I have always wanted to study these dead languages outside of school, but only have time for one, so I was wondering which one I should choose, and which would be more helpful, etc. Any info is highly appreciated!
Some courses integrate the two. This summer I took a dual-enrollment course at my local college that focused on Ancient Greek Literature and Latin in translation. Look into one of these outside of school and see if you could take Latin in school. To my knowledge, very few, if any, schools offer Ancient Greek.
@codemachine Haha yes that’s true, which is why I’m taking which one ever I choose out of school. And you can’t take Latin in my school until 10th grade, and my mother and father don’t want me to switch out of the class I’m currently taking (French)…
Then in my opinion, go with Latin. You don’t have to learn a new alphabet, there’s a history lesson tied into it, and it can help you immensely with the SAT CR section (so I’ve heard).
if you have any interest in the (biological) sciences, taxonomy is all Latin, so knowledge of Latin can help with learning/understanding. Not to mention english root words in general, as mentioned.
I would recommend Ancient Greek. There’s the fun of mastering a different alphabet, then the beginners’ texts are more interesting in my opinion, and so many literary and visual art works from the 16th century to the 18th century are based on Greek myths, plays, or stories!
Overall though for an after school subject, ancient Greek is just more fun.
And your parents are right: stick with French and get the highest level you can in it (level 4 or ap or college), it’s considered a core class for selective colleges.
I won’t directly answer the OP’s question, since I personally think that both are a waste, but that’s just me. However, I do need to add a point on the following:
I can’t imagine that this would be the deciding factor; learning the alphabet would take of couple hours at most. It’s not like learning Japanese.
Totally agree.
D didn’t study Latin until college, but is convinced that several semesters of Latin have made her a better writer. She has a much stronger understanding of English grammar and composition after learning Latin in depth.
Latin.
Study the one whose culture and literature interest you the most.
Thanks everyone! I’ll probably take Latin :)>-
Take Latin! I took two years of Latin in middle school, and although they were merely electives, they have helped me out a ton with vocabulary on standardized tests.
^ this is the dumbest reason for taking Latin. First, any student can’t learn prefixes and suffixes in a couple hours won’t do well on tests anyway . Second, most words with Latin roots have a common “sense” denominator with current English words but the Latin meaning may be quite different from the current one. Finally, any vocabulary-building Latin provides is achieved by learning a romance language (most notably French,) which shares about 50% vocab with English due the Normans in Britain being French originally and making the English courts speak French, considered superior to Saxon. In addition I assume OP is already studying a foreign language and just wants fun for the linguistically inclined. Neither has any practical implications unless one is aiming for a classics or history major with a PhD in ancient history down the line. Both have great literature - although, as I said, texts for the first year course are more interesting in Greek - and a fascinating civilization.