This is a bit silly, but just for the sake of trying to get some anecdotal impressions, how well do you tend to do at standardized tests of verbal reasoning ability or capacity? For example, the verbal section of the SAT or the GRE, or verbal intelligence tests like Mensa verbal tests, or the verbal components of the WAIS or the Stanford Binet.
I ask because I am curious about the relationship between the abilities those tests are measuring and interest/ability in learning classical languages.
In my case, I do score well on those standardized tests, and I believe they do test some abilities that are also relevant to studying classical languages. However, I think the latter involves also other things, and I know of some people with very high verbal intelligence who are unremarkable at learning other languages.
Also, do you note any “spike” that makes your verbal abilities significantly higher than your non-verbal ones? In my case, I do have a spike like that.
Well, when our Grade 5 class was given some standardized tests many years ago my reading and maths abilities were pegged at Grade 12 level. But my ability to learn another language sucks
I scored very high on tests of verbal reasoning ability when I was in school as a youngster. Even after school I scored very high in a similar dimension during a psychiatric evaluation. Regardless of that, I struggled mightily to learn any foreign language at all when I was in school. I would dabble a bit in one or the other, but then inevitably hit a massive wall at about the point when I had to start composing sentences. Ultimately I made it all the way through a bachelor’s degree without ever learning a language other than English. It was only in my 30s that I realized how ridiculous I felt being a college graduate without any kind of understanding of language aside from English. That was what spurred me into independent study of Ancient Greek.
I wouldn’t necessarily think that it was my verbal reasoning abilities that made it possible for me to learn anything about AG; if anything, I think my ability with English made it much harder to learn. Even after nearly two years of study I’m still very much an AG novice. My pace has been utterly glacial, but the thing that keeps me going is the fact that as I continue to learn there are aspects of ancient texts that were once obscure to me that have now become plain. The process of continued discovery certainly makes the pain of learning bearable.
