<p>Yay Latin! After 5 years of taking it, it has helped me so much with other diciplines, especially English. I am very confident in my English grammar now and have figured out many vocab words through Latin roots. It also made Spanish very easy to learn and having taken Latin I was able to skip straight into Spanish 2 without having to take an introductory level course.</p>
<p>Latin may not be directly applicable to money-grubbing investment bankers in-training, or whatever you practical people want to do when you grow up, but for those of us who actually want to be able to think when we get out of school, Latin is a perfectly useful subject. That's what classics does. It trains you to think in a certain way. You learn, not only what greek orators said, but you learn the subtleties of persuasion. You see language in a completely different way, and are able to think, speak, and write much more clearly. And also, ancient languages force you to know grammar backwards and forwards (at least, advanced translation does), and that, at any rate, will help you acquire other modern languages, including your native one. Most people don't know a speck of English grammar, but after learning Latin grammar, it applies to English as well.</p>
<p>yeah i totally understand about what you guys are saying about latin. In my previous posts... i was just trying to stir up some controversy in here. Makes things more interesting to see both sides doesnt it?</p>
<p>Ha! I've solved both problems... I take Chinese AND Latin and my personal opinion is that Latin is much more difficult to learn and understand (the Chinese don't have real verb tenses).</p>
<p>I don't mean to be pretentious, but I agree with you irock - latin is pretty easy. (I can't say the same for Classical Greek.) And Chinese and Japanese are definitely the hardest languages for westerners today. and sure Latin isn't that useful. sure nobody cares how much Pliny you've read. sure nobody even knows who Pliny is. But what is the "real" world? explain to me why it is better to live in this "real" world than to immerse yourself in something you are truly devoted to, something you are truly passionate about. Explain what is in that "real world" to live for EXCEPT true passion? Why fill your life with something meaningless? Nobody's ditching their wife for Sappho; nobody's going on welfare to read the Aeneid! Actually classicists CAN get jobs, albeit badly-paying ones if they don't think ahead, and the exact same ones you're aspiring to if they do. How many bio/classics double majors have I seen on these boards? The only people who actually do Latin for an unrelated motive, e.g. to be smarter or do well on their SATs are largely unsuccessful. 75% of my Latin I class was there for the SATs and 75% dropped out after a year. And I see your point about other great books, but a lot of the real classics devotees I know are also interested in reading other ancient and modern languages. by the way, I actually CAN read Canterbury Tales and Beowulf in the original. And I can tell you people do NOT learn these things to seem superior. (they do talk about learning them for that reason though! maybe you've just got a bunch of snobs at your school...) note: Less than 5% of students in the US learn Latin, so your argument about Chinese/Koreans is moot. Not to fall back on the SAT argument, but studies show that Latin students on average score 100 pts. higher on the verbal section than others, though this could be due to districts that already offer adequate English prep being more likely to offer Latin.</p>
<p>(ohh just saw your last post. oh well)</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>Society can survive without Latin, but society cannot survive without science and art<<</p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>Society can survive without Latin? What alphabet did you just use to write that post? (Hint: it wasn't Greek, Hebrew, Phoenician, or Chinese). If the Latin language and alphabet disappeared tomorrow, society would be hurtin' bad for long, long time.</p>
<p>Mortua lingua sola est bona.
"The only good language is a dead language."</p>
<p>omg...i knew someone was going to post that. Notice that I used the present form of the verb "can". you're a latin scholar i presume?...you should know this.</p>
<p>so it is given that i am talking about TODAY, NOT 2000 YEARS AGO IN ANCIENT ROME.</p>
<p>I appreciate learning any language. But I don't think that Latin is superior to any other language. I got an 800 Writing and 750 Verbal without benefit of Latin. Do I think it's a dead language? Yes and no. Yes in that it's not really widely used, and no in that learning it helps in fields like law, medicine and such. I'm a German student (German's extremely difficult when it comes to verb tenses), and I think learning a second language benefits anyone, no matter what the language is. I think the OP should be applauded for making such a commitment. But I have a problem with anyone having "language superiority."</p>