Classic Education

[barry1010]

I am very aware that my education is lacking, my secondary modern school didn't quite stretch to the Classics. I need to Google many of Colin Dexter's references in his Morse series and I'm sure many go unnoticed.
A top-class education is the only thing I envy in people but is there any way a mature adult can educate himself in Latin, Greek, Roman Mythology at home?

[davebro]

"Until the 60s, unless you had O level Latin, you couldn't get in to Oxford or Cambridge,"

Latin terms were (still are?) extensively used in medicine/pharmacy and the law. And study of Latin helps in understanding the etymology of modern languages.

[New Judge]

//I did Latin at school which was a complete waste of time...//

Don't you recall the tales of Marcus Tullius Cicero and his slave, AuntPolly?:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicero

They featured heavily in "The Latin Way", a must for all Latin scholars:

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-latin-books-hb-1957-latin-way-564208428

It was the "Ablative" case which always got me muddled. "By", "With" or "From":

https://classics.osu.edu/Undergraduate-Studies/Latin-Program/Grammar/Cases/ablative-case-latin

Couple that with the fact that in the second declension, the "Dative" and "Ablative" cases have the same endings. I could never work out who was doing what to whom! So I packed it in after two years and did German instead.

Happy Days!

[THECORBYLOON]

KAROLINA, I hope it was "Agnus" and not "Angus".

[New Judge]

And I agree with Dave - Latin is still extremely useful, even if you're not entirely sure what's happening!

[AuntPollyGrey]

NJ we had a very reluctant teacher who knew he was teacher pupils who did not want to learn -it was compulsory at our school for 12–14year-olds. All our lessons consisted of was translating English -Latin and vice versa (ha ha see what i did!) using a dictionary.

[Karolina82]

Yes indeed Corby, it wasn't Angus or even Agnes but Agnus! Well spotted.

[Jackdaw33]

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.

Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.

[vulcan42]

Latin is still used to identify plants. This is extremely useful as the plant has the same name whether you're in the UK or anywhere else in the world.

[tiggerblue10]

I was never taught Latin at school.

I self-studied Greek and Roman mythology in my late teens, early 20s.

[bednobs]

if that's the translation, then my answer to "how cool was that?" is "not very"

[woofgang]

Who is "Angus"?

I hope he actually got "Agnus" tattooed!

[woofgang]

gosh aren't we an educated lot!

[maggiebee]

Two things I remember about Latin. The Latin teacher at our school got called Jasper; I've no idea what his real name was.

A late colleague used to say "Nil carborundum illigitimi". Probably a load of nonsense but we all knew what he meant.

[New Judge]

Don't let the bar-stewards grind you down, Maggie.

[Etch]

The only Latin sentence I can remember from studying it for a year is "multis viperis in silva sunt" - "there are many snakes in the wood".

I find the link between Latin and modern French interesting, for example with the verb être (English "to be", Latin "esse"):
Latin: sum, es, est, sumus, estis, sunt
French: je suis, tu es, il est, nous sommes, vous êtes, ils sont

[THECORBYLOON]

I was taught Latin at school and I can't mind on the author but in the book we sometimes used later on, a fair few of the translated poems were erotic and explicit.

Before we could use the book, Mr Wright telt us to tape various pages together in case parents seen them.

[New Judge]

D'ya know what, etch? I've never noticed that before (despite being familiar with the conjugations in both languages). You learn something new every day.

[Jackdaw33]

The circumflex accent in French represents the letter S which is no longer sounded. In old French être was spelt estre.

[Jackdaw33]

Corby, my Latin teacher was also called Mr Wright. Derek, his first name was.

[THECORBYLOON]

Can't mind on his first name but he also sometimes taught us French. He knew the grammar and the words but his French accent was non-existant and he pronounced the words as they were spelt.