<p>I want to take a language, and Latin seems awesome (it will be neat decoding, and whenever seeing an english word being like 'well it means X because Y mean Z')</p>
<p>Is it fun? Workload hard?</p>
<p>I took Latin for three years (including honors) and I thought it was rather fun. I even scored fairly well on the National Latin Exam.</p>
<p>The first year is mostly learning basic vocabulary and grammar rules. You’ll practice by translating passages about daily Roman life and traditions.</p>
<p>In my second year, we focused on translating more historical passages by advancing our vocabulary and learning more grammar skills. </p>
<p>Then my third year as a Latin student mostly consisted of translating classical works and practicing more for the National Latin Exam. My Latin teacher treated it as a Pre-AP course even though our school doesn’t offer it. </p>
<p>If you’re really interested in Latin and learning a classical language I suggest you go for it! </p>
<p>Latin is my least favorite and (probably) worst subject. Nonetheless, cramming last minute can get you a very good score on the NLE (I think I got a perfect, but the official scores aren’t back yet…)
I don’t like it because I always seem to get called on when I don’t know the answer. So I look stupid. I don’t like looking stupid.
Honestly, if you want to learn a language, choose between Latin, Spanish (if you live in the US, particularly the South), or French (another widely spoken language).</p>
<p>My son loves studying Latin and will soon take the AP exam. It has helped him teach himself Spanish and Italian and helped with computational linguistics. He may continue with it in college.</p>
<p>I’m in my fourth year of Latin and it is by far one of the most helpful classes I have ever taken - as well as one of my favorites. Latin is a very intriguing blend of what is an exploration of Latin language (vocabulary, grammatical rules, syntax), translation and analysis of Latin prose, poetry, and literature, and a study of the nuances of Greco-Roman culture and mythology. </p>
<p>To say that is has been of a great help to me in a variety of ways would be an understatement - Latin improved my style of writing, my control of grammar and syntax, and my English vocabulary - not to mention, it helped me tremendously in my history and social science courses - since the analysis of Roman political structures and military history often act as a framework for later happenings in history. Introductory political science courses will be tremendously easier if you have a solid understanding of how Roman government work - because there is a plethora of parallels. Similarly, when studying imperialism in the second half of the second millennium (1500 onward) - you’ll be familiar with many of the obstacles that the British Empire, the Spanish Empire, etc. will face because you’ll have been exposed to them in your study of Rome. </p>
<p>I’d highly recommend it - it’s always the course I recommend when incoming Frosh ask me what classes to take. </p>
<p>I’m pretty zealous about Latin… I can guarantee you that there <em>probably</em> wouldn’t be weird Latin geeks like me (at least not to the same degree) in your class - so don’t worry. Latin won’t make you a weirdo, LOL. </p>
<p>Yeah, a lot of upperclassmen at my school LOVE Latin…
Also, if you get college credit for Latin 4, you can usually get a minor in Latin with just another year of study in college (at least where I live and at our state flagship).</p>
<p>Why Latin? Why not Spanish? Spanish is useful. I can finally understand what those people on the bus are talking about. Well not really. Not yet.</p>
<p>@dsi411 - I’d say that Latin requires more complex/advanced thinking than the modern romance languages - while I completely agree that Spanish is more practical than Latin - the type of thought process required the detect noun cases, obscure verb forms, grammatical structures, themes in prose and poetry, etc carry over into critical thinking necessary for a variety of other subjects in English, natural sciences, social sciences, law, etc when it comes to Latin. </p>
<p>@DigitalKing - I hated Latin my Freshman and Sophomore year - I only really came to like it my Junior year. Weird. </p>
<p>@preamble1776 Hope that’s true! I want to like Latin, but I don’t like it yet…</p>
<p>@preamble1776 Eww I hate languages. Mostly hard languages. Spanish 1 is hard enough as it is. That sounds horrible to me. But we aren’t talking about me anyways!</p>
<p>@DigitalKing - I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that once you get past Latin II - everything is application; you aren’t trying to retain grammar rules and vocabulary anymore - you begin learning vocab and grammar in the context of a play/poem/speech/story which is a lot more interesting. </p>
<p>@preamble1776 Ah. Makes sense! The grammar is my least favorite part…</p>
<p>@dsi411 - One of the smartest people I know (he was accepted to three Ivy league schools + Stanford) cannot STAND foreign languages, LOL. He struggled terribly in basic Spanish and dropped it his second year, lol - he was able to understand the most abstract concepts in Calculus III and AP Physics C but could never remember basic vocabulary in Spanish. Haha, maybe your aversion to foreign languages is a sign of superior intelligence. 
</p>
<p>@preamble1776 Well I have an A in spanish, I just don’t like it. Trust me, if I were a genius I would know.</p>
<p>@dsi411 “Genius” is subjective! :)</p>
<p>I took Latin 1 last summer. My favorite parts of the class were the parts where we learned about Roman history and mythology. The grammar is quite a bit different than English or Spanish, but it’s not too perplexing. </p>
<p>Thank YOU GUYS SO MUCH, I am totally going to do Latin now!</p>