Ava Golde
asked
Kevin Sands:
Does Christopher have a gift with languages? In Call of the Wraith he mentions knowing several - Latin, Italian, German, French, even Greek and Hebrew, which is quite the selection to know, especially at 14 years old. Is he naturally a polyglot, or was Master Benedict just a great teacher?
Kevin Sands
It's a bit of everything, really. Christopher certainly has a gift for languages. (More broadly, what he's really good at is pattern recognition, which helps with both learning languages and secret codes.) But he's also had a ton of instruction over the years.
In Christopher's day, a classical education would have taught both Latin and Greek from an early age, with Hebrew also often part of the instruction. It was also customary for educated Englishmen of the time to learn French, as the country had close ties to France, despite them regularly being in conflict. So he would have studied all these at Cripplegate to at least some level before becoming an apprentice.
Master Benedict, who considered languages of particular importance, expanded on this once Christopher was in his care, adding instruction in Spanish, Italian, and German. This seems like a lot, but if you've ever tried learning multiple related languages, you'll know that knowing one makes learning the others a lot easier. It's mostly just learning the rules, then memorizing vocabulary, which is often similar.
It's also worth noting that, except for Sundays and holidays, leisure time didn't really exist for apprentices. So Christopher would be working from the time he got up until the time he went to bed. Since Master Benedict considered studying part of Christopher's work, he spent a lot of time doing it...especially as reading a book by the fire is a lot more pleasant than scrubbing the floor for the millionth time.
In Christopher's day, a classical education would have taught both Latin and Greek from an early age, with Hebrew also often part of the instruction. It was also customary for educated Englishmen of the time to learn French, as the country had close ties to France, despite them regularly being in conflict. So he would have studied all these at Cripplegate to at least some level before becoming an apprentice.
Master Benedict, who considered languages of particular importance, expanded on this once Christopher was in his care, adding instruction in Spanish, Italian, and German. This seems like a lot, but if you've ever tried learning multiple related languages, you'll know that knowing one makes learning the others a lot easier. It's mostly just learning the rules, then memorizing vocabulary, which is often similar.
It's also worth noting that, except for Sundays and holidays, leisure time didn't really exist for apprentices. So Christopher would be working from the time he got up until the time he went to bed. Since Master Benedict considered studying part of Christopher's work, he spent a lot of time doing it...especially as reading a book by the fire is a lot more pleasant than scrubbing the floor for the millionth time.
More Answered Questions
Gabe
asked
Kevin Sands:
Hi, I have a couple of questions that I've been wondering about. First, I don't know if you've ever mentioned it in the books, but is Tom older than Christopher? Second, for the code on the cover of the Assassin's Curse, are we given any clue, or expected to figure it out just from the code? Also, is it any particular cipher we're supposed to use (like the Vigenère cipher) or are we expected to figure that out too?
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