Lapsed Classicists

[TunipTheVegemal]

As mentioned on the Mary Beard thread.

My name is Tunip and it is twenty eight years since I last read a full-length piece of Latin or Greek literature.

However I am glowing at the discovery that I can still apparently translate 'What's your favourite biscuit?' into Latin.

Anyone else?

[Bilbobagginstummy]

I saw fozzleyplum mentioned Mr Hammond. He taught me Latin, too though sadly retired before I started the GCSE course. Quite unforgettable!
I still recall Latin fundays, the people who got six in their Latin tests, the Father Brown stories and the remarkable number of Gertrudes and Claribels there were in the form.

[RillaBlythe]

Only A level Latin here, but I love the idea of a refresher weekend!

[perceptionreality]

I studied Latin, NT Greek and Class Civ - so technically a lapsed classicist I guess.

[WingDefence]

Have you all seen that MN Academy has beaten us to it with this Latin with Mary Beard course...?

And 'only' £199

[WingDefence]

Hi all - how are the plans coming along? Sorry I've not been on here for a week or so!

I would love a grammar refresher as well :)

Floss I'm due to have DC2 early next April so that'll be two of us!

funcham that's great that you've already sounded someone out.

I also popped on here to share this really interesting story on the BBC website.

I did a module on Indo-European at uni and it was fascinating - wouldn't it be great to get involved in this project online?

[dotty2]

funchum8am - I'm not sure my Latin and Greek are good enough any more, but it's something to think about. I work in a completely different academic field now but recently read a sociology work for my PhD that referenced a work by my old classics tutor from Oxford and felt I had finally completed the circle. It was very satisfying.

[funchum8am]

dotty2 I have been thinking recently about setting up a business providing classics education for schools with no classics teachers. I can't do it myself as I don't want to give up teaching but I think there could be a market for someone who goes to schools to do both regular after school or lunchtime classes, and one-off sessions or days for schools who want to dabble. Maybe you could look into that next year?

suigeneris I am sure my tutor could sort out a reading - not sure whether to name him here or not! But he was definitely interested. He hosted a Classics in Comprehensives conference I helped organise last year, and is very generous with his time.

[dotty2]

Tunip - umm. Maybe. I didn't do LitHum, though but one of the Classics and something courses. What about you? (Am slightly nervous of mixing RL and MN, as you can probably tell.)

I am finishing a PhD this year and (I suspect) will be unemployed next year so maybe an after school Latin club might be just the thing.

[SuiGeneris]

funchum, that's brilliant. Love elegies and Virgil would both be something I'd be interested in: maybe we could try and organise a reading using the proper metric rhythms? It is something that I always found fascinating but know little about as, unfortunately, it was outside our syllabus (prosody and metric reading, that is, Virgil was def in).

[funchum8am]

I was in Oxford yesterday and met up with my tutor and he is happy to come along. Thinks the idea of a mumsnet classics weekend is brilliant. He is an expert in Latin love elegy, Ovid and Greek/Hellenistic verse but also great on Virgil. He is also in charge of the college wine cellar! I said when we have dates organised i'll let him know, hope that is ok.

[SirBoobAlot]

Raven, you can teach me if you want

[Flosshilde]

Sorry notnow didn't think!

Can the more advanced of you recommend a few things to read in translation so I can start getting into it? I have been into Blackwells in Cambridge many a time and seen all the Loebs but never known where to start.

[ravenAK]

oooh, can I join in too? Classics grad, now teach Latin to GCSE (but not this year, grrrr).

[notnowImreading]

Floss - spoiler alert! Naughty.

[MrsShrek3]

I'm like and at discovering this.... Can I come in please? I did A level Classics with post- o-level Latin and a small dabble of Greek now I fear forgotten, owing to extensive neglect. I've only read the last couple of pages of posts, must read more...

[LineRunner]

Hello, Floss, like you I 'gave up' Latin for other subjects but luckily was able to study it later.

[Flosshilde]

Hello all, I would tentatively like to join. I only have GCSE Latin (albeit an A* ) and did a bit of Greek at school as well at a lunchtime club. All nearly 20 years ago now. I loved it though and regret not taking A level Latin, instead opting for more 'sensible' choices.

I will be on maternity leave next summer so this is exactly the sort of thing I need to keep me sane. But it does mean I will need to bring a small baby along, likely to still be EBF.

Can we avoid Caecilius' death completely though as it still has the capacity to make me sob all these years later...

[funchum8am]

Great work for contactind Oxford issy sounds like it can be done very professionally. Maybe if we agree a rough programme of what we want to do, then use our pool of contacts to try and get the best university people we can eg Mary Beard etc.

I LOVE the idea of an MN group reading Medea!!! (who would we want to get in for that? Is there a Euripides expert out there?)

I could do a beginners' Greek class. We could make fairly swift progress if people had all done Latin previously.

[SirBoobAlot]

Dotty you should! I'd be over the moon if that was offered when DS was at primary school age. Kids are always more enthusiastic than adults about dead languages, I think.

[TunipTheVegemal]

Dotty I was Oxford early 90s too, we might know each other.

[dotty2]

Just spotted this thread - can I say hello? My name is dotty and I am a lapsed classicist. (Oxford, joint honours, early 1990s - more specific and I might out myself). I recently attempted to translate some obscure Renaissance Latin text for a colleague but gave up because it was too hard and had taken me hours and hours to do a few pages. I have thought about offering to run a primary Latin after school club at my DDs school but am too nervous in case no one came and/or the other parents thought I was barking.

[azazello]

SirBoob- I remember the JACT learning Greek books are very good.

I'd quite like a sort if book club thing- reading a Latin or Greek text and then talking about it but with someone who actually really knows what they're talking about. I still remember the mind-blowing lectures from Mary Beard and Philip Hardie at University. It would be very satisfying to do something like that!

I guess we might also want a nice dinner and possibly some wine.

Guided tour of some bits of the Ashmolean?

[SirBoobAlot]

Well I taught myself to read hieroglyphics, so it might take me a while, but would really like to get to grips with both Greek and Latin. I always wanted to, this has just made me think about it all again!

[notnowImreading]

If you're anything like me, you won't be able to read it in the original at first (I had a look the other day when this thread started and simply can't do it anymore) - I think it'll be quite laborious, looking up every other (or just every) word. Maybe read in translation and just do gobbets in Greek, rather than full text? Oh, it will be so lovely .

[TunipTheVegemal]

I think we need teachers a bit, to get us going and jolly us along a bit. I would love an initial grammar revision class, for instance.