Benefits of Studying Latin

[Nikolaos]

I tried to edit my post to qualify my stance as soon add I had posted it, but my connection failed. It isn't so much the similarity that helped, but the richness of word order and inflection that forced me to obtain a better understanding of many concepts.

Japanese has a flexible word order and some richness of inflection, but I think that Latin helped in ways that are more relevant to me trying to succeed in an English composition class.

 

[Arca Defectionis]

It does have to be conceded that Latin contributes to English vocabulary in a way no other language can, allowing one perhaps to write with a larger word bank (and to read some impenetrable prose from some of the wordiest and most pretentious Victorian authors! )

 

[EricDi]

Pacis puella said:

Knowing Latin is far from being necessary for practical purposes in life (at least it's not necessary for everyone to know it, except those whose jobs require it). Neither is it necessary for everyone to read medieval texts or study history.

It's not?

I get asked "Why? Are you a doctor or something?” Other than the obvious “yes” (or something), my answer is usually, "some people do sudoku..." It’s honest enough. Echoing Pacis puella above: I enjoy it. I just do. I liked grammar even in grade school; the logical bucketing and connecting of things, etc. ...liked blocks too.

I’ve struggled at a snail's pace toward the self-proclaimed grand old status of Third Year Latin student (almost…maybe; well, Second Year Latin), and what do I think now? I've known no language other than English (a year of this or that does not count) and I agree learning another language increases my appreciation and attention to my own; heck, it improves appreciation for communication and truth in general.

But why Latin...is it worth it?...Flat out yes. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading Caesar's Gallic Wars in his own words and style (especially that part about the Wickerman!); that is, even <important> works, that I would otherwise find boring, become interesting throughout, and I think that I understand them better. I look forward to scouring Biblia Sacra (granted, not original, but one wrapped in Latin for a long time; plus it is broken into smaller bites), Cicero de Legibus/Republica/Senectu and var.Orations, etc. Such a great deal of the young written history has been connected to Latin. For me there is a cultural/heritage link as well.

Also, it's enjoyable knowing that Latin still persists in the awareness of many people, and, yes, the mysterious flavor it retains in pop culture. I like this forum also. It has personality....and smilies.

On the negative side, Latin my composition English affected it has. (To others I say - too much Star Wars.)

As far as impact on English vocabulary and spelling. Well, my vocabulary peeked out in the eighth grade, and my spelling speaks for itself.

(P.S. My double spaces after periods keep disappearing...)

 

[Nooj]

I get asked "Why? Are you a doctor or something?” Other than the obvious “yes” (or something)

Some of my friends taking medicine say that they'd like to learn Latin in the belief that this would help them be better doctors. By no means would I dissuade them from this, if they were interested in the language itself. But I don't believe it would help their studies significantly and I actually believe it could be harmful if it took too much time away from what is already a very time-intensive thing.

I assume they use a lot of Latin words to describe the body, but it seems grossly excessive to learn an entire language in order to know what some very technical terms mean, things you won't be taught in 1st or 2nd or even 3rd year Latin nor will any of the textbooks that you can buy. Reading Ovid in a class will not help you to learn what this or that muscle is called in Latin.

In any case, doesn't English already have those Latin words and derive them as Latinate (but English) words?

As for people who found that Latin helped them better understand English grammar, that's wonderful but wouldn't that have been also the case if you learned...well, English grammar?

Latin is a very different language from English. If we didn't draw so many lexical roots from Latin, I think we'd find it a lot more foreign that it already is. And lexicon is just one branch of a language's grammar, we're not even getting into syntax. If a native English speaker asked me how they could be more consciously aware of their language use in terms of grammar, I'd recommend an English book for them, I wouldn't tell them to learn Latin.

 

[RKEM]

1) To stop regretting not having taken it in high school.
2) To know if spoken in tv shows and songs truly is Latin or nonsense. Given the "French" they sometimes put these, I suspect the Latin will be even more butchered.
3) The inflections fascinate me ... it gives lots of information with few words and translation feels like doing jigsaw puzzle.
4) Because it has a link to the 3 other languages I know.
5) Because the origins of certain words are downright hilarious.

 

[Pacifica]

Some of my friends taking medicine say that they'd like to learn Latin in the belief that this would help them be better doctors. By no means would I dissuade them from this, if they were interested in the language itself. But I don't believe it would help their studies significantly and I actually believe it could be harmful if it took too much time away from what is already a very time-intensive thing.

I assume they use a lot of Latin words to describe the body, but it seems grossly excessive to learn an entire language in order to know what some very technical terms mean, things you won't be taught in 1st or 2nd or even 3rd year Latin nor will any of the textbooks that you can buy. Reading Ovid in a class will not help you to learn what this or that muscle is called in Latin.

In any case, doesn't English already have those Latin words and derive them as Latinate (but English) words?

As for people who found that Latin helped them better understand English grammar, that's wonderful but wouldn't that have been also the case if you learned...well, English grammar?

Latin is a very different language from English. If we didn't draw so many lexical roots from Latin, I think we'd find it a lot more foreign that it already is. And lexicon is just one branch of a language's grammar, we're not even getting into syntax. If a native English speaker asked me how they could be more consciously aware of their language use in terms of grammar, I'd recommend an English book for them, I wouldn't tell them to learn Latin.

Of course you can get to know English grammar very well just by learning English grammar itself, no doubt. But I think that knowing another - or better still, several others - language helps you understand your own language even more deeply, by giving you something to compare it to. When you discover some "systems" in a language that are very different from the way your language work, you start thinking , comparing, and you discover things you had never paid attention to before. Of course learning a language other than Latin has that resut too (I learned English before Latin, and I already knew French better after that - even though even better now that I've studied Latin - but that's because Latin is learned in a very "grammatically structurated way", hence the bettering of my grammatical knowledge in general.) But the great advantage of Latin is that it's a "historical" language (direct ancestor of some modern ones, and less directly linked to many others) so if you learn it and then compare it to modern languages you know, additionally to the simple element of comparison that any language can give you, it gives you an "evolutionary" element of comparison, that is it gives you a little idea of the evolution and modifications undergone by languages on various points throughout time.
Of course all this is relevant only if you are interested in that kind of stuff! Otherwise, you can live very well without all this. And, I agree, no need to learn Latin to be a good doctor!

 

[Nooj]

by giving you something to compare it to. When you discover some "systems" in a language that are very different from the way your language work, you start thinking , comparing, and you discover things you had never paid attention to before.

I have a funny story about that. My heritage language is Korean. I'm not very good at it, in fact I almost wholly switched to English when I emigrated as a baby. I was talking to my Latin teacher back when I was in high school and I was telling him how strange it was that Latin word order could be SOV. And then he just asked casually 'but isn't that true for Korean as well?'. And I was dumbfounded. I didn't believe it until I wrote a Korean sentence down and realised that it was true. It took me 14 or so years to figure it out. Heh.

We could all stand to benefit from learning about languages, I agree.

 

[Nikolaos]

As for people who found that Latin helped them better understand English grammar, that's wonderful but wouldn't that have been also the case if you learned...well, English grammar?

Learn, and forget. That is how I did it. Latin drilled it in my skull, and it's not coming back out.

Edit: Not that I had a problem writing grammatical sentences. But, the ins and outs and technicalities never made sense.

 

[Pacifica]

I have also always been good at my own language's grammar and spelling. But before I was, let's say "instinctively" good. That is I just did it right naturally but without being aware of the whole intermost mechanism of it. I repeat myself, I know, but, again, learning other languages and especially Latin led me to awareness of many things. And I find it passionating.

 

[Nooj]

And I find it passionating.

I'm going to start using this word now. Brilliant.

 

[Pacifica]

Is there something wrong with that word...?

 

[Nooj]

Pas du tout. Well, it's not an English word, we don't combine the two concepts of passion + fascinating together, but we should! Since they go together so naturally.

It's like chillax from chill + relax, a word that I use sometimes.

 

[Pacifica]

Bloody hell, I really thought that word existed...!

However, I didn't mean to mix passion + fascinating... I meant like French "passionnant"... Something that gives you passion, that interests you a lot, that "passionates" you (so I guess the verb "to passionate" doesn't exist either... I thought it did), so "passionating"...

Well, I'm glad to see I invented a word without knowing it...

 

[Manus Correctrix]

It’s formidable! Passionating! Nickel! Terrible! Owl!

It’s cowly well, what!

 

[Arca Defectionis]

Haha, it's pretty funny to read "bloody hell" on these forums. Sort of a stereotype we have around here about British people, but I suppose it makes sense that other Europeans studying English learn it as well. (I wonder what sort of English is most taught in foreign countries....)

"Passionating" is a wonderful concept, one for which there isn't really a commonplace English word (and so must be expressed in multiple words). Although "passionate" does appear to be an English word: the example Wiktionary gives is "Great pleasure mixt with pittifull regard, / That godly King and Queene did passionate..." from Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene. Of course, nobody uses it today. There's also "impassion," though "impassioning" is really awkward as a standalone adjective.

Nevertheless, someday there will be a word for "passionating"; my favorite thing about English is its unrivaled capacity for stealing words from other languages, and for facilitating the coining of neologisms (a great majority of which die out). "Passionating" is a great idea, and may someday become commonplace, who knows! (Commonplace is, incidentally, another uniquely English word; although German has Gemeinplatz, it's a noun meaning, roughly, platitude, and not an adjective)

 

[Pacifica]

In French we have "lieu commun", which means the same thing.

(I wonder what sort of English is most taught in foreign countries....)

I think British English takes the major part, at least in basic level courses. Personally in the advanced level one I learnt about the major differences between BE and AE.

 

[Arca Defectionis]

I thought "lieu commun" was exclusively a noun. My bad.

 

[Pacifica]

No, no, it is a noun. I didn't mean the contrary.

 

[Iohannes Bellator]

• Latin allows one to particupate more fully and immediately in the ongoing discussion throughout the ages.
• And in my case, there are a few texts I really want to read which have not been translated, as far as I can tell, into English, but I can find them (thanks to archive.org and Google Books) in Latin.
• Plus, it will be incredibly fun when I am able to carry on a conversation in Latin. I like things that are useless but exquisitely beautiful.

 

[Kosmokrator]

Here is an Italian proverb which I find most truthful: traduttore, traditore (translator, traitor).

Never heard of it