Latin, written off as a dead language by trendy teachers in the 1970s, is staging a quiet comeback, according to the New York Times.
Apparently a new generation is learning what the pre-Boomer set already knew: Latin is a great way to build an English-language vocabulary and to teach grammar. One might know the parts of speech in English intuitively, because one speaks English all of the time, but learn a bit of Latin and you end up knowing a lot more about how English works. That is valuable for any one reads and writes.
Plus, learning about the ancient culture of Rome leads students into an understanding of one of the three main pillars of Western Civilization. (The other two being the cultures of the Jews and the Greeks).
Interestingly, the quiet Latin rennaisance is happening is remote rural areas, up-and-coming suburbs and inner-city charter schools, accoding to the New York Times. It is not happening in Berkeley or Manhattan’s tony Upper West Side. There is a story there too, I’d bet.
PJM Home
Disinformation : 22 Media Myths That Undermine the War on Terror
Shadow War: The Untold Story of How Bush Is Winning the War on Terror
Losing Bin Laden: How Bill Clinton’s Failures Unleashed Global Terror
The Myth of Market Share: Why Market Share Is the Fool’s Gold of Business
Pajamas Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:
1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.
2. Stay on topic.
3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.
4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.
5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.
The clause regarding "hate speech" has been deleted because readers criticized it as being too loosely defined. We agreed.
These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that Pajamas Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pajamasmedia.com.
7 Comments
1. 11B40:Greetings:
I’m a recovering Latin student and agree totally with the benefits of its study. Back in the Bronx of the ’50s and ’60s, I was prepped during my time as an altar boy and then had two years of formal study in high school. I particularly enjoyed Rome’s military history.
Oct 7, 2008 - 6:27 pm 2. heather:I am waiting for the day when the gigantic libraries hoarded by the big universities are all digitized, along with their archives. These are the only reasons to pay any attention to the so-called ‘universities’, at least in the humanities and social sciences. I can see the B of Arts, etc replaced by Certifications of various kinds. Professors will be entrepreneurs, working to attract and keep students so as to make a living… just as they did back in Medieval Paris.
Freedom!
Oct 8, 2008 - 12:04 am 3. Mithridates:I think the next step for Latin to become relevant again is to start appearing in certain areas of daily life so that people start to notice it again. I have next to me for example a box of Weetabix Minis with the ingredients written in 13 languages from English to Arabic, and there’s room left over on the side of the box for about another two. There should be an organization (if there isn’t one already) that provides free translations for small things like that.
Then in signs like this as well:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Wallsend_platfom_2_02.jpg
A lot of municipalities and companies wouldn’t mind having some Latin somewhere on their signs or products but aren’t willing to pay anything for it, so that’s why it should be free. I’m sure the people at the Latin Wikipedia would be willing to do something like that too since a lot of them are into reviving the language.
Oct 8, 2008 - 5:00 am 4. Carl Sesar:I cordially invite readers of this blog to listen to “Catullus Alive!” – a sampling of poems excerpted from an archival recording of a reading of my translations of the erotic and satirical ancient Roman poet Gaius Valerius Catullus, which I gave at Wesleyan University way back in May, 1973. Time: approximately 15 minutes. Go to the link::
http://www.demosnews.com/piece.php?3.46
Oct 8, 2008 - 3:45 pm 5. morton from vienna:So when a person of color engages in his native tongue, and it is beinaught in schools, why do you fascists protest? I refer, of course, to Ebonics. Now you are trying to popularize an extinct language which no one speaks and suppress a language that is spoken by all men of color all over the world.
Oct 9, 2008 - 9:02 am 6. Joe Agnes Sorrell:What are you wasting our time for about ebonics. Uneducated heathens such as urself babble in ebonics. Go write a textbook and then come back and talk about it you swine. I always read your horrible comments on this enlightened blog and I just could no longer contain myself. I don’t protest that a language is taught, I protest that people like you want to stupify my kids to the menial level of intelligence that you and your kids have.
Oct 9, 2008 - 9:11 am 7. Evan:I always advocate studying another language to people. It’s an asset to anyone who wishes to enhance their intellectuality and interactive opportunities with other cultures. Despite that fact that Latin is the root language of a variety of others existing today, I think it would benefit people more for them to study a language that has more practical and immediate applications.
Evan
Oct 10, 2008 - 6:42 amhttp://www.beyondrace.com