Finally dove into the Berklee music theory books I'd ordered a little while ago, and, after 20 some years, I thought I might as well just start from scratch... 
 
And it's got me thinking just how much more sense it makes to refer to notation mathematically rather than based on notes' and rests' shape or even color, like we do in french.
 
For example, in french, a quarter note is a "black note", half notes are referred to as "white notes", a whole note is called "round note". A quarter rest would be, IIRC, a "sigh". And so on...
 
Poetic I guess, but highly impractical.
 
The other thing this made me realize is how little I trust my brain to retain the information and to learn stuff. I'm actually quite sure that I underestimate those abilities. Underwent the same thing when I studied for my driver's licence last January...
 
But in the end, I suppose it only makes things more gratifying. 
 

That's me screwed then..it might as well be in Chinese when I look at that stuff.

I was taught to think in terms of crotchets, quavers and semi-quavers at school, and I guess now I can interchange between that and the mathematical terms quite freely. It's about as close as I'll ever get to experiencing what it's like to be bilingual.

Paulo - I would like to study Cantonese, eventually. But improving my English and getting back to German are my priorities. And then, Japanese, if I live long enough... ;)
 
Music theory, at least the basics, is not that hard; but unless someone feels the need for it, there's no point I guess. 
 
Sharke - interesting. I had forgotten about those, but now that you mention them, I remember vaguely.
 
 
 

64ths, 32nds, 16ths, 8ths, fourths, halfs, whole - all notes length values.
Then there is the triplet where you play three notes in the space of two or 1 or 4 beat notes.
 
Rests are the say way, depending what the beat and measure count of the music is.
 

I am sure the book explains it better, along with scales.
 
But is music theory (since it is only a theory) made to be broken??
 

spacealf
But is music theory (since it is only a theory) made to be broken??

Bapu's bazz proves anything can be broken..

I may be off bass but I'm not sure music theory and a drivers license are in the same domain.

You can also learn music theory in Arabic also.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLB15kBvn_c
 
 

Man, that is some weird terminology in French. I never actually thought of how music theory (esp. in terms of the NAMES of things) changes within different languages! I may take a look at the Arabic as well.