It should come as no surprise that I very much enjoyed and appreciated   
Erik Thomson's contribution in regard to Anthony Waterman's urging that   
I learn to read French to assist my scholarship in the history of   
economic thought.  As I said before, I learned that skill a long time   
(more than a quarter century) ago and I have lost most of it from lack   
of use, even as I have been involved in doing the history of classical   
economics.   
  
I'd like to add to Thomson's point by noting that, to be efficient in   
running our lives, one always has to keep an eye on the opportunity cost   
of whatever one is doing.  I didn't think that what I'd have gained from   
spending the time to read and understand Theocarakis's quoted piece in   
French was worth half the time cost I'd have devoted to that effort.  If   
ever my subjective cost-benefit calculations indicated the need, I'll   
pull up my French-English Dictionary, French Verbs, and other aids in   
order to translate a text in French that I have to work on.  
  
Finally, the utility of being able to operate in multiple foreign   
languages (English is one for me) can be highly overrated.  I understand   
that John Maynard Keynes could read and write in French.  But you   
wouldn't know that from recognizing how badly he misrepresented J.-B.   
Say's Law of Markets.  This in spite of the fact that Say was founding   
the law on Adam Smith's principles of relative price and interest rate   
adjustments in the marketplace in response to changes in supply and demand.  
  
James Ahiakpor