I'll have Latin lessons at University as it is compulsory.But I don't know what will it bring to me, could you explain a little?...
What will Latin gain me?
it will makes you more smart and you will speak
more easily the official form of french and romance languages
more easily the official form of french and romance languages
Why Latin?
by Scott Barker
Lingua Latina gaudium et utilis est!!
The Latin language is fun and useful!
I. Character.
"It doesn't take intelligence, it takes a certain kind of character," a teacher of mine likes to say. Latin takes perseverance, stubbornness, and endurance. Latin is a challenge. It's not just for geniuses any more.
II. Virtue and Vice.
Read, in Latin, about the virtues of Hercules, Lucretia, and Coriolanus, about the vices of Cataline in the speeches of Cicero, and judge for yourself the virtues and/or vices of Julius Caesar in his own Commentaries and those of others, and read about the party life of mediaeval students in their songs. Encounter such terms and concepts as "chastity," "probity," and "avarice," perhaps for the first time. (By the way, what does "e.g." stand for?)
III. Literature and History.
Learn about gods and goddesses, mythology, historical folks, and geographical references to help with present and future studies in history and literature. The lyric poetry of Herrick, Keats, and Shelley would be no where without the old Romans, Catullus and Horace. The study of Latin will soften the blow and enhance your enjoyment of Homer's Odyssey, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare's plays and the rest of (Western, at least) human literature. As Hamlet says about the ghost: "Hic et ubique," or "Here and everywhere."
IV. Vocabulary, Vocabulary, Vocabulary.
At least 60% of words in the English language are derived from Latin, often through middle French (1066AD and all that), 30% of English words are of Anglo-Saxon origin, and 10% from Greek and other languages.) Most, if not all, of the 206 bones in your body are Latin. (SAT's anyone?)
V. Translation.
"There is no better way for the student to train himself in the choice of the very word that will fit his thought than by translation from Latin and Greek. Thus he develops habits of analysis, habits of discriminating choice of words, habits of accurate apprehension of the meaning which another has sought to convey by written words, which lead to power of expression and to power of clear thinking. Such habits are worth more to the lawyer than all the information which a modern school may hope to impart." Roscoe Pound, Dean of the Law School, Harvard University, circa 1900. (circa?)
VI. Grammar.
You must learn the grammar of a foreign language in order to learn it well. This is especially true of Latin because the word order won't help you. Latin is a highly inflected language--has lots of endings to learn--and can put words almost anywhere in the sentence. (Greek and Russian are also highly inflected.) What is the proper way to use "I" and "me" in English? How about "who" and "whom"? "We" and "us"? Latin will show you. What's a relative clause or pronoun? What is the subjunctive mood? Hey, what's a "mood" anyway? Imperative? Infinitive? Direct object? Indirect object? Participle? Gerund?
"I will say at once, quite firmly, that the best grounding for education is the Latin grammar. I say this, not because Latin is traditional and mediaeval, but simply because even a rudimentary knowledge of Latin cuts down the labor and pains of learning almost any other subject by at least 50 percent. It is the key to the vocabulary and structure of all Romance languages and to the structure of all Teutonic languages, as well as to the technical vocabulary of all the sciences and to the literature of the entire Mediterranean civilization, together with all its historical documents." Dorothy Sayers, from "The Lost Tools of Learning"
VII. Logic.
Trains your mind. Trains your memory. Unraveling a Latin sentence is an excellent exercise in thought, a real intellectual puzzle, and a good introduction to logical thinking. Latin involves a similar process to that used in Euclid's geometric proofs, (Q.E.D., Quod Erat Demonstrandum=That which was to be demonstrated) or, to the thought process involved in trying to fix your car. You have to be able to SEE things and the connections between words and concepts.
VIII. Latin is dead, NOT!
The only thing that is dead is the mind of the person who says "Latin is dead." Latin is not dead, it's eternal. Latin is "dead" the way your great-grandparents are "dead," the way the US Constitution is "dead," or the way the soldiers who took the beaches of Normandy are "dead." We continue to live by their deeds, influences, and inspiration. If not for them, we would not be here. If not for Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian would not be here either. Remember that scene from Monty Python's "Life of Brian"? To wit:
"...OK, OK, besides the roads, system of government, sanitation, personal safety, language, culture, and the rule of law, what have the Romans ever done for us?"
Finis est.
Ave atque Vale!
http://www.promotelatin.org/whylatin.htm
by Scott Barker
Lingua Latina gaudium et utilis est!!
The Latin language is fun and useful!
I. Character.
"It doesn't take intelligence, it takes a certain kind of character," a teacher of mine likes to say. Latin takes perseverance, stubbornness, and endurance. Latin is a challenge. It's not just for geniuses any more.
II. Virtue and Vice.
Read, in Latin, about the virtues of Hercules, Lucretia, and Coriolanus, about the vices of Cataline in the speeches of Cicero, and judge for yourself the virtues and/or vices of Julius Caesar in his own Commentaries and those of others, and read about the party life of mediaeval students in their songs. Encounter such terms and concepts as "chastity," "probity," and "avarice," perhaps for the first time. (By the way, what does "e.g." stand for?)
III. Literature and History.
Learn about gods and goddesses, mythology, historical folks, and geographical references to help with present and future studies in history and literature. The lyric poetry of Herrick, Keats, and Shelley would be no where without the old Romans, Catullus and Horace. The study of Latin will soften the blow and enhance your enjoyment of Homer's Odyssey, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare's plays and the rest of (Western, at least) human literature. As Hamlet says about the ghost: "Hic et ubique," or "Here and everywhere."
IV. Vocabulary, Vocabulary, Vocabulary.
At least 60% of words in the English language are derived from Latin, often through middle French (1066AD and all that), 30% of English words are of Anglo-Saxon origin, and 10% from Greek and other languages.) Most, if not all, of the 206 bones in your body are Latin. (SAT's anyone?)
V. Translation.
"There is no better way for the student to train himself in the choice of the very word that will fit his thought than by translation from Latin and Greek. Thus he develops habits of analysis, habits of discriminating choice of words, habits of accurate apprehension of the meaning which another has sought to convey by written words, which lead to power of expression and to power of clear thinking. Such habits are worth more to the lawyer than all the information which a modern school may hope to impart." Roscoe Pound, Dean of the Law School, Harvard University, circa 1900. (circa?)
VI. Grammar.
You must learn the grammar of a foreign language in order to learn it well. This is especially true of Latin because the word order won't help you. Latin is a highly inflected language--has lots of endings to learn--and can put words almost anywhere in the sentence. (Greek and Russian are also highly inflected.) What is the proper way to use "I" and "me" in English? How about "who" and "whom"? "We" and "us"? Latin will show you. What's a relative clause or pronoun? What is the subjunctive mood? Hey, what's a "mood" anyway? Imperative? Infinitive? Direct object? Indirect object? Participle? Gerund?
"I will say at once, quite firmly, that the best grounding for education is the Latin grammar. I say this, not because Latin is traditional and mediaeval, but simply because even a rudimentary knowledge of Latin cuts down the labor and pains of learning almost any other subject by at least 50 percent. It is the key to the vocabulary and structure of all Romance languages and to the structure of all Teutonic languages, as well as to the technical vocabulary of all the sciences and to the literature of the entire Mediterranean civilization, together with all its historical documents." Dorothy Sayers, from "The Lost Tools of Learning"
VII. Logic.
Trains your mind. Trains your memory. Unraveling a Latin sentence is an excellent exercise in thought, a real intellectual puzzle, and a good introduction to logical thinking. Latin involves a similar process to that used in Euclid's geometric proofs, (Q.E.D., Quod Erat Demonstrandum=That which was to be demonstrated) or, to the thought process involved in trying to fix your car. You have to be able to SEE things and the connections between words and concepts.
VIII. Latin is dead, NOT!
The only thing that is dead is the mind of the person who says "Latin is dead." Latin is not dead, it's eternal. Latin is "dead" the way your great-grandparents are "dead," the way the US Constitution is "dead," or the way the soldiers who took the beaches of Normandy are "dead." We continue to live by their deeds, influences, and inspiration. If not for them, we would not be here. If not for Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian would not be here either. Remember that scene from Monty Python's "Life of Brian"? To wit:
"...OK, OK, besides the roads, system of government, sanitation, personal safety, language, culture, and the rule of law, what have the Romans ever done for us?"
Finis est.
Ave atque Vale!
http://www.promotelatin.org/whylatin.htm
What will Latin gain me? If you learn Latin, you will become a Latin expert like Claudiu Enescu.
Latin Lover,
Thank you. This was a informative read concerning Latin. Hurrah Latin!
Ne plus ultra.
Thank you. This was a informative read concerning Latin. Hurrah Latin!
Ne plus ultra.
I'm tempted to learn latin know. Very inspiring. Would you write something similar for Irish latinlover? Would help me alot in my arguments :-)
Latin is a useless language. I pity anyone who has the misfortune of studying it.
The benefits of Latin are overrated. After all, the Romans spoke it, and look what happened to them!
I agree all of the opinions of Latin-haters, LATIN is a fairly dead language.It will gain you nothing but a large and useless abundant knowlegde of words in your brain.It will gain nothing really...
I agree. Latin will gain you nothing that you can't gain with any other Romance language as well...
So don't waste your time and learn a living Romance language instead.
And BTW there are studies among students who learned Latin and French at school and later tried to learn Spanish. And surprisingly the students who learned French were better!
So don't waste your time and learn a living Romance language instead.
And BTW there are studies among students who learned Latin and French at school and later tried to learn Spanish. And surprisingly the students who learned French were better!
Who speaks (or rather reads and writes) Latin, learns other languages from the same language family more easily. Full stop.
More easily than what? Latin has no advantages over other Romance languages when it comes to learning a second Romance language
So why learning a dead language?
So why learning a dead language?