Why would we need Latin if we're going to study Spanish?

[Linda...inOwasso]

The only language I ever learned was English. I took 2 years of French in college because I had to, but that's been some time ago and I haven't retained any of it.

 

I've read some of the articles on the Memoria Press website regarding the importance of studying Latin and it makes perfect sense to me. However, wouldn't you get the same benefits from studying Spanish?!

 

What makes studying Latin better than studying a practical language that you intend to use?

 

Thanks so much!!

[angela in ohio]

The benefits of Latin come because (1.) it is an inflected language, and (2.) it is the foundation of the majority of English words. Neither of these is true of Spanish.

 

On a practical side, a language like Spanish needs to be taught with a native speaker and/or a group to practice speaking. There is no correct latin accent to get. :D

 

If you do teach Latin, and then go into Spanish later, it will seem ridiculously easy. I did this in high school and breezed through Spanish then and into college. Latin lays an excellent foundation.

[klmama]

I think learning Latin is a great idea, but I think learning a spoken language first is fine, too. Some people just don't have an "ear" for language, so the sooner they are exposed, the more likely they will be able to get the accent. Accent doesn't matter much for Latin, despite the big debate over ecclesiastical vs. classical pronunciation. Honestly, I would do whatever will get done at your house! If you do Latin first, Spanish will be easier later, as it is Latin-based and isn't as complicated. If you do Spanish first, Latin will be easier later because the words will be similar. Your call.

[Susie in CA]

Linda,

 

I agree that studying any language is great!! I am in the camp of "which language doesn't matter much" people. If you have the desire and resources to work on an existing language go for it. Spanish would be the choice for most people where we live because it is easy to find books, cd's, movies and people - all of which can help you learn.

 

If, however, you do not speak the language and have very limited resources to practice a living language you may be better off studying latin. Latin doesn't need to be kept alive because - well - it's a dead language. :)

 

We are currently studying German because I am a native speaker. And all of the things that people on this board discuss about the importance of studying Latin does apply to us with German as well. We are discussing grammar and comparing it to English, we are discussing spelling and comparing that to English, we are translating and I suppose their are old written works we will eventually read throug. I know, they are not ancient, but still old enough in my book.

 

IMHO, you can accomplish the same things by studying a modern language that you accomplish by studying Latin. The major difficulty is gaining fluency which, of course, you don't need in Latin.

 

All this to say that some of the decision is about preference and some (or a lot) of it is about resources.

 

Susie

[Reya]

The vast majority of Spanish words give you the same kind of root awareness that you'd get from Latin. But there are a number of common words that are quite different. We're doing Spanish first, as the more important language, and are adding Latin lite later.

 

We're studying Latin because it makes reading historical and philosophical works much easier, plus is easiest to do an explicit study of roots through a Latin program.

 

You're going to hear a LOT of poor and/or fallacious arguments about studying Latin. Most of them sound good. The problem is that they're wrong. The idea that declining nouns is some sort of great exercise in Logic and Thought or whatever else or that Latin is particularly "logical" is just silly. Go tell this to a linguist and watch him foam at the mouth for a few hours if you're the type who gets a kick out of kicking over anthills! English does not "get its grammar" from Latin--we borrowed Latin TERMS but not our syntax, for goodness sake. And most of our "Latin" words came to us through French--if you really care about the source of our words, study French and not Latin!

[LilyK]

"

We're doing Spanish first, as the more important language, and are adding Latin lite later. "

 

 

I agree that Spanish is the most important language, and we will be taking a similar route.

 

But as someone in the health field, I did want to add that Latin is helpful there. Especially with Anatomy.

[dalynnrmc]

Our plan:

 

My littles start out studying ASL in K and 1st, because it has been and is needed on a speech indications level. We then study conversational Spanish in 2nd and 3rd, because we are in south Texas and need to use some basic Spanish almost daily. We begin a 3 year Latin study in the 4th grade, as an intense language study before beginning intense Spanish study in junior high. High school is reserved for elective languages.

 

Why Latin? Roots, science, and ease of learning other languages. My own personal reasons there; they just make sense to me. Plus, we happen to have a lot of free Latin resources available to us. We use what we can get! ;)

[rafiki]

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[Linda...inOwasso]

Dayln,

 

What is ASL? I have heard so many stories from friends of older children (than mine) say that their child took 3 or 4 years of Spanish and cannot speak it! That's what actually got me thinking that perhaps if I really wanted my children to LEARN a language (read, write & speak it) then maybe I should focus more on THAT language.

 

And conversational Spanish... what exactly is that? Do the dc hear it spoken every day? If my dc had a 1 hour class daily with a native Spanish speaker would that be enough? How much do they need in order to pick it up (like they do English) by hearing others speak it?

 

My oldest is entering 3rd next year and I just feel a little pressure to get this *right* now while they're brains are young. This is all Jessica's fault anyway, LOL, because if I didn't chance across one of her posts hammering home the importance of long-term plans I wouldn't be thinking so much lately!! :)

 

Regards to all who have contributed!!!

[Susie in CA]

Dayln,

 

What is ASL? I have heard so many stories from friends of older children (than mine) say that their child took 3 or 4 years of Spanish and cannot speak it! That's what actually got me thinking that perhaps if I really wanted my children to LEARN a language (read, write & speak it) then maybe I should focus more on THAT language.

 

And conversational Spanish... what exactly is that? Do the dc hear it spoken every day? If my dc had a 1 hour class daily with a native Spanish speaker would that be enough? How much do they need in order to pick it up (like they do English) by hearing others speak it?

 

My oldest is entering 3rd next year and I just feel a little pressure to get this *right* now while they're brains are young. This is all Jessica's fault anyway, LOL, because if I didn't chance across one of her posts hammering home the importance of long-term plans I wouldn't be thinking so much lately!! :)

 

Regards to all who have contributed!!!

 

Here are my two cents:

 

I always say this. When you start learning a language the most important thing is to stick with it. By that I mean doing something every day or at least almost every day. This can be a short period of time like 30 min or all day if you have the chance to speak it with someone. We do not do the same thing in our language study all the time. Here are some things we do.

 

We use Das Neue Deutschmobil as our textbook

We watch German movies

Listen to German songs

Play German games

Read German story books

Simply speak German

The boys go to a week long German summer camp in the summer

and so on.

 

This is an on-going process. You can never drop language study if your goal is to be fluent. I took English for 12 years in school and I was able to speak and follow fairly well. I was able to translate back and forth. This is the level you gain by studying the language. I was still translating everything in my head after 12 years of study.

It wasn't until I lived in an English speaking country that my brain stopped translating and started thinking in English. After all the years of studying English in school this switch happened very quickly. It took only two months.

 

All this rambling to say that the reason why your friends say after 3 or 4 years of study they still can't use the language is that the study toward fluency is not done. Ever. You need to keep going. Always. -- if fluency is your goal at least.

 

Hope some of this makes sense.

 

Susie

[Heather in Neverland]

To me it all depends on why you are studying a language. I have a major in Spanish but I am teaching my ds Latin. We will get to Spanish later and I know it will be a breeze for him as Latin is pretty easy for me already knowing Spanish.

 

But I chose Latin first because we are very Bible-focused in our studies and we will continue doing Latin and are starting Greek next year for the purposes of Bible study as well as being able to read certain classic works in their original language.

 

Having studied both languages I can honestly say that Latin is more difficult but we think it is fun! :D