mani iespaidoja
True story: I arrived at the University of Chicago having studied Latin and Greek in high school, but no modern languages. Nonetheless, I was very interested in historical linguistics, and I signed up for Eric Hamp's seminar in Indo-European. The text (such as it was, this being a class with Eric Hamp) was Meillet's _Introduction a l'Etude comparative des langues indo-europeenes_.

After class I nervously approached Prof. Hamp, and said, "Uh, about the Meillet book--I don't actually know French yet." He replied, "Oh, just learn it. It's easy."

LL arhīvs