I read that Heinrich Schliemann, while excavating in Greece, learned Greek by comparing a French book with a Greek translation. He said after the first attempt he knew half the words, and after the second attempt he knew all of them, and that he only bothered to learn a little bit of grammar (he said schoolchildren were taught grammar for 8 years to little or no effect)
Apparently as a businessman he made it a point to learn the language of every country he did business with, and knew over 10 of them.
What do you think of Schliemann's method?
>>8283043
Schliemann was an eccentric. He actually named his kid Agamemnon.
He was also a notorious liar. The story is probably an exaggeration at best.
>>8283048
He also read from Homer during his son's baptism.
>>8283054
>He also read from Homer during his son's baptism.
What an absolute wanker.
He was passionate
it's not so crazy if a) you have a lot of experience in language learning, and/or b) you know linguistics (or, in his day, philology.)
now I'm a little skeptical that he did it French to Greek, bc they aren't all that similar. but it's not impossible, and as a general technique it's actually quite useful.