Learning Latin

A few months ago Nicholas, my older son, said he was seriously considering taking Latin as his foreign language in high school. He said that if you know Latin you'll understand a lot of things better because it's the foundation for so much.

So now that it's time to elect his foreign language for next year, I think he's going to choose Latin. St Xavier teaches Latin, and has a Latin Club that competes in six contests with other schools during the year. Yes, the Jesuit high school teaches Latin (they also practice, as a school, the daily examen once a week).

While I am not enthusiastic about using Latin in the church's liturgy, learning Latin sounds like a good choice for broadening one's education. I might just take some courses to accompany Nicholas along the way; I've heard there are some decent online resources for learning Latin.

Comments

[kiwi_nomad06]

I did Latin for three years at High School, but I also did French for four years. (I would have done it for five, but as a 17 year old, I didn't like the French teacher!!!)
In practice, French has been a lot more use to me, and has opened doorways I may not otherwise have tried to enter. But Latin did me a huge service: it made me concentrate and really think about every step of the process of writing/ translating a sentence. It forced me to be logical, possibly almost as much as maths did. And strangely, I actually really enjoyed translating what Julius Caesar wrote, which is what we did a lot of in my third year of study. And I have used what I still remember to help translate parish registers in a small Ticinese Swiss village for my family history!

[Steve Bogner]

Kiwi - He had the options of taking French, Spanish, German, and Latin. French was on the bottom of his list(!) In the end, it was a choice between German and Latin. I think it's great that our kids are learning second languages; where & when I grew up it was offered but not encouraged at all.

[Victor]

Steve I can see where French might be on the bottom of Nick’s list because he lives in The U.S. but I’m almost sure that if he lived in Canada, as a Christian it would probably be his number two language although I could be wrong. I actually feel sorry on occasions for The French language here in Canada because our second official language is slowly losing it’s identity. I made sure that our five daughters got a complete French education but most of their children can barely read or speak French so you might understand why I was a little disturbed when a group called The Alliance for the preservation of English in Canada (APEC) was formed in the pass. To make a long story short I did my share to put a stop to this group. On one occasion I even broke into tears in public at one of their meetings and with God’s help I wrote that if they didn’t put a stop to this group that I would start my own party called “The Appreciation for The Presence of Enthusiastic Christians in Canada (APECC). I really don’t know if this group is still on the side line but I like to believe that we've now seen the light. Jesus was so right when he asked His Father to forgive us cause we really don’t know what we’re truly doing to each others including myself.

There’s good in every bad thing that happens to us and having been forced to learn English as given me many advantages but nevertheless it was still forced on our ancestors. One of my aunt, God Bless her soul told me that the teacher had to hide her French books when an inspector was coming to their class but of course that was before I was born. I know that a lot of evil got into The French Catholic Religion but if Quebec and the rest would only ask God to send just one good cell from their heart, The Spiritual Saints of just one Heart Felt Cell would correct all our problems, although the flesh would need to be ready to lose “IT”s head if need be. The flesh is last but with God’s Help “IT” would eventually become number “One”

I better stop now Steve before I start telling you that my ancestors came from France on sail boats and I was told that my great great grandfather use to work on some of the
boats and his wife cooked for the workers and one of their son’s even died at sea.

Forgive me for this long comment Steve and may God continue to forgive this poor sick sinner.

[Steve Bogner]

Victor - The English/French goings-on in Canada have always been interesting to me. Every form is in both languages, many people speak both, yet there seems to be a fairly deep historical rift between the two... even a current rift with Quebec.

Here in the US, Spanish is the practical second language. We lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma for 12 years, and when we left in 1996 it was practically a bilingual town. And now, further north here in Cincinnati, we are seeing ads and other materials in Spanish. So anyway, Nick has had some Spanish in elementary school, but he didn't like the teacher and is ready for a change.

One other funny language story.... my great-grandfather immigrated to Oklahoma from Germany. A fellow German-immigrant banker financed a church, and my great-grandfather built it - one of the first Catholic churches in Oklahoma. Everyone was really happy until the bishop sent them an Irish priest; my great-grandfather ended up moving his family to a German settlement in Kansas!

[Liam]

I wish I had started Latin earlier. I also think kids should be getting a foreign language in grade school, but that's another issue. Latin will be a good base for learning other languages and it's an excellent mental discipline. It's good for high school students because it does wonder for your verbal SATs. It's good for Catholics, even those of us who support the vernacular Mass, because it gives a tool to understand our rich liturgical history. Also: it's very good.

Steve, if you are serious about studying Latin online, send me a line -- I have links to tons of resources.

[Meg]

Definitely 2 thumbs up for Latin.

Latin is the pattern for English grammar - you can't split an infinitive in English because infinitives in Latin cannot be split, for example. It is a window into history, and will be very handy if your son ends up choosing Law, History, Medicine, or Religion as a career, to name just a few.

The idea of reading in translation is very new. Before the 20th century, if you wanted to read something, you learned the language it was written in -- and most academic subjects were written in Latin!

I took 2 years of Latin in University and loved it.

[crystal]

I wish I had learned Latin - what's cooler than a dead language? I learned Spanish in high school, which was practical for living here in California, but I learned German in college because it was a good language for Philosophy majors. I took one day of Greek but was so intimidated that I gave up :-)

[Louis Cunningham]

I am a sophomore at high school, and I can't think of one day that goes by that I have not liked taking Latin. I am currently taking Latin II, and it is amazing how related Latin and English. Latin is known to help on the SATs (it always helps me on vocab tests), and it is an overall wonderful language. Don't let your son get discouraged, it is hard at first, and memorizing everything is a pain, but it all pays off big time!

In nomine Domini Iesus Christus,
Louis Cunningham

[jim]

The only request my dad made of me during my highschool years was for me to take Latin. Why? I don't know. He wasn't just not Catholic. He displayed no church interest whatsoever. I can tell you this: that two-year course gave me a foundation for not only other languages, but also anm appreciated knowledge of the root meaning of many English words. I'd certainly encourage your son in such choice, Steve.....

[Patrick]

Hi Steve.

As someone who studied Latin to senior level in secondary school, I can appreciate the joy it gives me, still, many years later.

In life there are many difficult situations where we need to choose between difficult situations. I believe the discipline I gained in studying Latin for five years, helps me face those choices with aplomb!

"Veni, vidi vici". Ceasar is quoted as saying this many years ago. "I came, I saw, I conquered". If we were to translate it as, I saw the difficulty, I faced the difficulty and I overcame the difficulty, this famous Latin phrase/quote could bewcome a new motto or motif for living sucessfully. Just a thought...

Patrick

[James]

Oh dear! Patrick & Louis, you are not encouraging exemplars of Latin students. As a former Classics teacher I blenched at the errors.

In nomine Domini Iesus Christus - should be "Christi" genitive

And Caesar - neither the soldier nor the salad is spelled Ceasar!

The fact that I had some facility with Latin made it possible for me to become a Catholic 52 years ago. But the languages I'd have most liked to learn are Biblical Hebrew (I have learned some), and modern Palestinian Arabic. Bright young schoolchildren in this country today are learning Chinese.