Its essential if you want to get a 800 on the english part of the SAT.

GoodOmens: Its essential if you want to get a 800 on the english part of the SAT.

I take it you didn't?

whammer My mother has two copies of "The Cat in the Hat" in Latin.

Although they marketed it as a fun thing for old people who already knew Latin.(like my mother) D'oh.

pestochicken: coquus ancillam spectat. ancilla Grumionem delectat. Grumio ancillam delectat. Grumio est laetissimus.

Rock on, Cambridge Latin Course!

Year one, book one... the saga begins! I weep for all the sixth graders who will miss out.


I seriously loved the Cambridge Latin books. I actually feel a little cheated that I had to graduate high school before finding out what happened in the story.

/nerd
//had an awesome Latin teacher
///too bad I don't remember most of it
////Caecilius est in slashy.

Oh, please.. Latin is one of the easiest languages to learn, because it has rules, and it follows them.

Not only that, but once you know Latin, you have an easier time with the romance languages and even English.

Besides, I took 3 years of Latin, and it didn't hurt my gpa...

Latin was one of the best classes I took for understanding English - no other class I had taken really hammered in tenses and cases and all that quite like it. And even though it's not a descendant of Latin, English was heavily influenced by Latin in vocabulary (through French if not directly), so as an English nerd, it was great.

bo, bis, ibt. bimus, bitus, bunt
sum, es, est, sumus, estus, sunt

thank you, Sr. Paula, for entrenching that so deeply into my psyche that it will never come out. I remember my latin more than any other language learned since then (including Platonic Greek - I'm a nerd) Latin has helped me immensely with English and all the Romance languages. Unfortunately Sr Paula passed away my senior year of high school, but I do credit some small part of my 740 verbal SATs to Latin class (not bragging as I have been an underachiever since then)

lingua latina exsorbet, sed laetus cognoscere sum.

Meh, the grammar's probably off, but it's summer and I'm not in class. 3 years down, one to go. There were about 20 people in the Latin I class, 10 in Latin II, and 7 in Latin III. Should actually be a fairly large group next year since III/IV are combined.

Browsing through this, seeing all these people talking about how they're told NOT to take "hard" classes, it almost makes me glad I go to a private school where we get assigned a farkload of homework in 8 classes, we're limited to 3 study halls max, and there's still 3 required courses even at SR level.

Yeah, it's hard. But I'm actually learning something. And besides... my Latin teacher is so boring he makes himself fall asleep in the middle of class. Happens at least once a year.

Caesar si viveret...
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam.
Utinam barbari spatioum proprium tuum invadant.
Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure.
Unitam logica falsa tuam philosophiam totam suffodiant.

Et ob carro tuo:
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt.
Sic hoc adfixum in obice legere potes, et liberaliter educatus et nimis propinquus ades.

Heh. My husband and I were just talking about this the other night. As a homeschooler, I can add a language course to our curriculum a lot earlier than most public schools. I was actually considering a Latin course from Rosetta Stone. The only thing I'm worried about is starting them too young. My kids will be in K & 1st next year. I suppose you can never be too young though.

Via oriatur ut te occurrat.
Post te ventulus semper sit.
Blande pluvia in agrum cadat.
Et ad nos iterum obvire,
Deus te teneat, in cavo manus sui.

/Don't know why I thought of that.
//Hope it's right.

I wish my HS offered latin.....too far north I suppose...

Mother Smurfer

Good on you for wanting to teach the kiddies languages at an early age! As a college-level language instructor, I can tell you that, invariably, the ones who have early foreign language experience do better than those who try to pick up a second langauge later in life. K & 1st grade is absolutely perfect! What are you planning on teaching them?

We teach math and science and every other damn thing starting in grade school. Why on earth do we think that waiting until high school or college is a good idea for foreign languages?

Mater tua criceta fuit, et pater tuo redoluit bacarum sambucus.

I must be weird, I thought Latin was easier than other languages, but I pretty much sucked at all of them.

Here's a quick run down of my language academics:

French - F
German - F
Spanish - F
Latin - B-

Ended up taking one term each of French, German and Spanish. Took 2 years of Latin.

Learn more about Latin - http://la.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingua_latina

I took Latin all through high school and college. I loved it. Not only did it help me immensely with learning other languages it also helps discipline the brain to logical thought.
I work with teens in crisis now..... many of them have 5 study halls a day.... I see a future of adults in crisis!

Cogito ergo ervo sum.

Odi et amo...

I think the reason many people find Latin difficult is due to the fact that elementary schools barely teach grammar today.

When you actually know grammar, Latin is faily simple. But, when your knowledge of grammar is limited to the mere definitions of a noun, verb, adjective, and adverb, then Latin can be pretty daunting when realize that that nearly all the words in Latin will have a specific ending depending on their grammatical place in the sentence.

How do you expect kids to be able to tell the difference between ths indicative and subjunctive, or the perfect and imperfect, when they think verbs only come in three tenses (past, present, and future)?

The good thing about Latin... It is a great stepping stone to learn Sanskrit.

I consider myself very fortunate to have had the opportunity to take Latin in high school. Not only did I learn more about English in one year of Latin classes than I did in ten years of English classes, I found it challenging and interesting.

If it weren't for choir and Latin, I probably wouldn't have graduated with honors. Every other class bored me to tears and I resented the waste of my time. Fortunately, choir was the first class of the day and Latin was the last, so I decided that I might as well just stay there all day and go to the rest of my classes.

MatrixOutsider :I want to take Latin just so I can decipher what they are saying in devil movies. Dominus, spiritus, santus, indeed.

It's the lord's prayer.
IN NOMINE PATRIS ET FILII ET SPIRITUS SANCTI = In the name of the father, the son, and the holy ghost. If you were Catholic, you might know it.

-Is not catholic, or even religious, but did pass college latin. With much thanks to 11 years of publik skool french-

bellefromhell
I took three AP classes in high school (english language, govt, and US hist). I would have taken more but I got lazy Senior year. From my experiance and knowing the people that take AP classes, I can understand why homework is rarley given out. I just completed my first year of college and my AP classes mirrored college classes. To do good you had to show up and listen in class, take good notes, and read the book. Grades were made up of tests and papers. There were two classes in high school (AP Bio and AP Psyc) that gave out ridiculus amounts of homework (three-four hours of homework. My friends were in the class and instead of working hard and doing the work individualy they cheated by spliting the homework up and copied the work later (not a few kids were taking about the whole class). These kids were too concerned with their grade and didn't care if they learned anything. They just wanted to maintan a good GPA. So I can understand why a teacher would be relunctent to give out a grade for things people just will cheat at.
\and to Wammypants take all the AP classes you want
\\Even if you don't pass the test you will fill confident in the class later in college

Ego possum Latine loqui.

Ergo gaudeo propter multa haec responsa.

Multi inter vos temptatis simulare, de quo loquimini sapere, sed me credite: Non sapitis.

Credo vos temptare intelligentes apparere, ubi veritate non sapitis de quo loquimini.

Sic partitur mala informatio.

Si non cognoscetis quod dicitis, nolite sic simulare.

Quod multi Farcarii credent totum id quod legent.

SlowTimedRapid: Ego possum Latine loqui.

Ergo gaudeo propter multa haec responsa.

Multi inter vos temptatis simulare, de quo loquimini sapere, sed me credite: Non sapitis.

Credo vos temptare intelligentes apparere, ubi veritate non sapitis de quo loquimini.

Sic partitur mala informatio.

Si non cognoscetis quod dicitis, nolite sic simulare.

Quod multi Farcarii credent totum id quod legent.


Hahaha!:) Some people really do believe everything they read:)

People wonder why we are so horrible as a country in math and sciences.

Latin is why. Useless useless latin.

My wife teaches Latin, but I teach Latinos.

Student: Meefter, Meefter, I din't steal jour pen. I youst borrowed it.

Teacher: Out of my desk drawer?

Student: Nobody wasn't jusing it.

/Have 2 Jeorge Lopezes and one Carlos Mencia in one class.
//My job Rocks

semper ubi sub ubi.

\most practical application ive found for latin
\\3 yrs in HS, 2 PAINFUL semesters 4 yrs later in college
\\\latin sucks because no one teaches it conversationally
\\\\translate. translate. translate. rinse. wash. repeat.
\\great if youre a doc/priest. if not, take spanish.

All of your gall bladder is divided int three parts.....

ImJustaTraoll People wonder why we are so horrible as a country in math and sciences.

Latin is why. Useless useless latin.

Actually you are not just a troll, you are a sad strange little person and you have my pity.

Someone could very easily write a lengthy disertation on why you are so horribly wrong. I would add to your wrongness by stating that studyng Greek is a great idea too. But maybe you are right, I mean who would want to read...Aeshyclus, Homer, Horace, Josephus
Aristotle, Marcus Arrelius, Cicero, Plato, Julius Ceasar, Epictitus, Epicurus, Euclid (Geometry), Eurypides, Sophocles, Virgil, Ovid et al in their original languages.

It is too hard and.. oh hey, the Simpsons are on, gotta go....

took two years of latin.

would like those two years back.

Took two years of Latin. I would have taken 4 years, but they stopped teaching it. Most usefull class I ever took in High School.

To all those dissing the Lingua Latina: Combibo is!

MXMike

Uh, there's history, anthropology, archeology, linguistics and many other fields for someone that knows Latin.

It's a sad commentary on what people think of schooling when they rate subject matter based upon wether or not it's useful for making a lot of people. Sad the concept of learning for the sake of learning is lost on so many. And those same many or those that whine the loudest about bad schools. Cause meet effect.

making a lot of people money

preview is my friend

DodgerofZion

"Three non-consecutive years of Latin in HS"

How many years were you in high school, anyway?

olddinosaur
Duh, I speak four languages: English, Scotch, Irish and American.

Forgive me for being pedantic, but I assure you the information that I am about to share may one day help you or someone else avoid trouble.

Scotch is a beverage.
Scots are a people. It is also the name for their language.

Do not confuse the two.

Meh, I took Latin in highschool for one year but the asshats in my class kept interrupting the lessons so it was impossible to learn anything.

CENTURION:
What's this, then? 'Romanes Eunt Domus'? 'People called Romanes they go the house'?
BRIAN:
It-- it says, 'Romans, go home'.
CENTURION:
No, it doesn't. What's Latin for 'Roman'? Come on!
BRIAN:
Aah!
CENTURION:
Come on!
BRIAN:
'R-- Romanus'?
CENTURION:
Goes like...?
BRIAN:
'Annus'?
CENTURION:
Vocative plural of 'annus' is...?
BRIAN:
Eh. 'Anni'?
CENTURION:
'Romani'. 'Eunt'? What is 'eunt'?
BRIAN:
'Go'. Let--
CENTURION:
Conjugate the verb 'to go'.
BRIAN:
Uh. 'Ire'. Uh, 'eo'. 'Is'. 'It'. 'Imus'. 'Itis'. 'Eunt'.
CENTURION:
So 'eunt' is...?
BRIAN:
Ah, huh, third person plural, uh, present indicative. Uh, 'they go'.
CENTURION:
But 'Romans, go home' is an order, so you must use the...?
BRIAN:
The... imperative!
CENTURION:
Which is...?
BRIAN:
Umm! Oh. Oh. Um, 'i'. 'I'!
CENTURION:
How many Romans?
BRIAN:
Ah! 'I'-- Plural. Plural. 'Ite'. 'Ite'.
CENTURION:
'Ite'.
BRIAN:
Ah. Eh.
CENTURION:
'Domus'?
BRIAN:
Eh.
CENTURION:
Nominative?
BRIAN:
Oh.
CENTURION:
'Go home'? This is motion towards. Isn't it, boy?
BRIAN:
Ah. Ah, dative, sir! Ahh! No, not dative! Not the dative, sir! No! Ah! Oh, the... accusative! Accusative! Ah! 'Domum', sir! 'Ad domum'! Ah! Oooh! Ah!
CENTURION:
Except that 'domus' takes the...?
BRIAN:
The locative, sir!
CENTURION:
Which is...?!
BRIAN:
'Domum'.
CENTURION:
'Domum'.
BRIAN:
Aaah! Ah.
CENTURION:
'Um'. Understand?
BRIAN:
Yes, sir.
CENTURION:
Now, write it out a hundred times.
BRIAN:
Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Hail Caesar, sir.
CENTURION:
Hail Caesar. If it's not done by sunrise, I'll cut your balls off.

Latin is _not_ useless. Want the real useless study? Gaelic. In my undergrad I knew tons of anglophiles who studied Gaelic. I can't think of a skill that you are less likely to apply in life.

And I figure schools have enough trouble making sure that the science students know calculus before they walk out the door. Stop trying to figure out clever multimedia ways to teach and knuckle down.

Five years of Latin.

My brain still hurts.

Pretty much any foreign language you study will help you understand your own language better. Other than a higher SAT score, I'm not sure why I'd favor Latin over a living language. For historical interest, French and German had direct influences on English. Spanish is immensely useful today. Arabic and Hindi are likely to become increasingly useful in the future.

Nemo me impune laecessit

The most useful thing about learning Latin is that the rigid structure makes one think more intelligently about their English, and therefore makes one look like less of an asshat.

tu es foedus leno

4 years of latin and all I remember is how to say "You are a smelly pimp"

Bill Macguire: Uhhhh....four. Going into my fourth year of college now.

/why do people attack my education so?

I had wanted to take creative writing in high school, but they didn't offer it to students until sophmore year and because of all the precollege courses I was taking I couldn't take it until senior year. At the end of my sophmore year, my gudiance councelor asked me what courses I wanted to take. When I mentioned the creative writing class she shook her head. She then proceeded to tell me what a big mistake that would be since I was taking all these other hard classes and that my tiny brain would probably explode if I added CW to my schedual since this was a course geared more toward gifted students. Like a fool, I took her advice. My senior year, I had a nervous break down and nearly dropped out of school entirely, not because my tiny brain couldn't handle the work, but because I had forced myself to take hard classes that I had no interest in. I ended up dropping most of them for easier classes just so I could graduate and get it over with. Unfortunately, by that time it was too late to take that writing class. The ironic part in all of this is that I opted out of college. I often wonder if things would have been different if I had just taken that one class I really wanted.

The moral of this story: Guidance councelors are guidance councelors for a reason; they're too stupid to get a real job.