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I think I generally know why the majority of people in USA believing in classical education want to incorporate Latin into their curriculum (grammar, vocabulary), but...

 

why Latin?:001_huh:

 

I am from Europe and we do have 2 foreign languages in school (starting usually in 5th and 9t grades when I was a pupil, but now starting much earlier), but Latin was not something we would study as a language of choice, simply because, it was not useful. It was much more reasonable to study other then yours European languages.

 

Latin shows up in college, as for many professions it is required to have a basic understanding of it, but even then, it would be narrowed to basics plus to the vocabulary in that field (except few vocations like priesthood, classical studies etc). I had 1 year of Latin in Theological University and some in Nursing School. But I can't read Cicero :tongue_smilie: (I mean, I can read it, but how much would I understand?)

 

So...why not learn Spanish and German, French and Chinese, Russian and Italian right away, not after studying Latin for number of years?

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I think I generally know why the majority of people in USA believing in classical education want to incorporate Latin into their curriculum (grammar, vocabulary), but...

 

why Latin?:001_huh:

 

I am from Europe and we do have 2 foreign languages in school (starting usually in 5th and 9t grades when I was a pupil, but now starting much earlier), but Latin was not something we would study as a language of choice, simply because, it was not useful. It was much more reasonable to study other then yours European languages.

 

Latin shows up in college, as for many professions it is required to have a basic understanding of it, but even then, it would be narrowed to basics plus to the vocabulary in that field (except few vocations like priesthood, classical studies etc). I had 1 year of Latin in Theological University and some in Nursing School. But I can't read Cicero :tongue_smilie: (I mean, I can read it, but how much would I understand?)

 

So...why not learn Spanish and German, French and Chinese, Russian and Italian right away, not after studying Latin for number of years?

 

 

We study Latin because more than 50% of the English language is Latin based. Spanish is about 90% Latin and that is our foreign language choice. I can't remember where I read these statistics, but if I find the source, I will link it for you.

 

Our study of Latin has helped my kids with their English grammar. Don't know why, but it has.

 

I don't know about in Europe, but in the US we have the SAT tests. A knowledge of Latin helps with the vocabulary/reading portion of the test. When I was in high school, we did not study Latin. Instead we spent huge chunks of English learning Latin vocabulary and derivatives to prepare for the SATs.

 

Oh, and we study Latin because my kids think it's cool to learn a "dead language". :D

 

 

ETA: If you'll search "Latin", you'll find much better reasons than I have provided. There are also a lot of Latin threads on the K-8 forum. HTH!

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I agree with the first reply. It really helps with English Grammar! Plus, so many languages and modern scientific terminology are rooted in Latin. It is also a relatively easy language to learn and helps "train the brain" for future language learning opportunities!

 

Plus, it makes other kids think your kid is super smart!;) Just for fun!

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Latin is awesome. I went to public school for high school and took it there.

 

I think it helps with understanding English grammar, too. It's a great exercise for the brain. English and many other languages have latin roots (even though English is considered Germanic).

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I studied Latin in junior high and then went on to study a variety of non-Romance languages like Arabic, Russian, Persian, and various Turkic languages. Even for me, studying Latin was useful because it helped me learn how languages work. My husband, who's learned these languages too, has struggled at times because he's only now paying attention to grammar (although he's much better at learning vocab than I am). It just is useful to know how dative works, or what second person singular means when you're learning another language. Of course these things can be learned by studying English grammar or any other language, but with Latin, you cover a lot of grammar (so helpful with Russian!) and you also don't have to worry about talking to anyone. I look at it as a basic how-languages-work course.

 

I don't plan to have my children do more than 2 or 3 years of Latin, and they've started on Russian and Persian already, but I think Latin is well worth our time.

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Dorothy Sayers said that studying Latin first would make learning any other Latin-based language much easier (by about half). So if you believe her, then Latin at a young age will make it far simpler to learn Italian, French, Spanish, etc. and also the older languages such as Old French.

 

I speak Danish fluently, and have studied some German and some Russian. I have to say that I thought the study of Latin was just a completely weird idea, and only tried a little bit for the heck of it to see what happened. I had learned so much within a couple of months that I was totally convinced--I wish I'd studied Latin before tackling all those other languages.

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I do both. We start with modern foreign languages, when young children are receptive to living languages. We do Latin later for the brain training and the increased understanding of English and other languages that it brings. This is what my children have been doing:

 

Calvin: Latin from age 6 (very casually because he was interested); Mandarin by immersion from age 7; Latin more intensively from about age 9; French from age 12.

 

Hobbes: Mandarin by immersion from age 4; Ancient Greek (casually, because he wanted to) from age 7; French from age 8; (planned) Latin from age 9. He also wants to study Arabic, but I'm leaving that for him to take up at university if he wishes.

 

Best wishes

 

Laura

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We study Latin because more than 50% of the English language is Latin based. Spanish is about 90% Latin and that is our foreign language choice. I can't remember where I read these statistics, but if I find the source, I will link it for you.

 

Our study of Latin has helped my kids with their English grammar. Don't know why, but it has.

 

I don't know about in Europe, but in the US we have the SAT tests. A knowledge of Latin helps with the vocabulary/reading portion of the test. When I was in high school, we did not study Latin. Instead we spent huge chunks of English learning Latin vocabulary and derivatives to prepare for the SATs.

 

Oh, and we study Latin because my kids think it's cool to learn a "dead language". :D

 

 

I found here that about 28% English vocabulary comes from Latin and 28% from French, which is still pretty big chunks...if you would have that link about 50%, let me know...

 

so...why not learn Latin for three years and French for the next four?

 

As for the vocabulary part, I am intrigued by it also, and I even posted a question about it here, because I don't quite get it.

 

Maybe you can convince my kids to learn a dead language? :) They want Polish, Russian, Chinese, maybe Arabic, but Latin?????!!!!

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I've seen an even better list of reasons somewhere, but couldn't find it. This one is pretty good:

 

http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/whystudyclassics/a/whystudylatin.htm

 

According to M.K. Henry in "Unlocking Literacy,"

 

The great majority of English words come from Anglo-Saxon, Romance (primarily Latin), and Greek origins. Brown (1947) noted that 80% of English words borrowed from other languages come from Latin and Greek and make up 60% of words used in text. By receiving instruction in all of the components in this framework, students will learn the significant patterns found in English words.

 

When I've looked up words in the dictionary, many of them list both Latin and French roots, and some will have 5 or 6 similar roots from various romance languages and Old English.

 

I think somewhere that M.K. Henry notes that pure French roots are around 2% of English, or I may have seen it elsewhere, I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure I saw that number somewhere reputable.

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Another thing I gained from public high school Latin (many years ago!) was the Greek and Roman history that we didn't have a lot of time to cover in social studies, the way social studies was organized at that time.

 

If you're already spending a year on the Ancients at each of the three stages, it's just a nice tie-in, but if (like me) you've missed out on the Ancients except for two months in 10th grade, the culture part of a Latin course is a great benefit.

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Here's my heretical response. I incline toward the OP's view. Learning ANY inflected language facilitates learning other languages. Begin with Latin if one wishes, but don't feel obligated to do so.

 

My own experience was to become bilingual (Spanish/English) by the end of high school. (Was blessed with a phenomenal high school teacher.) Then took two years of Latin in college, and a graduate school reading course in German. When I reached graduate school later on, Russian was straightforward because of the earlier studies.

 

Years ago, I was reading that the only reason for the claim that studying Latin facilitates the study of English grammar is that, at some stage -- and I don't recall when that was -- English teaching consciously "force-fit" the English language into the schema for Latin grammar. It was an artificial scheme from the beginning.

 

At any rate, I like the approach of honoring the "spirit" of classical education philosophy, rather than inflexibly following "the law".

 

(I guess I have to resign from these fora now ?!)

 

P.S. I wasn't disagreeing about the value of studying Latin and Greek "roots" as a great aid to learning Emglish vocabulary -- just was sharing a read observation about grammar study misconceptions.

Edited by Orthodox6
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