there is nothing in the world that has shocked me as much as this. nothing. EVER.

[bedlamsbard]

Central is offering a beginning Latin class this summer. This -- solves all my problems and blows my mind. Like, the fact that Central Washington University has a professor of Latin (and the way I read his bio on the website, it pretty much sounds like he retired from Penn State to teach Latin at Central) is the most shocking information I've read in the past twenty years of my life.

...I can't believe this. Like, I just can't. *head swimming*

(You probably have to have some understanding of the kind of university CWU is to get the depth of my feeling towards this, but let me try: Central is a small, crappy state university in a sleepy rural farming and ranching community whose biggest event is the annual rodeo (my hometown, in other words). A lot of people I know go there. There's nothing wrong with it, but -- trust me, it's no fancy private university. I mean, I do go to a fancy private university, and I tend to believe that all state universities are by nature lesser beings than well-known, highly-ranked private research universities. There are a few that are maybe on the same level (University of Washington, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill), but as a general whole, they are lesser beings. Especially CWU, which is literally the university down the street from my high school that will let in anybody. A quarter of my (small, rural, public) high school's graduating class goes there every year.)

The fact that Central offers a Latin class (in the Department of Foreign Languages, what the fuck?) blows my mind the way I'm pretty sure nothing else in the world ever has. Central. Offers. Latin. Guys, they don't even have a classics deparment! They only have eight departments in the College of Arts and Humanities! AND YET THEY OFFER LATIN GUYS I CANNOT EVEN DEAL.

I had to call my mother because it literally shocked me that much. And, for the record, I have called her every day for the past four days. Yes, I am a mama's girl, y'all have a problem with that?

(Note to self: e-mail Latin professor asking about class, e-mail chair of DFL to check that it's definitely being offered since apparently it is currently unavailable because of The Budget, declare for classics major at Tulane, check with classics department that they will accept the credits, check with advisor that Tulane will accept Latin credits and lab science credits, figure out process for taking summer classes at CWU.)

Comments

[darklyndsea]

*cheers about Latin*

[bedlamsbard]

I am excited! Hopefully it will still be offered this summer.

[darklyndsea]

...You've associated Latin and fanfiction in my head, and now I want to write fic of my Latin textbook. (Well, okay, you and the fact that that scene would have been really slashy if they weren't kids. Latin textbooks are amazingly ficcable.)

[bedlamsbard]

Heh! I think a lot of language textbooks are like that, my roommate was always talking about how slashy her Russian textbook was.

[darklyndsea]

I think it depends on the language and the teaching method used in the textbook. More...common? useable? something languages like French and German tend to have textbooks that teach more along the lines of "here are some grammatical concepts and words. Have fun!", which is obviously less slashy. I don't know how Russian's taught, but at least two of the main Latin textbooks (out of what, 3 or 4?) teach via a story going through the whole textbook. In the Cambridge books there was a slave girl who pleases all the men but not the mistress. In Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata,we just read a scene where Marcus was under Sextus, and then Sextus was under Marcus and Titus.

[bedlamsbard]

*wide eyes* That's definitely slashier than my Japanese textbook, which included manga of some American study abroad students in Japan.

[darklyndsea]

Of course, with context it's just kids fighting (and a bit young to slash, since they're working on counting by 10s in school)...I don't remember how they justified all the "pleasing". But I guess it's fitting, since on the first day the professor told us about how women used to not be taught Latin because that's the language all the porn was in (also science and whatnot, but obviously porn is the important part).

Besides, who needs context, anyway?

[darklyndsea]

That reminds me, I wonder if my Japanese textbook will be awesome next semester. Or German. Obviously Latin will continue to be awesome.

I'm taking too many language classes next semester.

[isweedan]

Your excitement makes me really fucking happy that I found a high school that offered Latin.

Go you bb! I hope it works out :)

[bedlamsbard]

Gah, I hate the fact that I feel like I'm at such a disadvantage in the classics department because I didn't come in with six or eight years of Latin already -- and I know people who did. *hisses*

Now, what really annoys me is that the professor in question has apparently been at CWU since 2003. I was at high school from 2004-2008. Which means that I could have taken Latin at CWU through the university, argh, death, best-kept secret in Ellensburg, I swear to god.

I hope it works out too!

[isweedan]

Six or eight years? Goddamn! I got two.

How are you feeling these days about the lack of Judeo-Christian knowledge though? Because I remember that being a problem for you earlier and I simply can't imagine how whack that must make studying like, everything you've ever been interested in *ever* that wasn't Greek or Roman.

[bedlamsbard]

I KNOW. I WANT TO GRAB THE PEOPLE THAT WENT TO FANCY-SCHMANCY CATHOLIC PRIVATE SCHOOLS AND SHAKE THEM.

I am thinking that I should probably take one of the classes that Tulane offers on the bible (and they'll count for my major, since they're both in the Classics Department -- Intro to the Hebrew Bible (not offered next semester) and The New Testament (offered next semester, but I'm not sure I want to try taking it without knowing the Old Testament). I'm still not sure how much that's going to help -- I know I was having major problems earlier this semester in Byzantine Civ when we were doing the various heresies and some of the splits between the Catholic and Orthodox churches, etc. *bites lip* I know I have problems getting a lot of the references in The Faerie Queene, too -- I can deal with the classical stuff just fine, but it's where the religious references start that I start to lose it.

It does not help that the major Christian religious work that I read at an early age was Paradise Lost, which has apparently shaped my conception of the universe. (Also, that one proverb in Mark or Mathew or something where Jesus smites the fig tree, that's the other thing that made an impression.)

[aella_irene]

Yay Latin!

[bedlamsbard]

I am excited!

[be_themoon]

LATIN! Latin is FUN, when I'm not actually taking it and just doing it for fun. :P

well, okay, it was pretty fun while I was taking it too. just a lot more work-like feeling.