So on Words Words Words, Words, our series about translation.

We've covered a bunch of different languages.

We talked about translating out of Hebrew, out of Latin, out of Greek,

done a little bit of Italians, some Germans, some French,

even some Japanese.

Now we face our greatest challenge of all,

because somebody has asked me how to translate English.

All right, so if you have a translation question that you've sent me that's been

patiently sitting in the back of the line for weeks.

I do apologize.

I'm going to go back and rifle through some of the older ones.

I do have a big file in my inbox where I keep all your questions. But every now and then someone lobes one at me that is just right in the strike zone.

It's just right where all of my interests are currently converging and then it's just like catnip and I have to bump it up to the front of the line and answer it immediately because it's so much fun and that's what happened here. I got a question from Nathan about reading Middle English,

which is something I'm currently doing. I'm reading the great Arthurian legends of Thomas

Mallory's Mortartur, and there's so much to talk about here, it's one of my favorite

subjects to nerd out about, and I think it's one of the most useful things for you to know about if you want to increase your grasp of the English language,

which everybody should do. Everybody should want to get better at English to understand English

better because it'll make you a better communicator.

I mean, never mind all the fun stuff, which obviously I totally endorse where you get to read

chivalric legends and stories of great kings and get connected to the history of your own culture and nation and so forth,

but just at a purely practical level you will be a better husband, wife, father, friend, whatever your job is, you'll be a better

salesperson, you'll be a better teacher, you'll be a better whatever if you can

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