‘Learning me your language’ conference

I have been sent a notice and programme for a 2-day conference at Yale, March 20-21.

Bob Lister is among the speakers.

The theme is teaching Latin and Greek as second languages, first in antiquity, secondly in the middle ages, and finally today.

The idea of crossing the Atlantic for a short visit reminds me of an experience that my brother had 20 or 30 years ago.

He had gone to the States for a longish residential conference, leaving his wife at home in Sheffield. He was, I think, the only European at the conference, and when the final evening’s dinner was drawing near, the others realised that he would be the only person there without a spouse, and secretly had a whip-round to raise the fare for Elizabeth to fly over for the evening. The famed American generosity in action, and the American attitude of ‘Why not do it?’.

She, however, thought like an Englishwoman, and declined the generous offer.

But perhaps a trip across the pond for 2 days is not out of the question!