World of Words


By Ron Batchelor
September 2012
Book Guild
Distributed by Trans-Atlantic Publications
ISBN: 9781846247958
335 pages
$35.95 Hardcover


The English are notorious for their dislike of, if not ineptitude for, foreign languages. Doesn’t everyone abroad speak English anyway? And isn’t the solution for those little international misunderstandings just to talk rather louder? Dr Ron Batchelor takes the diametrically opposite point of view. Learning languages, he argues, is an exuberant joy and the key to unlocking whole new worlds of experience – intellectual, personal, cultural and sensual. A second, third or even fourth language can help us, in short, to live richer, fuller, deeper lives. Batchelor’s own romance with Romance languages began just after World War II when, as a student, he began to explore France by bicycle. His explorations – both geographic and linguistic – have never stopped since, and in this delightful, dazzling book, over-brimming with words, puns and yet more words – as well as more than a dash of his prodigious learning – he recounts some of his adventures and encounters.

 

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