Poll
Question:
Did you learn Latin at school?
Option 1: Yes, I was taught at school.
votes: 18
Option 2: No, but I taught myself, or took a later qualification.
votes: 1
Option 3: No, but I've picked a little up from wider reading.
votes: 8
Option 4: No, but I picked up some terms from other subjects I studied e.g. law, biology.
votes: 9
Option 5: Veni, vidi, vici THIS mofo.
votes: 8
Boris Johnson is addressing the Conservative conference and took the opportunity to highlight London schools teaching Latin, apropos of having a dig at David Cameron's inability to identify the meaning of Magna Carta.
I went to a very old-fashioned grammar school where if you were good at your first foreign language you were offered a second plus Latin. I did two years and hated it - I'd hold my breath and hope I'd faint! The only detention I ever got was for trying to do my Latin homework in class the day it was to be handed in. It's been useful on and off, if only for answering University Challenge questions.
What are your experiences of learning Latin?
My college had latin, was a very niche subject though, just 5 or so wannabe lawyers did it and the school only offered it because one of the classics teachers was also a latin teacher.
I don't know much latin at all beyond the occasional famous phrase, backwards engineered French, etc....
Does college count? I had 3 semesters in college.
This here is 'merica. Unless you are grumbles age or went to some
Jesuit school odds are low of even having chance to take Latin.
My school began suddenly offering Latin when I was in grade 12 (back then, we had 13 grades). I took it up, and had great fun with it. The textbook was perhaps the highlight of the class, as it was rife with innuendo and intriguing stories. I used to show up 20 minutes late to class every day, though the woman who taught - something of an ineffectual though kindhearted fuddy duddy - let all slide due to the fact that I was getting 100 in it.
I've studied a number of languages over the years, but Latin will always have a special place for me.
Unless of course like Timmay said if college counts then you get goofy fucks like him.
Quote from: jimmy olsen on October 09, 2012, 05:46:21 AM
Does college count? I had 3 semesters in college.
Option 2 :bowler:
None.
American schools needs to start teaching foreign languages starting in kindergarten.
No Latin at school. In Germany you had "classical gymnasium" (with Latin & Greek) and "modern gymnasium" (living foreign languages) to get ready for uni. A lot of university courses (history, many humanities) require(d?) Latin, thouigh, but universities usually offered crash courses.
I haven't had Latin at school, but would love to learn it at some point (though the courses I took at uni emphasized that to understand a Latin text properly you will have to know what period it's from and which rules/meanings applied at the time :bleeding: ). I still have my "Latin for Dummies" book. :)
Quote from: katmai on October 09, 2012, 05:47:49 AM
Unless of course like Timmay said if college counts then you get goofy fucks like him.
HEY NOW
I took 5 semesters in college.
No, I took Spanish.
Took three years in High School.
I thoroughly recommends Latin For All Occasions by Henry Beard for a fun introduction to the subject. Where else could you learn the phrase: "Me transmitte sursum, caledoni."
I sit back in meetings and try to figure out the best time to drop "quod erat demonstratum" on IT people.
Quote from: CountDeMoney on October 09, 2012, 06:08:52 AM
Quote from: katmai on October 09, 2012, 05:47:49 AM
Unless of course like Timmay said if college counts then you get goofy fucks like him.
HEY NOW
I took 5 semesters in college.
I REST MY CASE YOUR HONOR.
I had Classical Humanities so there was Latin from 6e or 5e to Terminale (Junior High to High School graduation i.e 6 or 7 years) plus some at university. I liked it and still comes in handy to not get completely lost in German.
There was some Ancient Greek also but much less and only as an initiation. Only one girl did both Greek and Latin and there was some odd girl who studied only Greek.
There was also that Finnish radio broadcasting on Shortwave (yes pre-internet times) with World News to hear some new Latin as well e.g pedifollis & hoccei glacialis.
:lol:
Of course, not.
Quote from: katmai on October 09, 2012, 06:16:58 AM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on October 09, 2012, 06:08:52 AM
Quote from: katmai on October 09, 2012, 05:47:49 AM
Unless of course like Timmay said if college counts then you get goofy fucks like him.
HEY NOW
I took 5 semesters in college.
I REST MY CASE YOUR HONOR.
Pfft, Philistine.
Quote from: CountDeMoney on October 09, 2012, 06:37:44 AM
Pfft, Philistine.
In the British Museum, there's a knock-off Egyptian-style coffin made by Philistines where the hieroglyphics are merely decorative and don't mean anything. It's the best explanation of the origin of the term I've ever seen!
I took Latin in college but it wasn't offered in high school. In high school our choices were Spanish, French, and German. IMO Spanish should be mandatory in American public schools.
Quote from: Brazen on October 09, 2012, 06:48:06 AM
In the British Museum, there's a knock-off Egyptian-style coffin made by Philistines where the hieroglyphics are merely decorative and don't mean anything. It's the best explanation of the origin of the term I've ever seen!
The collection of antiquities in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna has a whole section of Roman copies of Greek original statues.
Five years of Latin, ancient Greek and English in high school, two mandatory courses of Latin Literature and other two of Greek Literature for my Archaeology degree.
Fun? Kinda.
Useful? Not so much.
Can translate Thucidides or Tacitus? Not at all.
L.
Quote from: Caliga on October 09, 2012, 06:54:10 AM
I took Latin in college but it wasn't offered in high school. In high school our choices were Spanish, French, and German. IMO Spanish should be mandatory in American public schools.
Why? One doesn't have to use Spanish.
Quote from: Pedrito on October 09, 2012, 07:34:37 AM
Can translate Thucidides or Tacitus? Not at all.
Why would you need to, when there's so many Latin professors trying to justify their salaries by translating it for you?
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on October 09, 2012, 07:42:55 AM
Quote from: Pedrito on October 09, 2012, 07:34:37 AM
Can translate Thucidides or Tacitus? Not at all.
Why would you need to, when there's so many Latin professors trying to justify their salaries by translating it for you?
Why would I need to study it as mandatory then? It doesn't even work like Russian for Wanda. <_<
L.
I took Spanish and Latin in school.
Majored in it. 4 years high school, 4 years college.
Remember fuck all of it, sadly. I can translate pretty damn well, but doing verbal Latin tricks is a little beyond me.
I've tried to teach myself Latin a few times, but it's very hard to do on one's own. I still have Wheelock's books, though, on the off chance I ever find someone willing and able to teach me. :D
I took three years of Latin in Highschool. They had four foreign languages. I picked the one that nobody spoke. :D
One year in high school.
Latin is a language, dead as dead can be.
First it killed the Romans, now it's killing me.
I had enough trouble with French - why would I try and learn latin?
I had it for one year when I was 15. I finished the course and never looked back.
Quote from: Barrister on October 09, 2012, 09:14:08 AM
I had enough trouble with French - why would I try and learn latin?
For me the only use was helping with word stems in English.
4 years in Highschool. I was able to fluently read Sallustius by the end of it... :ph34r:
6 years, 4-5 hours a week. Combined with Dutch, English, German, French and Ancient Greek, it was heavy going. Well worth it, though.
Quote from: garbon on October 09, 2012, 07:36:45 AM
Why? One doesn't have to use Spanish.
Ok what exactly do you learn in school do you have to use?
Spanish is actually a useful foreign language to Americans. It would also help our workers compete in a global economy as the majority of people in this hemisphere speak it...not to mention a huge minority in our own country (at least for awhile anyway).
Quote from: Valmy on October 09, 2012, 10:39:48 AM
Quote from: garbon on October 09, 2012, 07:36:45 AM
Why? One doesn't have to use Spanish.
Ok what exactly do you learn in school do you have to use?
Spanish is actually a useful foreign language to Americans. It would also help our workers compete in a global economy as the majority of people in this hemisphere speak it...not to mention a huge minority in our own country (at least for awhile anyway).
Totally agree that it can be useful - not sure why that translated into making it mandatory.
Never took classes, picked verbiage here and there, mainly during the law school.
I was in a mathematics-physics profiled class in high school because I thought I would be a scientist. :nerd:
Quote from: Caliga on October 09, 2012, 06:54:10 AM
I took Latin in college but it wasn't offered in high school. In high school our choices were Spanish, French, and German. IMO Spanish should be mandatory in American public schools.
At my high school, the only foreign language choice was French. Though they had offered German up until a couple or so years before I got there, and started offering Spanish a couple or so years later.
It does make one wonder exactly when high schools in the US quite offereing Latin, though. When my mom was in high school, it wasn't just offered in WV, it was still a required course in order to graduate, though she and one of her friends got out of taking it by talking their principal into signing a waiver for them.
Quote from: dps on October 09, 2012, 12:46:51 PM
It does make one wonder exactly when high schools in the US quite offereing Latin, though. When my mom was in high school, it wasn't just offered in WV, it was still a required course in order to graduate, though she and one of her friends got out of taking it by talking their principal into signing a waiver for them.
As far as I know the public school I went to still offers Latin (alongside Spanish and French).
No school in their right mind will teach Latin in HK. We spend a huge amount of resources in teaching English and we still get very uneven results. We need to make sure that everybody are fluent in both Chinese and English before we worry about obscure languages.
Quote from: garbon on October 09, 2012, 10:41:10 AM
Totally agree that it can be useful - not sure why that translated into making it mandatory.
Spanish instruction is very poor in Texas, which I find sorta funny in a sad way, so it would probably be a total disaster if they made it mandatory. Not to mention politically unlikely. But I think you could justify doing so here.
Quote from: Valmy on October 09, 2012, 01:18:46 PM
Quote from: garbon on October 09, 2012, 10:41:10 AM
Totally agree that it can be useful - not sure why that translated into making it mandatory.
Spanish instruction is very poor in Texas, which I find sorta funny in a sad way, so it would probably be a total disaster if they made it mandatory. Not to mention politically unlikely. But I think you could justify doing so here.
Listening to Texans speak, or reading things written by them, would seem to indicate than English instruction is also very poor in Texas. :p:
Quote from: Valmy on October 09, 2012, 01:18:46 PM
Spanish instruction is very poor in Texas, which I find sorta funny in a sad way, so it would probably be a total disaster if they made it mandatory. Not to mention politically unlikely. But I think you could justify doing so here.
It would probably help a bit if Texas actually hired Spanish teachers that, you know, actually spoke Spanish. But we know how Texas feels about minority/ethnic hiring. Damned Mexicans taking our jobs.
Quote from: Monoriu on October 09, 2012, 01:15:11 PM
No school in their right mind will teach Latin in HK. We spend a huge amount of resources in teaching English and we still get very uneven results. We need to make sure that everybody are fluent in both Chinese and English before we worry about obscure languages.
Does anyone study Old Chinese or Middle Chinese as an equivalent classical language?
Quote from: CountDeMoney on October 09, 2012, 01:32:39 PM
Quote from: Valmy on October 09, 2012, 01:18:46 PM
Spanish instruction is very poor in Texas, which I find sorta funny in a sad way, so it would probably be a total disaster if they made it mandatory. Not to mention politically unlikely. But I think you could justify doing so here.
It would probably help a bit if Texas actually hired Spanish teachers that, you know, actually spoke Spanish. But we know how Texas feels about minority/ethnic hiring. Damned Mexicans taking our jobs.
Ethnic quotas for foreign language teachers!
What could possibly go wrong :hmm: ?
Quote from: Maladict on October 09, 2012, 10:16:23 AM
6 years, 4-5 hours a week. Combined with Dutch, English, German, French and Ancient Greek, it was heavy going. Well worth it, though.
What the hell kind of school were you going to??
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on October 09, 2012, 02:30:46 PM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on October 09, 2012, 01:32:39 PM
It would probably help a bit if Texas actually hired Spanish teachers that, you know, actually spoke Spanish. But we know how Texas feels about minority/ethnic hiring. Damned Mexicans taking our jobs.
Ethnic quotas for foreign language teachers!
What could possibly go wrong :hmm: ?
Don't mess with Texas.
Quote from: Barrister on October 09, 2012, 09:14:08 AM
I had enough trouble with French - why would I try and learn latin?
You have the benefit of having a foreign language under your belt for college applications without anyone expecting you to actually speak it. You take German and someone might say "hey, you speak Deutschlander, what did those two fucking Nazis just say?", and you'd be expected to translate. With Latin, this doesn't come up very often. The closest I can think of is "Hey, you speak Latin, what did that guy dressed as Roman Legionary say?", to which you can reply. "That's just Cal, he's not speaking Latin, he's just drunk off his ass and playing dress up".
Quote from: Razgovory on October 09, 2012, 04:00:35 PM
Quote from: Barrister on October 09, 2012, 09:14:08 AM
I had enough trouble with French - why would I try and learn latin?
You have the benefit of having a foreign language under your belt for college applications without anyone expecting you to actually speak it. You take German and someone might say "hey, you speak Deutschlander, what did those two fucking Nazis just say?", and you'd be expected to translate. With Latin, this doesn't come up very often. The closest I can think of is "Hey, you speak Latin, what did that guy dressed as Roman Legionary say?", to which you can reply. "That's just Cal, he's not speaking Latin, he's just drunk off his ass and playing dress up".
I don't recall anyone asking me to speak Spanish to them either. :huh:
Maybe people just don't expect much from you.
Quote from: Razgovory on October 09, 2012, 04:12:42 PM
Maybe people just don't expect much from you.
I think it's more like the fact that many colleges don't actually have an interview process - so there isn't really going to be anyone checking your speaking skills unless you are trying to use them to place out of a language requirement.
The only Latin I learned was in Law School.
Quote from: CountDeMoney on October 09, 2012, 01:32:39 PM
It would probably help a bit if Texas actually hired Spanish teachers that, you know, actually spoke Spanish. But we know how Texas feels about minority/ethnic hiring. Damned Mexicans taking our jobs.
Be a good career opportunity for Tim and Jaron. Oh, wait, never mind.
I didn't have the option. Took Spanish.
chose the last option, although there should be an option of "No, but I can pick some words here and there since I speak a latin language".
7 years of Latin from 6th grade to 11th grade. :bleeding: I have forgotten 98% of it. Wish I had taken Spanish instead.
Quote from: Capetan Mihali on October 09, 2012, 03:03:37 PM
Quote from: Maladict on October 09, 2012, 10:16:23 AM
6 years, 4-5 hours a week. Combined with Dutch, English, German, French and Ancient Greek, it was heavy going. Well worth it, though.
What the hell kind of school were you going to??
Dutch equivalent of grammar school, I suppose. Dutch, English, one other modern language and one ancient language were mandatory.
Quote from: Maladict on October 10, 2012, 07:32:04 AM
Quote from: Capetan Mihali on October 09, 2012, 03:03:37 PM
Quote from: Maladict on October 09, 2012, 10:16:23 AM
6 years, 4-5 hours a week. Combined with Dutch, English, German, French and Ancient Greek, it was heavy going. Well worth it, though.
What the hell kind of school were you going to??
Dutch equivalent of grammar school, I suppose. Dutch, English, one other modern language and one ancient language were mandatory.
Intense but pretty cool.
I took the mandatory year when I was 15. Those who went with humanities did two more years alongside classical Greek, but I chose sciences.
Rather liked it, but I've always enjoyed foreign languages.
I dont know that it was offered at any school I went to. I room a couple of years of French in high school and a couple of years of Spanish in college.
There is one neat benefit from learning Latin. You get to see how words are connected to one another.
Quote from: Razgovory on October 10, 2012, 10:54:48 AM
There is one neat benefit from learning Latin. You get to see how words are connected to one another.
I like how in English there will be some Indo-European root word that will then make its way into English in multiple forms from multiple paths. Like the Indo-European Word for 'Father' became different words in Latin and Germanic and we have both. 'Hey that word looks and sounds alot like a word we already have and it means the same thing...but what the heck we'll take it.'