<p>Thanks for your thoughtful replies, all. Interesting, the comment about not having to worry so much about the conversational side of learning Latin. D is enthralled with ancient history, politics, mythology, art. I would assume they are taught all aspects of the language, including historical? </p>
<p>Also interesting thought about increasing need to know Spanish if you plan career in medicine, law, politics. </p>
<p>I think what she prefers at this juncture is to take Latin. One of the upsides to her taking French is that I could help her with it. Then, I could say that I DID benefit from having taken it for 6 years… </p>
<p>PS - I like my gardener, too. He reminds me of Andy Garcia. And, that’s a good thing.</p>
<p>Spatium…ultima confinia…
Haec sunt itinera astranavis “Incepti”.
Huisus missio quinque annorum:
explorare mundos alienos novos,
petere vitam novam novosque cultus,
ire fortiter quo nemo iverit ante.</p>
<p>tenisghs, yeah, it may depend on the field. I know that in math and the sciences, the standards you have to meet in whatever foreign language(s) are hilariously low. If you are otherwise intelligent enough to get a PhD in these fields, then you are intelligent enough that it will be almost impossible to fail these tests even with little or no studying. They are often untimed and you can bring dictionaries. So you should study whatever language you are interested in.</p>
Only a little bit true. If you really want a useful language for the arts try Italian. Italy has at least one third of the world’s art. (Yes, I counted every art piece in the world before concluding Italy has a third.)
Only if you want to talk to a bunch of crybabies in France. A better language for international relations would be Chinese. Pretty soon they will be telling us what to do.</p>
<p>Sorry, bigmain, you lose. Math Ph.D at Harvard or Princeton: Russian, FRENCH, or German. History Ph.D. at Harvard (even for Chinese history): Russian, FRENCH or German. And so on and so forth.</p>
<p>My son adores Latin. He has the type of mind that enjoys knowing the “why” of things and Latin peaks his curiousity about the “why” of the English language in a very different way than another language might. He has always loved mythology as well and enjoys the history part of his latin class (although he has now announced that no history after ancient Rome is worth knowing). He found it a little difficult at first but now, second semester, he is finding it much easier. We were worried at first and wondered if he would be better off taking a “useful” language but seeing how much he enjoys Latin (and the Ancient Greek he has taken at CTY) those worries have evaporated. </p>
<p>On the other hand, my daughter loves French. She is an artsy type of person who likes modern history. French has tied in nicely with both interests and she hopes to study abroad in a french-speaking country in college. </p>
<p>So, I guess much depends on the individual person. I think my daughter would not be thrilled with Latin and, conversely, my son might find French pretty boring.</p>
<p>(And by the way - I, too, encouraged my daughter to take French so I could help her with it. To be honest, after her first year, that hasn’t worked out. My high school and college french is simply too rusty to help with more than the most basic stuff).</p>
<p>My d had a choice between French, Latin, and Spanish. She chose French because she loves French language. Plus the fact my family is very familiar with French. If they offered Italian, I am sure she would pick that language over French.
Some of the pros about French that were going through my mind:
It’s a pretty language
Can order menu from high class restaurant
When you go to Canada/France and you can practice it
French is very close to Spanish if you need it. For example, when I was in Cancun I could understand a few words in Spanish without having taken Spanish,very similar(lavatoire vs lavator)
A lot of words in a lot of subjects has French origin/connection, such as laissez-faire in economics, while that may not be true for Spanish.</p>
<p>You don’t really need Spanish if you contemplating a career in medicine, most nurses, receptionists, etc…in Southern California know Spanish and can translate very well. A little knowledge can be dangerous, especially while there is never a shortage of people speaking the Spanish language to help you when you need it.</p>
<p>de gustibus non est disputandum (when going to cooking school)
in vino veritas (very useful at Harvard)
alea jacta est (useful at casinos)
o fortuna, velut luna (when going to the fortune-teller)
caveat emptor (warning to all shopaholics)
o tempore, o mores (after watching TV reality shows)
carpe diem (for slugabeds)
cui bono (no, not that Bono)
mens sane in corpore sano (athletes’ justification for not attending class)
ars longa, vita brevis (when watching a really boring show)
tempus fugit (or where’s my watch?)
cogito, ergo sum (lemme see, one plus one is…)
dies irae (a bummer of a day)
arma virumque cano (Secy of Defense testifying before Congress)</p>
<p>needing definition:
post hoc propter hoc
a priori</p>
<p>Coureur, I was hoping for funny definitions because I could not think of any.</p>
<p>some more:
e pluribus unum
mutatis mutandis
pari passu
annus horribilis (as per Queen Elizabeth)
noli mi tangere
per astra et espera
amor omnia vincit
veni, vidi, vici
amicus curiae
de jure
de facto
ad nauseam
ad absurdum
ad infinitum
in media res</p>
<p>I want my D to take Latin (she is going into 9th grade) but she wants to take french. You know why? Because she wants to go into fashion, at least as a sideline, and the Fashion magazines are based in Paris, her favorite city in the world…so…We live in California, and while Spanish would be good to know, the jobs in that area hold no interest for her…sigh…at least I took french in high school so I can help a little…</p>
<p>CGM, TheMom and I used to speak French when we didn’t want Little Big Ears (D’s Native American name) to understand. Alas, her French is now better than ours though it’s amazing how far you can go just by interspersing “Trop cher!”, “C’est bien entendu”, and “Honi soit la vache qui rit” at appropriate moments.</p>
because I could not think of any.</p>