<p>Whoops! Freudian slip, no doubt.</p>
<p>My d. was an Italian Studies double major, and loved the department. She also took German (in preparation for graduate school), and it turned out to be terrific, though less intense than Italian. (But she got the equivalent of two years of credit at her Ivy graduate school for the one year of German she took at Smith.)</p>
<p>She ended up taking Italian serendipitiously. She took the French placement exam and, to her surprise, placed into the second year, so she decided to try something new. It was a fateful decision. Now she has three useful languages in grad school (though she still needs medieval Latin).</p>
<p>Mini, could you please refresh our memories? What graduate work is your daughter doing at Princeton? Early music? I’m not sure I’ve ever known precisely her interest.</p>
<p>I took Latin, and I highly recommend it (Maureen Ryan is one of my all-time favorite professors, hands down). If you need to take it just for background requirements, one year should suffice; it is a very intense course, and since you focus strictly on grammar and reading (very little speaking is done, though Maureen insists on more-or-less correct classical pronunciation), you get through A LOT. By the end of the year, you should have a pretty solid grasp of classical Latin. With the help of a dictionary, there is a lot that you can read.</p>
<p>My friend, who is a German Studies major, and I have compared our intro level classes, and we think that one year of Latin is equivalent to two years of German. This is probably not as true and scientific as it could be, but it makes sense given the foci of the two classes.</p>
<p>“Mini, could you please refresh our memories? What graduate work is your daughter doing at Princeton? Early music? I’m not sure I’ve ever known precisely her interest.”</p>
<p>Her major interest is 17th century Italian opera (the birth of opera). She is doing a dual degree in musicology/Italian Renaissance Studies. Her other interests tend toward earlier (though she does 20th Century Italian music as well.)</p>
<p>Thank you, Mini. What a wonderful, rich combination of studies! Language can lead into all kinds of directions that we’d never even dream of.</p>
<p>Agreed. I can get lost in several different languages and can’t sing well, according to some, in several as well.</p>
<p>===</p>
<p>LiT:
</p>
<p>Petit? Mais mon accent c’est grand, ou peut etre “grossier”, comme un vache Russe, n’est-ce pas?</p>
<p>My daughter would be happy to share her experience with the Spanish classes she took last year, as well as her impressions of the the professors, and department in general. </p>
<p>She tested out of the more elementary level classes, was one of the only first-years in the upper level classes she took. This presented an unexpected difficulty. The first-years register last so both semesters the Spanish classes she wanted were already full when it was her turn to register. Fortunately she was able to finagle her way into the classes by writing the professors, attending class, and remaining when other students dropped. </p>
<p>If you would like to talk to my daughter, send me a PM and I will put you in touch with her.</p>
<p>I have taken four years of Latin in high school, but it was done at a slower pace. Did you take the latin placement test or know anything about it? I want to continue Latin and take classical Greek. Do you think this would be too much on my plate?</p>
<p>If you’re considering something like a Classics major, I think they would assume that you’d be taking both Latin & Greek. Assuming you place out of the year-long Latin I, you can probably do both languages at the same time…I wouldn’t want to start both languages at once.</p>
<p>S is a classics major at Williams. Yes, Latin and Greek. Some Classical Studies Programs allow you to focus on just one language.</p>
<p>He had two AP’s in HS so he started on the highest level of Latin literature and is starting Greek.</p>
<p>Iheartbooks, I would email either Maureen Ryan (who teaches intro Latin) or Nancy Shumate (who teaches 212, Latin Prose & Poetry, which follows intro) with your questions.</p>
<p>Take everything you can with Maureen Ryan. Not that the other classics profs are bad-- I have no idea; but she is AMAZING. I took Latin I with her my senior year and if I’d done it earlier I would’ve been a Latin minor (you need Greek and Latin for the classics major but can minor in just one). </p>
<p>She is very nice and her class taught me to study in a way nothing else did…very helpful for law school and now for the (awful, utterly miserable, upcoming-very-soon) bar exam.</p>