Hi! Boy am I glad to have found this forum! :)

Textkit Community Open Board
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Hello, my name is Gildardo Rivas. I am from Mexico, though I am currently in El Paso, Texas, USA.

I studied physics in Monterrey in Mexico, I got a Master of Science degree (also in physics) from UTEP in El Paso, and finally I obtained my Ph.D. in physics from the University of Washington, in Seattle, Washington, USA.

I am perfectly fluent in both Spanish and English, as I have spoken both languages most of my life – I learned Spanish first, but I was less than three years old when I started learning English. As it would seem implied, I have university level education in both.

I have always been interested in languages, and have learned on my own some elements of several over the years – I can read French fairly well (with the aid of a dictionary :slight_smile: ), I have some knowledge of German, an inkling of Russian, and I have been studying Latin on my own on and off for the last five or six years – mostly from Moreland & Fleisher’s “Latin: An Intensive Course” (9th printing, 1990).

Well, this may need more of an explanation:

In Mexico, they used to teach Latin and Greek etymologies for Spanish in public secondary school (public middle school in the U.S.), but by the time I attended they no longer taught the course – at least in my home state. I was so very intrigued by the Romance languages and Latin, so finally some years ago I decided I should go to the source and study Latin on my own. As I was doing my Ph.D. I couldn’t always devote the time, but as I am done with it, for the last nine months I have been going through M. & F.'s book and am nearing the end: I am starting unit 18 in a day or so.

OK, I’ll stop now, since this doesn’t have to be a complete biography.

Well, I’m glad I found this place, as I definitely have many questions. :sunglasses:

Ah, before I forget: I eventually want to learn Classical Greek also, but that will be later.

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Welcome, Gildardo.

WB

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Bienvenidos Gildardo!

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Welcome to Textkit…I hope you enjoy your stay.

I have thought about attending UW as a possibility for PhD studies…but I’m still a long ways off.

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Welcome to Textkit Gildardo,

Now I can tell my wife that I’m not the only Physics student that studies Latin as a slef learner.
Maybe she stops thinking Iâ€:trade_mark:m becoming crazy :laughing:

Andrus

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Welcome Gildardo.

You’re the person I’ve ever come across with your name. Does it have some whacky etymology? Anyway it’s interesting.

:slight_smile:

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Thank you all for the replies!

To answer the several questions that have been asked or implied:

My name seems to have an odd etymology: like some Spanish names, it has a germanic origin, but the root seems strangely to be more on the Scandinavian branch than the German one, but I don’t have enough information now to be certain. The name seems to be typical in some parts of Colombia, but my father (from whom I got the name) comes from a town that had been isolated for centuries in the heartland of Mexico. I am still puzzled by my own name, I guess.

Next, I also think many of us physicists are somewhat excentric. We are very normal people in many ways, but many of us have very wide interests, so maybe we cannot become crazy since we are crazy from the start! :slight_smile:

Also, the University of Washington is an excellent school for graduate studies (both master’s and doctoral), at least from the sciences and engineering point of view, with which I am most familiar — please don’t take this as my bias because I graduated from it, I know from many people that the UW is an excellent school. It can be hard on its graduate students at times though, so caveat emptor as the saying goes.

And to GlottalGreekGeek and William, thanks for the welcome!!! By the way, I do like team USA , but I am still routing for Mexico a little more during the World Cup – sorry! :sunglasses: