Latin: why?

[Bonsoir]

Latin was my most important subject at school. I did years and years of it and have never felt it was anything more than a waste of time.

I know not everyone feels this way and I would be grateful if you could share your opinions as to the useful skills Latin develops in school pupils.

Pusheed

I would rather my DC learned English, French, German, Italian and Spanish than Latin.

Loved doing it and took it at A level. I liked the precision of it and enjoyed teasing out the meaning from Latin texts (even Cicero). I have found it useful for translating headstones (Hic iacet etc) but nothing else.

Here is a lovely poem we learned at school. Apparently the first line appears somewhere in De Gallico Belli, but I never found it.

Caesar adsum jam forti,
Pompey et erat.
Caesar sic in omnibus,
Pompey in 'is 'at.

I have a Latin O'level and it has been of no use whatsoever.

The reason I took it was because I wanted to read law at Oxford and at the time, part of one of the compulsory papers was in Latin. However, my Latin was not good enough to do that bit anyway.

It has not helped with grammar any more than the study of other foriegn languages and I would agree that this would be better addressed through direct teaching of English grammar.

I find now that it is quite elitist and something that private schools seem to offer to prove just how elite they are.

I love Latin! Apart from the obvious grammar and help in understanding other Romance languages that others have mentioned, the other benefits I see are:

• it's a highly structured and rule-based language, so it teaches you to think logically and methodically;
• (this applies to learning any language) it gives you insight into another culture and society, thus opening your mind and enriching your perspective on life;
• much of English vocabulary is Latinate, so it will enhance your vocabulary;
• some beautiful literature was written in Latin, which you can only truly appreciate when you read it in the original. Obviously you have to take Latin for a while to get to this point. The Aeneid is quite a way from Sextus and Cornelia having stuffed gerbils for dinner. At this stage you realise the wonderful poetic rhythm and cadences of so much Latin.

It also means you can make some lame obscure jokes:
Q: What goes hic, haec, hoc and stumbles?
A: A drunk Roman

Thank you, I'll be here all night. Try the chicken!

I absolutely loved studying Latin & agree with LIZS and Claraschu wholeheartedly

I had a great Latin teacher, so found Claraschu's reasoning to be particularly true.

Forgot to add n my earlier submission that my dad and I converse via email in Latin. We are pretentious tho.

Well, aside from the fact it's useful for medieval history, I'm with you, Bonsoir. If you really want to know how English works, study old English, Old Norse, some German and a bit of Latin. The influence of Latin on English is largely limited to some quite specific vocabulary areas.

Another fan of Latin here. Latin and German both help to understand the etymology of many English words (English being a mongrel language of mainly Romance and Germanic elements). It also helps understand the German grammar in particular (similar cases), as well helping you to think logically and methodically.

Actually agree that Latin would be more beneficial as a first language at primary school in the UK (than French, German or Spanish that is taught at the moment).

I share your doubts, OP. DD (y5) is being taught Latin in a kind of translation way, not that much speaking (Minimus course). There is obvious snobbery about it at times from some people involved, which strikes me as very silly (at best).

Whenever Dd needs help with her Latin I fall back on Spanish. I do that with unexpected great success (ie, I can figure out A LOT of Latin just by knowing English+Spanish well and a bit of French/Italian).

So in my mind Spanish would be superior to study, because it is so closely linked to Latin, anyway, and it is a living language that much of the world use. Learning Spanish also allows opportunities for the other things cited, like structure of language & culture, etc. However, Spanish is not on offer locally for under 17s, so I guess Latin is better than nothing.

English isn't that much of a mongrel - vocabulary, yes, and shifted grammatically towards an analytic language, so unlike both German and Latin. Latin v overrated as a help for English, I think.

Latin is useless, but so are most things learnt at private school.

The excessive gawd bothering at the school I attended was a waste of time. I am sure that God would rather that children were taught how to be nice to each other and put the gospel into practice (ie PHSCE) than hours and hours of tedious prayers.

I did it for 2 years and it has been no use to me whatsoever. I wish I'd been able to do Spanish instead.

My DS loathes it and can't wait to give it up (yr 8), but he's really good at french and spanish. I also hated it at school (had SUCH a boring teacher) but now I find it fascinating helping DS learn his latin vocab and spotting all the links with modern languages - I'm quite sorry he's giving it up actually!

when my dad was reading some very old parish records in his genealogical quest I was able to translate some of the notes for him. Other than that, not much use at all, but I quite enjoyed it. It may have increased the number of obscure English words I occasionally use too.

I loved it and excelled at it and also thought it was useless until I developed serious health issues and can now decipher a fair bit of doctor speak when I am in meetings with arrogant consultants who use terms and phrases they hope the patient can't decipher but I often can! Other than that no use at all day to day.

Latin doesn't really provide any skills that couldn't be obtained in other ways. However, and this will appeal to you Bonsoir, it does help build a number of different skills, at a deep level, at the same time.

It is that most beautiful of things; it is efficient.

wordfactory - but do you not think that those deep skills can be built even more deeply with proper, in depth learning of a MFL (and culture)?

What do you mean by efficient in this context?

How about Old Norse? More closely related to English, great literature - way more fun than lots of Latin stuff, v useful for history and if you go to Iceland and speak it you'll sound quaint but understandable.

I hated learning Latin but like knowing Latin, IYSWIM. I can still remember most of the declensions and verbs and it's years later. I love playing with words and the roots of words and it really helps. If I'd had a chance to do a bit of Greek too then I'd be in wordy-geek heaven.

It's also nice and logical and a great language for someone who is more of a mathmo/scientist.

Oh and I remember one of the Latin teachers telling us how it was a great language for sending telegrams when they were paid by word!

But what about all the words with non-Latin roots, moonbells? Will no-one think of them? It's discrimination, I tell ya.

Surely German best for telegrams in that case!

habbibu that's why I wish I had some Greek, too.

What gets me laughing is how English sometimes just does its own thing, just when you least expect it!

Fenestra (L) Fenêtre (Fr) Fenster (Ger) Finestra (It) Window!