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Original poster

Should DD learn Latin?

62 replies

wangle99 · 30/08/2005 12:53

DD has the option to start learning latin from September when she goes into Year 4.

I didn't learn it at school, neither did DH so we don't really know what it entails.

DD doesn't really know what it's about either!

Any opinions?

Thanks

OP posts:
mummytosteven · 30/08/2005 16:00

I did Latin A Level, and it was always my best school subject - so I think I'm a bit biased.

It's very good for teaching logical thinking, and grammar/structure of languages. I found it very helpful learning Latin before German in terms of grammatical structure. The history/classical civilisation side of the subject is good fun too. I think it's worth a go if DD enjoys languages.

yoyo · 30/08/2005 16:08

I loved Latin at school but could only take it to O-level as we had no teacher for A-level. It definitely made learning languages easier and grammar is taught far more thoroughly than it will ever be taught in an English lesson.

I would love my children to learn it but I do think it is being offered far less these days (even by independent schools).

Original poster
wangle99 · 30/08/2005 16:22

Thank you for all your thoughts and comments.

I will definately encourage DD to go for it, she hasn't been at this school long so is already having to catch up 2 years of French! Hell, might as well give her another language lol.

Thanks!

OP posts:
Cam · 30/08/2005 20:50

Impressed that so many of you found Latin fun - you must have had better teachers than I did when I had to spend 5 compulsory years studying it. My Latin master used to go on about the Roman women beating their breasts quite a lot.

I do think its a great discipline but fun? No.

Dd starts Greek classics this year and Latin next year, am sure it will be taught in a more interesting way than it was 30-odd years ago

lailag · 30/08/2005 21:18

Do it!! I ended up doing a sience degree at uni but thought Latin was one of the most useful subjects I did, made me more "aware of" languages.

sestius · 30/08/2005 21:34

Thanks for the heads-up Lio, Wangle I teach Latin and Issymum says it all. It's nice to see so many positive memories of Latin on this and the "Has the world gone mad?" thread, and that is as good an advertisement for Latin as any. Now go shoot up Caecilius, folks
here

swedishmum · 30/08/2005 22:44

Wow! Thanks for the Caecilius links. My poor kids are about to add a new dimension to their holiday projects. They are safely tucked up in bed right now so have little idea of what tomorrow has in store....

Thanks again - I've gone back to 1979!

Tanzie · 30/08/2005 23:08

I'm a linguist, studied Latin at school and loathed it, so stuck with French, German and Spanish instead. But later on, it helped greatly with other languages. If you learn a Slav language where nouns decline, a knowledge of Latin helps a lot. It also helps with crosswords .

The Caecilius site has brought back memories of ranting Latin teacher giving us all a glass of sherry and telling us that she never wanted to teach, she wanted to be a scientist!

ThePrisoner · 30/08/2005 23:32

I did Latin at school, and can only repeat what we used to say:

Latin is a dead language,
As dead as dead can be.
It killed off all the Romans,
And now it's killing me.

I did French, had to do Latin (wanted to do Spanish or German but apparently wasn't "good enough" at languages for those classes!) Did Italian and German later on, and really don't understand this "it helps you with other languages" because it didn't help me!!!

tensing · 30/08/2005 23:55

I love Latin, we didn't do it at school, so I started teaching myself, and then I found out my elderly history teacher could speak latin, so I spent nearly every lunchtime in school forcing the poor man to teach me latin.

SueW · 31/08/2005 06:39

I did Latin for four years to O level. I am very glad that i did it, and i enjoyed the first two years, but the texts we studied for O level we evil. Translating Caesar's Campaigns in Africa or similar not my idea of fun.

We used 'Ecce Romani' books. I've always wondered how much sexier Latin might be taught by an Italian..... rather than the clumsy 'in pictura est puella. puella est Cornelia' that we used to read very dully and ploddingly.

Hausfrau · 31/08/2005 08:45

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Tommy · 31/08/2005 08:47

and "Cornelia est in horto" - that's the only bit I remember from latin!

But I think your DD should definitely learn Latin - I wish I'd applied myself a bit more to it although I think that about school in generel TBH

moondog · 31/08/2005 08:47

I did Latin.Loved it (fancy doing an A level at the age of 38).Really helps you to make intelligent guesses about the meaning of new words in may other languages,and the grammar stand you in excellent stead. I am finding it useful with Turkish,which I am learning at present,and Russian which I studied a few years ago.)

zippitippitoes · 31/08/2005 09:00

In the school i went to (Grammar School)at the end of the first year you were split into the R class who went straight from end of second year to fourth year and did Latin, and the rest of the year were split into the ones who did latin, if you weren't bright enough for that you did Spanish and if you weren't good enough for that you did extra English and Extra French.

The latin teacher was very scary she dribbled and spat and hit us so not many continued to O level but when we did we were a small group and got a brilliant new teacher who was very easy to distract onto a debate for the lesson, so we used to set these up regularly. She left to take up a job with granada TV which impressed us no end. By sixth form there were only three of us and we had another teacher who was abit dry again but i liked the langaue all along.

RedZuleika · 31/08/2005 09:30

I would definitely encourage a child to do Latin. I did it from age 11-13 and only dropped it at O-level due to timetable clashes. As others have indicated, it's good as a basis for learning other languages - particularly the Romance languages - but also for the structure of other languages (such as German) where the vocabulary is less obviously drawn from Latin itself.

I enjoyed it - have even considered taking it up again now (geek alert! geek alert!). I can still decline 'servus', 'puella' and 'baculum' (the particular examples our book used for masculine, feminine and neuter).

The books for younger children which are popular at the moment are about Minimus the mouse, by Barbara Bell.

vickitiredmum · 31/08/2005 10:17

Yep - definitely encourage your DD to do it. I did it for GCSE (had choice of german or latin alongside french and i chose latin). Was great fun, definitely helped understand the core of other languages later and learning a little bit about the Romans at the same time made it all the more interesting to me. Had forgotten about Caecilius! Thanks for that reminder. We did a play all in latin once - it was awful but then i only had one line "parce, parce! Pauperimus sum".

spacecadet · 31/08/2005 10:20

my dd is a year 10 and has been doing latin since year 8, it does seem quite a hard language, but shes glad she opted to study it.

caligula · 31/08/2005 10:24

Great post Issymum!

flamesparrow · 31/08/2005 10:24

How could you forget Caecilius? and good old Metella was was always sedet in the atrium

Issymum · 31/08/2005 10:34

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at OP's request

CarrieG · 31/08/2005 14:17

I teach Latin (our top language set Year 8 kids do it, with the more able ones continuing in Year 9 & the option for them to take it at GCSE).

I would FERVENTLY recommend it for all the reasons people have already given above - above all it's a brilliant workout for the brain. Yes, it's a dead language - you can't use it on holiday in ancient Rome (although it'll make it a heck of a lot easier to learn Italian...). It's a bit like an exercise bike - it might not get you down the shops, but hopefully it's still limbering everything up a bit...

The only valid argument against I can see is that a modern language might be more 'useful'. But with English, Latin & either French or Spanish later on, it becomes relatively easy to pick up other languages from the same 'family' later on - eg. I've never 'learnt' Italian or Spanish, but I can read both well enough to get by.

I think you should definitely encourage your daughter to give it a go - even if she doesn't enjoy it & you later make the decision to drop it. It IS an academically demanding subject - she might not see any point to it at all, in which case it's probably better abandoned before she decides she hates all language learning...but at worst she'll have been exposed to a valuable new way of looking at the vocabulary & grammar she uses in English, & at best she might love it & find it fantastically useful.

Passionflower · 31/08/2005 19:28

I did Latin GCSE in the 6th form at school. I can't recomend it highly enough, if it's taught well it's great fun, especially as you only translate from Latin to English up to GCSE.

My DD's will definitley be learning Latin.

littlelamb · 31/08/2005 19:46

I had the opportunity to study latin at 14 when I got into grammar school, and though I wasn't keen at the time I'm glad I persevered. I took it up to A level, and it makes all other languages a lot easier, and you get a lot of classical background as well as the language. If nothing else, it looks very posh on your CV!

Kaz33 · 31/08/2005 19:57

Tommy - how wierd is that the only bit of latin I remember is "Caecilius est in horto"

And the love poems of Catullus for Lesbia;

" I love and I hate
Why I do this I do not know
But I feel it happen
And I am tormented "

And something very tortous about a sparrow and his love for Lesbia. Oh happy days.