I find that having studied both Hebrew and Latin helps me greatly with English, and having a clear understanding of the roots of words and their underlying meaning.
And it wasn't that hard. I'm not a historian.
/johnny
When I was in middle school, somebody gave me a book called "Word Clues". It was all about the roots of English words, concentrating on Greek and Latin, but including Arabic, Hebrew, and others.
Learning the roots helped me to understand and use the language on a whole new level.
Funny story: I had an emergency trip to the hospital about that time (2 week stay). Afterwards, we were at the doctor's office and he was telling my mother what the problem had been. He used the term "hypertensive encephalopathy", and I remember repeating it after him. Of course, knowing the root words, I figured out what he was saying at once.
The funny part is remembering the look that I got from my mother at the time. (Well, the doc, too.)