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Aug. 10th, 2010 11:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedlamsbardSo, I have taken up studying Latin in the evenings, immediately before I go to bed, because it helps me relax. I never imagined I'd be the kind of girl who learns dead languages to unwind, but, you know, whatever works.
I have mentioned before that I have anxiety issues, and a lot of the time I have trouble sleeping if I can't get my mind to calm down enough to focus on one single thing. It's not a matter of clearing my mind; I've never been able to do that. But if I can focus on one thing to the exclusion of all else, that will get me calm enough to relax, and settle down, and just generally chill out. Writing has the same effect, which is why it's always been easier for me to write in the evenings, although I've been doing that less and less, since I read somewhere that one should not look at a computer screen for at least half an hour before going to bed. I can handwrite, of course, which I'm fine with, but I usually only work on one project at a time, and currently that project's on the computer, and I don't want to split it up.
So, Latin. It's something I enjoy, and that makes sense to me, and that I have to concentrate on really hard, and that I have to know. And it's fun! The classical Latin that's in Wheelock makes me happier than the more medieval Latin that's in another book I have; even in the dumbed down versions they are all eloquent! And funny! And blood-thirsty! Also I shall be forever amused by the bit where Leonidas yells (in dumbed down Latin, obviously), "Tonight we dine in hell!" Or, literallly, "Today perhaps we will dine among the dead!" (Dumbed down version of Cicero's Tusculanae Disputationes; it's beginning Latin, everything's dumbed down, aside from a few couplets here and there and the odd simple quote.)
Of course, now that the course is over (we only just touched on Chapter 12 of Wheelock before my professor gave up trying to beat Latin into the heads of students who really didn't care; I was the only one who really needed to learn, besides one premed student), there is the somewhat unfortunate fact that Wheelock does not include the answers to the Practice & Review and Sententiae Antiquae sentences. And the Latin exercises from St. Louis University also do not include answers to their practice sentences. Which raises the question of, sure, I can translate the practice sentences, with varying degrees of success, but how am I supposed to know if I am right? Especially when I get a sentence that I can translate literally, but also uses a lot of idioms, which means I stare at it and go, "Well, it could mean this, but that doesn't sound right, but I can't think of what else it would mean." Which, granted, is probably how most translation goes, but it is somewhat less than useful in the learning stages.
I have mentioned before that I have anxiety issues, and a lot of the time I have trouble sleeping if I can't get my mind to calm down enough to focus on one single thing. It's not a matter of clearing my mind; I've never been able to do that. But if I can focus on one thing to the exclusion of all else, that will get me calm enough to relax, and settle down, and just generally chill out. Writing has the same effect, which is why it's always been easier for me to write in the evenings, although I've been doing that less and less, since I read somewhere that one should not look at a computer screen for at least half an hour before going to bed. I can handwrite, of course, which I'm fine with, but I usually only work on one project at a time, and currently that project's on the computer, and I don't want to split it up.
So, Latin. It's something I enjoy, and that makes sense to me, and that I have to concentrate on really hard, and that I have to know. And it's fun! The classical Latin that's in Wheelock makes me happier than the more medieval Latin that's in another book I have; even in the dumbed down versions they are all eloquent! And funny! And blood-thirsty! Also I shall be forever amused by the bit where Leonidas yells (in dumbed down Latin, obviously), "Tonight we dine in hell!" Or, literallly, "Today perhaps we will dine among the dead!" (Dumbed down version of Cicero's Tusculanae Disputationes; it's beginning Latin, everything's dumbed down, aside from a few couplets here and there and the odd simple quote.)
Of course, now that the course is over (we only just touched on Chapter 12 of Wheelock before my professor gave up trying to beat Latin into the heads of students who really didn't care; I was the only one who really needed to learn, besides one premed student), there is the somewhat unfortunate fact that Wheelock does not include the answers to the Practice & Review and Sententiae Antiquae sentences. And the Latin exercises from St. Louis University also do not include answers to their practice sentences. Which raises the question of, sure, I can translate the practice sentences, with varying degrees of success, but how am I supposed to know if I am right? Especially when I get a sentence that I can translate literally, but also uses a lot of idioms, which means I stare at it and go, "Well, it could mean this, but that doesn't sound right, but I can't think of what else it would mean." Which, granted, is probably how most translation goes, but it is somewhat less than useful in the learning stages.
Throws Latin at you!
Date: 2010-08-10 10:59 pm (UTC)This is what I plan to buy for myself next week - I've used the French and German books from the same series, and they were great. (And definitely have answers in them!)
These two my teacher sort of *dis*-recommended to us, because they're designed for independent learning and she wasn't sure how useful they'd be as a supplement to our classwork:
Keller and Russell's Learn To Read Latin set and Gavin Betts' Teach Yourself Latin. I had a look at Betts in her office the other day, it looked pretty good :D.
Caveat* - British and Australian Latin courses often arrange the declensions in a different order to Wheelock/American courses (our tables say Nom/Voc/Acc/Gen/Dat/Abl). Not sure about Keller and Russel, but Betts is Australian, so that may be relevant.
*Second declension second person active subjunctive! Probably a hortatory subjunctive at that.
Re: Throws Latin at you!
Date: 2010-08-10 11:23 pm (UTC)That's kind of fascinating about the declensions, and good to know, because I've been memorizing them in the American (Wheelock) order, and I would have been so very confused if I didn't know that.
Latin is so much fun; I should probably be really impressed at my professor.
Re: Throws Latin at you!
Date: 2010-08-10 11:30 pm (UTC):D We were warned about American declension tables in the first week - most of the Latin online is American, and hooo boy do I bungle up the exercises from The Latin Library. Asking me to decline things in different orders is like doing my times tables backwards: REALLY WEIRD.
Latin is a horrible, bastardly language. WHO NEEDS FOUR FORMS OF THE INFINITIVE, I ASK YOU?
Re: Throws Latin at you!
Date: 2010-08-10 11:39 pm (UTC)At least with Latin you don't have THREE DIFFERENT ALPHABETS. Everything seems easy when you don't even have to learn a new alphabet!
Re: Throws Latin at you!
Date: 2010-08-10 11:28 pm (UTC)