on 9/27/01 6:47 AM, Alain Pastor at apastor@... wrote:

>> P.S. as part of my degree requirements I should take a 'human'
>> language.  For instance, for astronomy majors, German, Russian, or
>> French is recommended.  Can anyone recommend a good language for
>> Computer Science?  I can choose between French, German, Italian,
>> Latin, and Spanish.
>> 
> I'm not qualified to give an advice related to computer science but
> I might try to do my best to help you with the French language if
> needs be. You can easily forget Latin [snip]

Heather, and whoever else cares,

My mother used to tell me that learning Latin made English very much easier
to understand, as much of our modern English language has its basis in
Latin.  From what little I know of Latin, I have to agree.  So don't dismiss
Latin out of hand.

My advice would be to learn whichever language most interests you, for
whatever reason.

Besides, any knowledge is useful.  At least that's what I tell myself when
I'm involved with learning something seemingly trivial or useless.  And the
interesting thing is that sometimes the "useless" stuff becomes very
important when I get involved in something else several years hence.

Mark Lincoln