Do you think it would be helpful if kids learned Latin in school?

I certainly wish that I had learned it. Thank Apollo for Google Translator.

i graduated 39 years ago and I’m still grateful for high school latin, it has helped me decipher a lot of things in a number of languages.

Most definitely! Seeing how several languages still spoken around the world are latin based then I think it would make it easier for kids to learn grammar and spelling.

It give kids a better sense of vocabulary and grammar. Plus, the memorization of the conjugations helps with memory. I had a very strenuous vocabulary program in high school – required one semester each year. It stressed word etymology. Because of it, define a lot of words without actually knowing the meaning. My daughter swears I understand French.

Yes, knowing your Latin and Greek roots can help immensely with vocabulary in a number of languages, as @JilltheTooth mentioned.

Latin is taught at my high school and I took it, but it’s just one of the optional languages you can take (I actually took French in middle school).

Being a Latin freak, I would support mandatory Latin for all kids. Not only is Latin the root of Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and several other languages, many English words derive from Latin and it can help people understand these words better.

Although, most of the time when I tell people that I took Latin, they say “well, that was a waste of time.” Asses. :P

Definitely, and at the same time, Spanish and chinese too.

Latin is awesome. I’m home schooled and my latin teacher doesn’t have the time anymore. I still have the books, but it’s just not the same.
Schools should teach latin.

Hell yes.

I wish they’d learn English first, though.

I took 2 years of Latin. It has helped me immensely. I say reinstate it.

@DominicX Who are they to say what was a waste of your time? If they were the ones who took the class, sure, but that’s just not cool.

I was another one of the I took two years of high school Latin, and three of college. I can honestly not name a class that I am happier to have taken. It has given me a greater command of the English Language and also has helped me in other areas. I will forever be grateful that I did take it, and I am glad that I could.

My current college doesn’t offer it as a course, but maybe my next one will.

My sister-in-law is a Latin teacher, and she’s never had trouble getting a teaching job wherever she’s lived. Right now she teaches Latin at the middle school level in a smallish town with a significant farming community.

I do think more schools should add Latin classes. Even though it isn’t commonly spoken, like @DominicX pointed out it has had a strong influence on many other languages. I only had to learn Latin prefixes and suffixes in high school anatomy class, but it was a huge help when I got to college. So yes, Latin should still be widely available to students.

@MissAusten Does she live in the States?

@papayalily Yes, I should have mentioned that. :)

Ugh. Fuck Latin. I took an after school class that met once a week for an hour, and I loathed it. I think the fact that it’s “dead” and just so irrelevant in the world really sucked the fun out of it for me. Sure, it’s the “root of languages,” but with no practical application, it kinda sucks. The languages commonly offered today, Italian, Spanish, French, are all very much alive in the world and are attached to continuously thriving cultures. I believe Chinese is being offered increasingly as well. It’s hard to work with Latin because it’s largely incomparable to the ways language have grown and how it is spoken.

@le_inferno Yes. It looks like it is time to start studying Chinese, which we all will very soon be speaking.

Definitely. I studied it for two years and learned more about English in Latin class than I did in English class. We also had a terrific teacher and it was a very fun subject.

Part of learning any language is actually using it in everyday life. Now, for Spanish and many other languages, you can actually travel to some place and speak the language with the locals there. Or you can even stay local and speak with locals who speak that language.

Latin can help you understand Romance languages better, but not being able to speak Latin with others really hinder your learning of Latin. Catholic schools can incorporate Latin easier, as the language could be used for religious texts, but most people rarely, if ever, use Latin in everyday life.

Sounds good to me; the classic languages provide heaps of insight to our modern tongues.
My school actually did teach Latin, as well as German, French, Spanish, and Japanese. I’d already been studying German when I transferred.

Latin makes learning the romance languages waaaay easier.

I wish latin was offered at my schools. When I was in middle school, we had to choose between Spanish and French. I took Spanish for 2 years. In high school we had to choose between Spanish, French, and German. I took German for 3 years. In college, I took one year of Spanish and kept reverting to German when I was speaking.

Latin would have made medical terminology and all of my life science and nursing classes a lot easier in the vocabulary area.

I think yes. Iam in the Pre-IB programme. I am learning Latin and I really enjoy that class. I also heard that most doctors and stuff always use latin words and stuff.

My kids’ high school offers Latin. My oldest is taking a year off after 3 (or 4?) years of French, and plans on taking Latin next year. We’ve always encouraged our kids to take it if they had the chance. It’s so helpful in so many other languages/classes/careers.

I don’t think so. I don’t think i’ve ever needed it. Only while studying law did i learn a few latin legal terms, which i no longer use of course.

I have found that learning the root words made it easier to understand English and Spanish. But since I was kicked out of Latin class, who am I to comment?