A succinct reason for Latin?

[LucyStoner]

My older son because he wants to go to the national spelling bee and because he loves it. My younger son because he thinks it's fun, probably at least in part because he wants in on ehatever his big brother is doing.

[...................]

Here's another reason to study Latin or Greek:

 

I started my son in Greek in 1st grade and we muddled slowly through the first 4 books of Hey Andrew until 4th grade at which point the Lord blessed us with a wonderful tutor who was willing to barter for services and whom we loved and trusted, etc.  All through, we felt nothing but excitement and confidence that there was continual learning, even if slow!  My son constantly understood Greek words that our Pastor mentioned in sermons and he also constantly recognized Greek words in English.  Everyone felt success.

 

We moved to a new state in which we are absolutely surrounded by first generation Americans who speak another language.  Mostly, they speak Mandarin, Russian, or also Spanish.  LIterally 80% of my son's friends are absolutely fluent from birth in a foreign language.  And, because of the high-achieving educational culture in this area, they all also either learn to write it at home as homeschoolers or attend Foreign Language Schools twice per week so they can also fluently write and read in the foreign language. 

 

We tried to study a living language this year and have felt rather defeated.  We are surrounded by and bombarded constantly by children fluent from birth.  Unless we left the US and lived abroad for a year, my children will have absolutely no hope of distinguishing themselves in any way in the job market as bilingual.  Additionally, the foreign language with whiich I am most familiar (Spanish) is not sought after here as a desirable language.  

 

Therefore, we are switching my son back to Greek and my daughter onto Latin.  At least they will be learning roots of English, and they will feel successful in their own little progresses, without comparing themselves to their (bilingual fluent) friends.  We all understand there are different purposes for Latin and Greek, and are happy with those purposes.  

 

(My son will be taking Memoria Press' online Greek)

[kreistetter]

Because my son wants to be a priest. :hurray:

[I.Dup.]

Can anyone tell me how much Latin my kids can really learn from just the flash cards of English from the Roots Up?

[bethben]

The reason we did Latin is that it was the easiest to teach/learn at home--no conversational component.

I have been debating this in my mind for years. Now I'm looking at high school and know the only way my dc will learn a foreign language is to pay a tutor. We don't want to do that so Latin becomes the fall back because it doesn't need a proper pronunciation.

 

Beth

[Haiku]

Can anyone tell me how much Latin my kids can really learn from just the flash cards of English from the Roots Up?

 

Probably very little, because learning Latin has much more to do with learning the grammar than it does the vocabulary. If you don't understand then endings of the words, you don't understand their use and function in the sentence, and you therefore don't understand the sentence.

 

For example, what does this sentence mean? "Football the before boy lunch girl the after but threw baseball to the practice."

 

You know all the words. But can you work out what it means? Not unless you know what the subject is, what the direct object is, which objects go with which prepositions, etc. This is an extremely simplified example of how you must know the grammar of Latin to be able to make sense of the words.

[Nomen Nescio]

Unless it is 4th declension...

Or one of the feminine nouns of the 3rd declension in -ūs (virtūs, salūs).

Or one of the 3rd declension neuters in -Å­s (corpus, tempus).

Or one of the 3rd declension neuters in -ūs (crūs, iūs, pūs, rūs, tūs).

Certain names of countries or towns in 2nd declension (Aegyptus, Corinthus).

The names of plants or gems in 2nd declension (mÄlus, sappÄ«rus).

Greek nouns retaining feminine gender despite being adapted to the 2nd declension (arctus, methodus).

Various exceptions in 2nd declension following no general rule (alvus, carbasus, colus, humus, vannus).

 

I'm not trying to be a smartass here, I just want to make it understood that a rule-of-thumb like 'all nouns in -us are masculine' is going to lead to heartbreak later.

[SorrelZG]

Efficiency (described in better detail by a previous poster). It gives me one thing to focus on doing well instead of several different subjects/books (to cover same things) which contributes greatly to our success, peace and my sanity.

 

I have started Latin after reading fluency. DS8 uses Lively Latin. He currently works on it for 30min a day and the focus is over learning, not completing a book on a schedule. He is a history fiend so that assists his attitude in learning via Latin but also he gives less blank stares when discussing grammar in the context of Latin than as a separate subject (possibly because by itself he finds it entirely un stimulating).

 

Also, pre-formal Latin my children have listened to Latin Memory Songs and even the Song School Latin songs and found that fun and the memory songs specifically are proving useful now that DS is studying formally. Children appear to love singing nonsensical songs, Whether Latin grammar endings or some junk about "eeples and baneenees" (for example). So yes, "out of context" memory work in Latin goes on here before formal instruction begins and that has proven useful down the road (with DS) (SSL not so useful but some if the songs have been fun).

[clemota]

Saw this blog post today and found it reassured my decision to teach (and learn!) Latin with my 2 girls:

 

http://birdandbabe.org/2014/03/31/you-should-take-latin/

 

The comments below the blog post are also worth a read.

 

 

[plumshadow]

This was really a great thread and that blog was an informative read as well.

[Nomen Nescio]

Once again, we come to the issue of ignoring spoken Latin, even while extolling the cognitive advantages of learning the language, as though the practice dealing with pronunciation does not have cognitive advantages. The difficulties of pronunciation in Latin are training-wheel level compared to what you'd get in a modern spoken language, and Latin is supposed to have the advantage of giving students a leg up on their next language.

 

A third trimester student who has never studied Latin as a spoken language is not reading Vergil so much as handling Vergil through a welding mask, thick gloves and a pair of tongs. Vergil wrote poetry, and poetry is an art form based on the human voice and the human ear. Reduced to just the analytic part, you might as well just be doing cryptanalysis, which in fact would also have cognitive advantages. But poetry is what it is because of the sounds that the language makes, and how those sounds can be artfully arranged to harmonize or clash with meaning, to strum the very viscera of the reader as an instrument by quickening the heart or pacing the breath in the act of reciting, throat vibrating and the tongue undulating. 

 

I suppose half of Latin is better than no Latin, but it breaks my heart that so many people think of Latin as the language of parts you can skip. 

[DianeW88]

In short...it made me smarter.

 

I was required to take four years of Latin in high school.  I was also required to take four years of another foreign language.  I chose French, which I had studied, along with Italian, since second grade, as part of a gifted program at my elementary school.

 

Latin provided me with an extensive vocabulary, a facility with English, an ability to learn other Romance languages with ease, an ability to think critically, party tricks, the ability to translate erudite expressions on the t-shirts of people trying to appear smarter than they are, and so many other things I can't quantify. :D  My children started their Latin studies in Kindergarten with Song School Latin.  It is so much fun.  My children have always looked forward to their Latin lessons.