Reasons to learn Latin.

Why would someone want to learn Latin?

Firstly, its a dead language. As in, no-one grows up learning it as their first language anymore.

Secondly, its pretty difficult. Latin it not an easy language that you can pick up casually over a weekend.

Why bother spending a significant amount of time learning a language that no-one speaks?

So in this post I am going to try to convince you that it would be a good idea for you to learn Latin.

Boring reasons to learn Latin.

- Learning Latin makes you smarter - Sounds like a joke, but is absolutely true. Schools in England used to ONLY teach Latin. You would go to school and have Latin lessons all day, and then you would pick up all of the other subjects (English, Biology, Geography) in your spare time. And surprisingly the educational system didn't suffer for it. In fact, England prospered and led the world in technological achievements.



The reasons for this are many and confusing. Basically, Latin is like Sudoku on crack for your brain. It helps with mental acuity, helps you spell and write better. And studies have consistently found that if you take two groups of students, teach one of them Latin all day but let them pick up the other subjects in the evenings and on weekends, and teach the other group about the other subjects but not teach them any Latin. Then the students who were only taught Latin will do better in every subject, even though they had to pick them up in their spare time. Crazy or what!

- Helps you understand Romantic languages - What did the Romans ever do for us? A whole bunch of languages are descended from Latin. They are called the Romantic languages, because 'Romantic' comes from the Latin word 'Romanicus', which means 'Roman-made' or 'Roman style'. Basically these are languages the Romans can take a bit of credit for. So you can see where certain things within those languages came from.

For example, the word 'And'.

Latin - et
French - et
Italian - e
Portuguese - e

So you can see how they are similar, although the similarities run a bit deeper than that. But, I will leave that for you to discover on your own.



- Bragging rights - I am only including this one because it appears on almost every 'Why Latin is awesome' list on the internet. You can brag to your friends about your ability to read, write and if you really want to, speak Latin. If that's something you think will impress people, then by all means learn Latin for this reason. I bet you're a really cool person.

Actual reasons to learn Latin.

The reasons above are logical reasons as to why a person would learn Latin, but they are not the real reasons people learn it. Or at least, they are not the reasons I find to be most compelling. Below are the reasons I personally think people should learn Latin.

- Latin sounds amazing - I am always drawn by the sounds of a language. I want it to sound good before I will even think about beginning to study it. Latin doesn't really have a spoken sound, since it's a dead language and people disagree on how you should pronounce it. In fact if you learn Latin in classroom today, you will be taught four different ways of pronouncing it (English Latin, Church Latin, Restored Classical Pronunciation, Incorrect Latin). Those aren't actually the names of the pronunciation types (except for Restored Classical Pronunciation), but I don't actually know the names of them. And it doesn't really matter for now.

Latin doesn't have a definite sound, so I can't inspire you to learn it with an epic monologue. Or can I?

See? Latin sounds awesome. Like nothing else really. Almost like an Arabic Italian.

- The literature - Latin literature is one of the largest in the world. At its height there were 85 million Latin speakers in the world! You can read things that were written before the time of Jesus in their original language. You can read people like Cicero, Virgil, Horace, Nero, Seneca, Juvenal, Francis Bacon, etc etc. The list goes on. And, if you can find some works that have never been translated into English, then you can be the very first person on earth to do so!

 

 - It's fun and challenging - If learning and studying languages is your thing, then Latin is a good place to go. The resources are plentiful, it's difficult, but not so difficult that you will be put off, the words are often familiar, and the rewards are huge. You can be (probably) the only person you know to be able to speak Latin, you can read stuff in their intended forms, you have enough untranslated material to last you a lifetime.

- Latin speakers get all the ladies - Ok, so maybe picking up girls in Latin won't work out so well (unless you invent a time machine). Although Augustus was pretty prolific with the concubines, so maybe there is hope yet. 

- You can become the Pope - If you are like me and your aspirations include one day becoming Pope, then you will probably want to learn Latin. There are many unofficial requirements that a Pope candidate has to tick before they can be considered. Being a certain age, being a man etc. And a mastery of  English, Italian and Latin is another.