Page:Madras journal of literature and science vol 2 new series 1857.djvu/231

JULY— SEPT. 1857.] The Study of Lkiiig Languages. 221 generally learnt by men at that age when they have most confi- dence in their own powers and when they are consequently always disposed to take the bull by the horns. With this feeling the stu- dent generally rushes into the midst of his enemies headlong, at- tempting to grapple at once with the character, the pronunciation, the whole grammar, the whole vocabulary of 20,000, or, as in Ara- bic, 200,000 words, the language of books and the language of conversation, &c. No wonder that such a one finds himself con- tinually discouraged, that many give up in despair, that all waste an enormous amount of time and mental effort, and that scarcely one in a hundrecJ ever talks like a Native. Whatever a man's pow- ers may be it is ceXainly sheer waste to set about matters in this way, and he cannot possibly receive such clear impressions on his mind as the same person would, if he concentrated his attention upon one thing at a time.

It may also be well here to advert to some peculiar difficulties which we necessarily encounter in the circumstances in which Eu- ropeans are ordinarily placed in semi-civilized countries, and espe- cially in a country like India, in which caste prevails. If an Eng- lishman wishes to learn French or German, he can go and live with a Native family, or throw himself continually into the society of Natives, in inns and places of public resort, where his ear wil be exercised from morning to night in the true pronunciation and the real ordinary expressions of the language, and where conse- quently, without the least efi'ort even, though indeed slowly, he can hardly help acquiring a correct use of the language both as respects pronunciation and expression. But there are few coun- tries out of Europe where a European can thus freely associate with the Natives, and in India he is eflfectually excluded from their houses. Separate and special means must therefore be used, to exercise the tongue and ear of the student, and to store his me- mory with a stock of bona fide expressions.

Another difficulty is the great inferiority of Native Teachers com- pared with European Masters. Indeed in a great proportion of cases a man has to learn a language with the assistance of one who is not a teacher at all by profession, and who therefore can- I