Latin Is Fun!

Only kidding. There is a series of books called “English is Fun” that is used by most Thai grammar schools. I would joke with the students about it when I did English camps. (All in Thai.) “English is fun, right! Who thinks that English is fun? (seeing no hands raised.) Right! English is hard. Studying English is not fun. But being able to speak and read English already is a lot of fun! And you can make more money.”

I was forced to study Latin for two years in high school. I hated it with a passion. They taught us the old fashioned way, the Etonian way, ordering us to magically memorize all of the conjugations and declensions, plus the vocabulary. Tests consisted of translations in both directions and fill-in-the-blank questions seeking proper word endings. Latin was definitely not fun. It was enough to make anyone hate language study in general.

Much later on, I was considering a change in career and thinking about teaching. I figured, let's test the water. I found a place that supplied substitute teachers for private schools in Los Angeles, and they were happy to send out a lawyer. I was overqualified as a substitute in private schools. I did in once, maybe twice a week for a year or so. I discovered that the best private high schools were teaching Latin. At first I was appalled, but after they sent me to Crossroads to sub in Latin classes a couple of times I saw what they were up to.

It wasn't exactly “Latin for Dummies,” but they did completely leave out the Latin grammar. The focus was on learning Latin vocabulary, upon which, you must admit, much of English vocabulary is based. The tests consisted entirely of translating Latin sentences and short paragraphs into English. Don't worry about the endings, all of those tenses and the six cases of nouns. Just learn the words. They were using this abbreviated “study of Latin” as a way to build English vocabulary for the standardized tests that were soon to follow, the SAT etc. The students did not seem to mind it at all.

I have come to enjoy Latin to some extent. We learned a lot of Latin phrases in law school, and by then I knew enough about English to see how many words Latin had provided to English. Res ipsa loquitur! “The thing speaks for itself.” How loquacious of it!

Latin can be fun. This morning, a UK friend of mine published a running gag of his on Facebook. He enjoys inventing high sounding mottoes for his family, and I thought that this was a good one:

“Sed sem facere potui concitari solitum.”

(I could make salad but I won't.)

Studying Latin, grammar and all, might be a good idea for 2021. It would at least distract us from these vicious, confusing times that we live in.