In an E-Channel blogpost entitled “The Joy of Sanskrit or Language Brought to Formal Perfection,” American writer and scholar Charles Johnson provides a brief chronicle of his journey to study and learn the ancient language. Johnson even makes mention of how his study of Sanskrit helps him write articles for Buddhadharma.
The post begins:
“During my student days, foreign languages were never my forte. Nevertheless, I dutifully studied Spanish for seven years from middle school through undergraduate college, then I did a year of French (reading only, not speaking) as the language requirement for my master’s degree in Philosophy. It was always Sanskrit, though, the elder sister of Latin and Greek, that fascinated and attracted me most because since the late 1960s I buried myself in translations of classic works in Buddhism and Hinduism. Back then, I never dreamed I’d now be in my 13th year of Sanskrit study and translation.”
