re: #323 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

Is there a history major in the house? /s

That might be a question to pose to Kevin Kruse on Twitter (if he takes questions).

I imagine American, Canadian, and Great Britain documents would require such courses, as well as the changes in the language even over the last hundred years.

The further back you go, the tougher it gets. Old English neither looks nor really reads like Modern English.

Even the language of the King James Version of the Bible (strictly, Ancient Modern English) is very difficult to master even in modern typesetting: Over four hundred years many words have changed meanings, some are no longer used, grammatical structure has changed.

When my wife taught adult literacy in Oklahoma, her student wanted to be able to read the Bible. Her church used the KJV.

My wife went to the pastor of that church (atheism notwithstanding) and asked the pastor if it would be appropriate for her to obtain a more modern version of the Bible to make it easier to teach, due to the difficulty of Ancient Modern English.

The pastor was delighted, and instead bought a Children’s Bible for my wife’s student.

My wife used that Bible in every reading lesson (augmenting the public library’s literacy programme).

The proudest moment of her student’s journey (she is a grandmother) was when she was able to read the designated Bible passage from the pulpit of her church from that children’s Bible. My wife attended her church the day the pastor asked her to read; her student received a standing ovation from the membership of the church.

Depends on your area of concentration and need for language skills. I was a history major and didn’t need need special language training, but if you’re going for a Ph.D, you might need some to do original research/scholarship in an area - but that’d be language skills outside the History department.