I also studied Latin at school around the same time, was bored by it, but also found it useful when living abroad and needing to learn a language. However, I d

I also studied Latin at school around the same time, was bored by it, but also found it useful when living abroad and needing to learn a language. However, I don't think this is particular to Latin. In fact, Latin was the only grammatical teaching that I had at school. Vocabulary and phrases were considered more important than grammar, for all modern languages including English. When taking lessons as an adult, my French teacher told me to forget everything I'd learnt; I needed to go back and learn the structure and conjugations and grammar like native French speakers do at school. That was where I found Latin had a benefit. If I had actually been taught properly at school, however, I don't think I would have found it so beneficial. It would simply have been another, less practical language.