Reply to Majoring in English—why so much disrespect?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]An example of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in Middle English. Understanding it is only the beginning.

"Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote 
 
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote,

And bathed every veyne in swich licour,

Of which vertu engendred is the flour."[/quote]
but, why do people need to understand this?   I read Shakespeare, Flaubert, etc.. but I don't see the point in needing to understand very old English.  My DH is English. He doesn't even like reading those types of books[/quote]

It's like buying a diamond. It's a status symbol.

Knowledge of useless, arcane subjects is proof that you are wealthy enough to spend time on leisure pursuits instead of doing productive work.

There is some beautiful poetry from pre-modern English. There isn't much new epic alliterative poetry like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.  But there's no need to read in the obsolete spellings, and definitely no need to, as most namedroppers do, mispronounce all the old words while pretentiously bragging about how cultured you are! [/quote]

Your diamond analogy does not make sense. You don't study English as a status symbol.[/quote]

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