All that really matters is that corys adore us, and we return the favor.
True!
In my early school years one was required to study Latin.
My school wasn't nearly posh enough for that!
Although I remember in I think our GCSE year, or the year before, that there was an optional basic Latin class.
I only remember having a chat with a friend on mine who had signed up and asked me if I was going to as well, and I thought "When will I ever need to know a dead language?"
I was old enough to know it's used in medicine, grew up with lots of animals and reference books that would often list the Latin names next to common names. I was pretty good in biology, so I must have known how essential it is in botany too... but somehow, it didn't register with me then how useful it could be to have at least a little grounding in it.
I just remember already feeling overwhelmed with the amount of mandatory work we had to do, so taking on an extra, optional class was the last thing I wanted to do. I struggled enough with French and German too, so thought I'd have a hard time with it.
Wish I had taken it though!
Did do a search for learning Latin online
I hated it. So even though I understand the importance of the way fish species get defined and named, I have a mental block on using Latin. Sometimes, all we have to identify a fish is its Latin name. But it is very easy to sprain your tongue when it comes to pronouncing some of the names.
Two of my closest friends are from when I went to college to study animal care. But I lived in dorms on campus where most of the students were studying horticulture and land management. So now one works in the horticultural industry, other is a landscape architect. I used to help them revise the lists of Latin names for their tests, but it didn't stick in my brain.
I do love going on walks or to a garden centre or something with them though, pointing at something "what's that?" and they can reel off a ton of Latin! I'm always impressed, lol.
I know the Latin names for a few plants, whether house, outdoor or aquarium, even if I might need to double check the spellings for some of them! I know that "aster" means star, since it's used so often for plants with star shaped leave or petals.
That's about it though!
I have only kept one African cichlid, it was not from the rift lakes but was a riverine fish--> Pseudocrenilabrus nicholsi. I just called them nickel fish.
I attempted it! The Pseudo part is easy enough since it's used in psychology too, and I can break it down if I read it, but yes, that's a tongue tripper! I also know it'll fall out of my brain the moment I finish this comment...
When I went to the fish event Sunday, met a lovely young couple who were both fish mad, and also both worked at a Maidenhead Aquatics. They're the ones who gave me the Megalechis thoracata when it hadn't sold by the end of the event and they were packing up and giving away their unsold stock. Tried to give me a pair of geophagus too, but I know even less about caring for those except that they're "earth-eaters", and luckily someone else wanted them!
Anyhow, I was asking about sourcing Pseudomugil species, that I was on the hunt for some, and when I tried to say "pseudomugil" she corrected my pronounciation! But I can't remember how it's meant to be said! Grrr.
Te audire non possum est. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure.
Translation thingy online says that means: "I can't hear you. The muse of the wise is fixed in the ear"?
Saw something else about bananas though!
