<p>I just ended my first semester and I'm relatively satisfied with how it turned out. 14 Semester Hours: 1 A-, 2 A's... and a C in Latin I. ~3.4 GPA (I'm not pre-med, pre-law, i-banking, etc. I'm actually pre-social-work.)</p>
<p>I just have no idea what's going on in Latin. It never made any sense to me! My Latin professor is encouraging me to take Latin II, but I'm afraid I'm just going to be lost. I can't participate in class because I can't translate fast enough and participation is 20% of the final grade. My professor is brilliant and overestimates others' abilities. He encouraged me to catch up over the break, but I'm taking an interim class in my major and don't have a lot of time.</p>
<p>My college requires two semesters of the same foreign language. Should I just take a different foreign language later, or should I try to catch up in Latin in the next semester or two and then take Latin II?</p>
<p>I have studied Latin, French, and Spanish for some amount of time. (Latin for four years, French for seven, and Spanish for six).</p>
<p>I always had the most difficulty with Latin and that’s just because the grammar is very different from modern English grammar. It’s way more complex. The language that you need to know as far as vocabulary is also very different. You’re likely to learn the word ‘slave’ before you are to learn colors.</p>
<p>If you think you’re going to struggle with it, I’d go for trying to learn Spanish or French. I personally am biased towards French, but I also think it isn’t that difficult for an English learner to learn. I’ve heard it’s more difficult than Spanish, but I think it really just depends on the person. There are so many cognates between French and English that the vocabulary isn’t very difficult. The grammar is much more similar to ours.</p>
<p>You really might want to start fresh with a new language.</p>
<p>And also, if you’re going into Social Work, then wouldn’t Spanish probably be a good idea moreso than Latin?</p>
<p>I think the answer probably depends on why you’re taking Latin in the first place. I took French throughout middle and high school and college, and then added Latin in college because I was a Medieval studies major, and you can’t study medieval Europe without a good grasp of Latin. </p>
<p>Latin is a HARD language, and the first year or so is a lot of memorization. Words aren’t where you expect them to be, and you have to think through countless endings for practically every word in order to find out what it’s doing in a sentence. I loved Latin, but I had a reason for studying it, and I pushed through because I knew that one day I was going to read 9th century chronicles in their original language. If you don’t have a goal like that, I don’t know if it’ll be worth it to continue.</p>
<p>(That being said, Latin is nice in that you only have to learn to read; any other non-dead language will also require you to learn how to speak and write, two things which are quite difficult.)</p>
<p>If you want to try another language, I agree that French and Spanish are relatively easy and have plenty of cognates and simpler grammar.</p>
<p>However, if you do want to continue Latin, I wouldn’t put it off for a couple of semesters. I had a year gap between my four semesters of Classical Latin and my two semesters of Medieval Latin, and I had to reteach myself the basics. Unless you can really commit to studying it in the off time, you risk forgetting everything you’ve learned.</p>
<p>I agree with AUgirl. Latin is tough, your primary access to the language is through reading and writing. Much of the reading is also very dense. </p>
<p>Learning modern languages, on the other hand, includes all sorts of communication. French classes might involve conversational work with your peers, your TA, and your instructors. You can go on YouTube and listen to french music. There’s also the real-world possibilities of speaking French to native speakers, visiting a french-speaking country (I believe there’s about 30), reading a French-language newspaper, or using networks like LiveMocha.com which allow you to interact with other learners purely in French.</p>
<p>I would also encourage you to look at less-popular languages. Portuguese, for example, is a growing language that gets less attention than Spanish and French. That means smaller classes and an attention-getting word for your resume. </p>
<p>To be up-front, I work for a language immersion program affiliated with Middlebury College. Latin can be rewarding but many of our students, who started as reluctant language learners, become addicted to the “light-bulb” moments involved in becoming proficient. If you’re at all interested in how these programs go, there’s a lot of information online at [Middlebury-Monterey</a> Language Academy | Language immersion program on college campuses](<a href=“http://mmla.middlebury.edu%5DMiddlebury-Monterey”>http://mmla.middlebury.edu) and [url=<a href=“http://www.middlebury.edu%5DMiddlebury%5B/url”>http://www.middlebury.edu]Middlebury[/url</a>]</p>
<p>If you made a C in the class and were totally lost, then moving forward probably isn’t the best idea. If you don’t love the language, it might be a better idea to switch to another one that’s easier. </p>
<p>If you’re really determined to keep with Latin, you can try doing internet exercises and finding easy things to practice with over the break, and maybe retake this last semesters class to get a firmer base in the language.</p>
<p>I am also a first-year and I took an Ancient Greek intro class during the fall semester. I had a really similar experience to you in that it took me a long time to figure out what was going on.</p>
<p>I agree with the others that continuing depends on how much you like Latin. Once I put in enough time to memorize all of the Greek forms, I realized that I really like how the Greek language works and the kind of stuff you can translate. But if you don’t especially like Latin over other languages, then the amount of time you would have to put in is probably not worth it.</p>
<p>I think a lot of it depends on how your brain works. For example, I took Spanish when I was younger, but even though most people think it’s easier it just didn’t click with the way I think. Somehow, Greek clicks with the way I think more.</p>
<p>If you do want to continue Latin, I would definitely suggest reviewing the first semester’s material over a break in the future (next summer? next winter break?) before you take Latin II rather than taking it next semester. That’s what I did at the end of this semester and during Winter Break right now, and I’m just starting to figure out how declensions actually work haha.</p>