4 ms·

I'm happy for all those who enjoy Latin, but I loathed learning it. I was subjected to six years of mandatory Latin, and I hated every minute of it. Not to ment

I'm happy for all those who enjoy Latin, but I loathed learning it. I was subjected to six years of mandatory Latin, and I hated every minute of it. Not to mention two years of classical Greek. I was more interested in science. I argued for learning a more useful language like German or Spanish.

3nf 5y ago
A lot of that learning experience depends on context- I had a nerdy, young (early to mid 20s) high school teacher teaching classic and not liturgical, many had strict Catholic school nuns.
jillesvangurp 5y ago
I had Dutch (my native language), English, French, German, and Latin in high school. I actually live in Germany now but I mostly get by with English. My German is too broken to be of much more use than having simplistic conversations with people that don't speak English. I sound like a complete idiot when I need to speak German. And my job is (mostly) not sounding like an idiot so, I avoid professional situations where this is a thing. Getting my German to the same level I understand and speak English (or Dutch) is such a massive project that I've never really bothered making time for it. I always have more interesting things to do. And if I don't there's work. Learning a language is a big time commitment and the in between state where I can't really use it without sounding like an idiot just isn't that useful to me. I've also forgotten most of the French I knew even though I was getting quite good at it by the time I dropped the subject 30 years ago. I chose science heavy classes instead of language heavy classes (the Dutch system makes you choose). So German, Latin, and French were out. The endless & mind-numbing memorizing of words, grammar, etc. was a big contributor to that choice. And I also enjoyed other classes a lot more generally. However, I had English until the end (six years) and was actively reading English books, watching BBC, etc. by the time I entered university. In university some of my books were in English. A lot of online content was English. Immersing yourself like that is what needed to master a language. English has kind of taken the place of Latin. It's the world's most popular second language. Without it you are a bit marginalized to specific areas or groups of people. But we might not need it much longer if translation tools keep on improving. The key moment will be if you can have an intelligent conversation with somebody without having a single language in common. Even if it is just in written form, it would matter a lot.
- gpvos 5y ago
  I've heard from someone who teaches Norwegian to newly arrived expats that they simply don't get any Dutch students since these pick up the language in a matter of weeks without help. Between Dutch and German this should be even easier. Simply pick a social activity (choir, dancing, whatever) that's intended for locals, go drinking with friends, etc. If you want, of course. I've neglected my German and French since school, but found that I could still get to a basic level of conversation later in life by just trying when I was on holiday in those countries while still living in the Netherlands. YMMV.
  - jillesvangurp 5y ago
    I lived in Sweden for a while; basically the same language as Norwegian (they share the same standardized grammar). It's easy to pick up but hard to master. Which is the same problem I have in Germany. I can get by but it's not pretty. BTW. Swedish, Norwegian, or Danish all share the same simplified grammar and are pretty easy languages to pick up if you already speak another Germanic language. Also, I did my taxes in Swedish while I was living in Finland (second language there, way easier to parse than Finnish). But I never even came close to being able to having an intelligent conversation in Swedish.
    - pjmlp 5y ago
      I guess I have the opposite experience. I do well in German and Swiss German, so I can sometimes parse other Germaninc influenced languages, but it is a matter of luck which words are used.
gpvos 5y ago
How come you didn't get any choice in this?
- stormdennis 5y ago
  Maybe his school scheduled classes so it was impossible to do a language and a science subject at the same time. For example I dropped History and also Geography in school because they clashed with Science subjects.
- GnarfGnarf 5y ago
  I was enrolled in the 1960's in an antiquated system called "Cour Classique" in French. We had a strict curriculum, designed to produce priests, doctors, lawyers and notaries. The system spanned eight years, high school and college. We were given no options until the last two years. I got my B.A. at 19, and promptly joined the Canadian Peace Corps (CUSO), learned Spanish in two months, and taught physics (in Spanish) in South America.
cafard 5y ago
I went to a mediocre high school, where Latin ended after the second year. But even that much helped with high school German, college French, and subsequent experiments with other Romance languages.
- jamesfinlayson 5y ago
  Strangely Latin was the third Romance language I learnt (and the first two helped with Latin) but Latin taught me to properly think about grammar and proper sentence construction more than any other language.

3nf 5y ago

A lot of that learning experience depends on context- I had a nerdy, young (early to mid 20s) high school teacher teaching classic and not liturgical, many had strict Catholic school nuns.

jillesvangurp 5y ago

I had Dutch (my native language), English, French, German, and Latin in high school. I actually live in Germany now but I mostly get by with English. My German is too broken to be of much more use than having simplistic conversations with people that don't speak English. I sound like a complete idiot when I need to speak German. And my job is (mostly) not sounding like an idiot so, I avoid professional situations where this is a thing. Getting my German to the same level I understand and speak English (or Dutch) is such a massive project that I've never really bothered making time for it. I always have more interesting things to do. And if I don't there's work. Learning a language is a big time commitment and the in between state where I can't really use it without sounding like an idiot just isn't that useful to me. I've also forgotten most of the French I knew even though I was getting quite good at it by the time I dropped the subject 30 years ago. I chose science heavy classes instead of language heavy classes (the Dutch system makes you choose). So German, Latin, and French were out. The endless & mind-numbing memorizing of words, grammar, etc. was a big contributor to that choice. And I also enjoyed other classes a lot more generally. However, I had English until the end (six years) and was actively reading English books, watching BBC, etc. by the time I entered university. In university some of my books were in English. A lot of online content was English. Immersing yourself like that is what needed to master a language. English has kind of taken the place of Latin. It's the world's most popular second language. Without it you are a bit marginalized to specific areas or groups of people. But we might not need it much longer if translation tools keep on improving. The key moment will be if you can have an intelligent conversation with somebody without having a single language in common. Even if it is just in written form, it would matter a lot.

gpvos 5y ago
I've heard from someone who teaches Norwegian to newly arrived expats that they simply don't get any Dutch students since these pick up the language in a matter of weeks without help. Between Dutch and German this should be even easier. Simply pick a social activity (choir, dancing, whatever) that's intended for locals, go drinking with friends, etc. If you want, of course. I've neglected my German and French since school, but found that I could still get to a basic level of conversation later in life by just trying when I was on holiday in those countries while still living in the Netherlands. YMMV.
- jillesvangurp 5y ago
  I lived in Sweden for a while; basically the same language as Norwegian (they share the same standardized grammar). It's easy to pick up but hard to master. Which is the same problem I have in Germany. I can get by but it's not pretty. BTW. Swedish, Norwegian, or Danish all share the same simplified grammar and are pretty easy languages to pick up if you already speak another Germanic language. Also, I did my taxes in Swedish while I was living in Finland (second language there, way easier to parse than Finnish). But I never even came close to being able to having an intelligent conversation in Swedish.
  - pjmlp 5y ago
    I guess I have the opposite experience. I do well in German and Swiss German, so I can sometimes parse other Germaninc influenced languages, but it is a matter of luck which words are used.

gpvos 5y ago

How come you didn't get any choice in this?

stormdennis 5y ago
Maybe his school scheduled classes so it was impossible to do a language and a science subject at the same time. For example I dropped History and also Geography in school because they clashed with Science subjects.
GnarfGnarf 5y ago
I was enrolled in the 1960's in an antiquated system called "Cour Classique" in French. We had a strict curriculum, designed to produce priests, doctors, lawyers and notaries. The system spanned eight years, high school and college. We were given no options until the last two years. I got my B.A. at 19, and promptly joined the Canadian Peace Corps (CUSO), learned Spanish in two months, and taught physics (in Spanish) in South America.

cafard 5y ago

I went to a mediocre high school, where Latin ended after the second year. But even that much helped with high school German, college French, and subsequent experiments with other Romance languages.

jamesfinlayson 5y ago
Strangely Latin was the third Romance language I learnt (and the first two helped with Latin) but Latin taught me to properly think about grammar and proper sentence construction more than any other language.