Benefits of Studying Latin

 

Bestiola

Nequissima

  • Civis Illustris

  • Sacerdos Isidis

You get to meet some great people around the globe. :)
 

yusse

Member

Location:
terra incognita
Learning Latin helps me in studying English, Spanish and French​​ languages
 

Akela

sum

  • Princeps Senatus

Location:
BC
I do not know French and I only took two years of Spanish, so I cannot speak for them. In English, however, many less-colloquial words have Latin root and hence are easy to figure out for someone who have never heard them before but knows even a little Latin.
 

yusse

Member

Location:
terra incognita
I do not know French too and I do not want to speak ,but I learn for reading(- and only). However lexicon of Romance languages ​​and English is very similar:)
 

Adrian

Civis Illustris

  • Civis Illustris

I do not know French too and I do not want to speak ,but I learn for reading(- and only). However lexicon of Romance languages ​​and English is very similar:)
Now I understand what you meant. I can assure you (from my own past experience) that even an elementary knowledge of Latin vocabulary is very helpful in reading French texts - I was able to understand some internet articles written in french:) (IMHO as far as pronunciation is considered, even advanced knowledge of Latin won’t help:()
 

Manus Correctrix

QVAE CORRIGIT

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Victoria
You get to laugh at distinctions like imply/employ/implicate
+ frail, fragile

+ male, macho, masculine

+ gentile, gentle, genteel, jaunty

+ look at retain, maintain, detain, abstain, attain, obtain, oppose, propose, repose, depose, expose, juxtapose, postpone and marvel that despite all that, we can’t just tain or pone anything in English! We manage to pose though. But when we put an idea forward, or propose it, it doesn’t occur to us English-speakers that those are not just similar but exactly the same thing.
 

Nikolaos

schmikolaos

  • Censor

Location:
Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan
I don't think it even occurred to me, before studying Latin, that the words in that last list were actually related - the similarities may well have been coincidence to me. Now, it irritates me when I hear songs or epigrams use such words for rhymes - it's like using a word to rhyme with itself.
 

Gutavulfus

Member

Location:
Romae
Benefits?

At the same time you: learn a language, improve your capacity of understand the romance languages (french, portuguese, italian, spanish, etc), you go through a time machine to the Ancient Rome, or the Mediaeval Period, etc...

:D
 

Decimvs

Aedilis

  • Aedilis

Location:
Civitates Coniunctae
I get to be insufferably smug.
This is true. Has anyone else experienced this -- when in a room with a person or people who know that you have learned Latin, they are hesitant to use any Latin...or, if they do, they sort of consult you in a nervous or joking way? People know that they cannot fool you, or get any unearned intellectual credibility. It is almost as if it makes some people slightly uncomfortable or insecure.
 

Lucius Aelius

Linguistics Hippie

  • Civis Illustris

  • Patronus

Location:
Greensburgus, Carolina Septentrionalis
This is true. Has anyone else experienced this -- when in a room with a person or people who know that you have learned Latin, they are hesitant to use any Latin...or, if they do, they sort of consult you in a nervous or joking way? People know that they cannot fool you, or get any unearned intellectual credibility. It is almost as if it makes some people slightly uncomfortable or insecure.
I prefer it when someone who doesn't know I speak Latin says something and is like, "That's Latin for blahblahblah." And then they have this lovely look of surprise upon being called out and served.
 

Nikolaos

schmikolaos

  • Censor

Location:
Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan
A friend of mine once said that e pluribus unum was "Latin for 'in God we trust'". I hadn't begun to study yet at that time, but a few of us caught the mistake all the same and kept our mouths shut.
 
 

Godmy

Sīmia Illūstris

  • Censor

Location:
Bohemia
Immersing yourself in the wealth of ancient Roman literature, our cultural forebears.
Matthaeum animus fert in latinum convertere:
(ingratum non esse spe nitor, Matthaee)

antiquis Romanorum inmergi litteris, cultus atque humanitatis nostrae conditorum

At non dignus sum... :confused:
 

Decimvs

Aedilis

  • Aedilis

Location:
Civitates Coniunctae
I prefer it when someone who doesn't know I speak Latin says something and is like, "That's Latin for blahblahblah." And then they have this lovely look of surprise upon being called out and served.
:D

That happens quite often also. For some reason it is often difficult not to say anything or to correct errors when it comes to Latin, or Ancient cultures for that matter.
 

PeterW

New Member

It helps you know when to say "you and me" and when to say "you and I". That's a trivial example to make a point: studying Latin makes you much more aware of what's really going on in a sentence.
 

Quasus

Civis Illustris

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Águas Santas
It helps you know when to say "you and me" and when to say "you and I". That's a trivial example to make a point: studying Latin makes you much more aware of what's really going on in a sentence.
I wonder if ‘It’s I’ sounds pompous to a native.
 
Top