I could devote to language learning. I understand Shanghainese (Wu family of languages) and I speak it, though I normally revert to Mandarin in longer conversations. After moving to LA, I found many new friends that speak Russian. My wife’s business partner is raising two young children,

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Agile Methoden als dritter Weg für das Spracherlernen

May 19, 2022

Hallo Hr. Prof. Arguelles! Ihre ehrlichen und hilfreichen Tipps schätze ich sehr. Sie unterscheiden in Ihrem Podcast zwischen zwei Alternativen: Entweder ich plane meinen Lernprozeß systematisch oder eben nicht. Aus eigener Erfahrung möchte ich noch einen dritten Weg vorschlagen, den ich als Konzept für sehr nützlich halte, nämlich den Ansatz agiler Methoden. Werde dein eigener Project Owner, Entwickler und Scrum Master in einer Person! Weitere Personen können natürlich einbezogen werden. Ich bin auch eher zufällig über die Jahre zum Sprachenliebhaber geworden. Während meiner Schulzeit hatte ich ein sehr gespanntes Verhältnis zu Sprachen, hätte beinahe wegen schlechter Schulnoten in Englisch und

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© 2022 Alexander Arguelles. All rights reserved.

[Franciscan philosopher Roger] Bacon was right to say that the conquest of wisdom passes through the knowledge of languages…Bacon was right that the first duty of a scholar is to study languages! – Guglielmo da Baskerville