My eldest has got a place to read Ancient History at Kings College. As part of this he will be learning Latin, and this made me nostalgic for the period form 1974-1976 when I did GCSE Latin (my efforts were ultimately blessed with an A!)
The same course I studied (Cambridge Latin), is still in use, and I bought the updated version of the books I used to use way back, when. I have been thrilling to the old phrases, such as "Caecilius est pater", "Metella est mater" and "Cerberus est canem".
I've been making good progress and am now on book 4; my ultimate ambition is to be able to read the great Latin classics in their original language, such as:
9 comments:
Did latin myself and loved the history but I must admit your classics would have made things more enjoyable.
Congratulations to him! Kings College is a great place and I wish I'd gone there. I also wish I'd done a history-based subject! But oh well, the world will need Environmental Consultants soon.
I'm impressed Latin still receives such attention in the UK. My high school offered the language, but it's becoming increasingly rare. I just finished listening to a radio program about language courses in the US—very little value placed on Latin here.
Glad to see that you are putting your classical education to good use. Spot on with the reading material. Borrowed most of them from the library, luckily for me they were in English seeing as learning one language was enough for me!
Hi Andrew, Latin isn't all that common over here! It was taught more 30+ years ago; my wife still remembers her verbs and declensions very well (all too bloody well; much better than me, so far!).
Hi Consul, are you still in London?
Lol, we had a Lucilius who '...est rusticus. In vico habitat.'
My grandfather was fluent in Latin and introduced me to the language and the Romans. Pity he died rather early, and I got stuck with a bad Latin teacher at school, else I might have enjoyed the language a lot more. These days I have to fight my way through the sources, preferably with a bilingual edition. I wish my Latin was better.
HI Gabriele, why not try the Cambridge Lartin Course? I do around an hour each day and I'm making good headway. I've been really enjoying translating the stories; they are ripping yarns!
BRB - Sadly I'm back at uni in Leeds but I should be moving to London permanently when I finish my degree!
Consul.
And my favourite line:
Caecilius, postquam Clementi anulum suum tradidit, statim expiravit.
We all cheered in class!
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