Why Latin?

What is Latin and why should you learn it? It’s easy to understand the benefits of French, Spanish and German. They are widely spoken modern languages and you have the tangible benefit of communicating with others NOW. You speak, you read, you listen, you write. Latin is different. Latin was the language of the Roman Empire and for centuries that made it the language of the dominant western power. Everyone from Britain to Turkey to Egypt to France was under Roman rule. Once the Western Empire fell in the 5th century, its influence remained. For another 1,800 years it was the language of academia. Writing about religion, science or philosophy? You were doing it in Latin. From the dark ages up until our Founding Fathers, Latin was still the language of the learned. The Federalist papers are full of Romans: Agrippa (James Withrop), Brutus (Robert Yates), Cato (George Clinton), Cincinnatus (Arthur Lee) and Publius (Alexander Hamilton). Every educated European and American through the 18th century was fluent in Latin. As such, knowledge of Latin opens up thousands of years of writing.

Latin never truly died though. The Roman Empire did fall. People did stop writing academic papers in Latin. However Latin, over time, slowly turned into the Romance languages: French, Romanian, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. One day you are a Gaul, living in France, speaking Latin. Then you lose contact with Rome. Your language changes, subtly at first. However, after hundreds of years in insolation you have a new language - French. You can see this with English as well. Although contact was never broken, it’s sneakers and fries on one side or the ocean but trainers and chips on the other. Studying Latin gives you a big leg up in those other languages as it is their template. Take both! The strongest language students are enrolled in two, we’ve even had some students succeed at three.

Even today you see Roman influence in America. Movies, TV, literature, medicine, law, currency, sports, architecture, government, science, city planning and even SAT scores. There is practically no facet of our lives NOT connected to Rome.

How is Latin class different? We are not speaking, listening or even writing. We are reading. Communication is one way and on paper. We don’t eat a lot of authentic food (fermented fish sauce was like ketchup to the Romans). But you can make a temple from Rice Krispy treats or a cookie map of Italy or Cyclops gingerbread men. We don’t watch movies made by Romans. But you can watch my cheesy mythical movies and questionable Netflix content. We won’t have penpals. But you can read authentic text within three years. If you are a reader, if you love logic, if you are a little bit weird then Latin might be the right pick for you.

What do we do? I love technology, which is perhaps ironic since I teach a dead language. I love to use Jamboard, EdPuzzle, GimKit, Peardeck, Kahoot, Wizer, all of it. Class is very active. Even if you are not speaking Latin, you are using it constantly. I also like to do a lot of projects, some of which you can see here. Since Latin is such a small group of students, you will get very close with your peers. If you are a senior, you will have spent four years with the same group. I love that this makes for strong bonds and a comfortable environment.

I hope to see you in 2021!