Are your children learning Latin?

Do you see benefits to their learning to speak, read and write Latin or do you feel there are better things for them to be learning?

 

Brandy:

Are your children learning Latin?

Do you see benefits to their learning to speak, read and write Latin or do you feel there are better things for them to be learning?

 

I took high-school Latin that assists me with vocabulary. DD took Latin in college. Many say that Japanese is the language for future business, but with so many Hispanic speakers in the US, Spanish could be that may be your language of choice.

The children are learning Latin as it makes a good foundation for other languages, especially those that have many words with roots in Latin. My husband believes his family's insistence on studying some Latin and word history is why he has been able to learn bits of other languages.

We have chosen Korean and Cajun French for the other languages. The Korean is useful for our lifestyle choices and for some of the plans my son has for his life. I'd like to brush up on Cajun French as it's the language of my heritage. My youngest is likely to be the only one who will have the time to devote to studying it as well but I'd like to have at least one of them carry it on.

 

 I learned Latin in high school. Remember some of it. Three of my kids learned American Sign Language. Lots of Deaf here, it has helped all of them in their jobs. Oldest DS is learning Ancient Hebrew. He uses it for study for teaching. DH took Spanish and remembers next to nothing. I enjoyed Latin, Babs

 I also studied Latin in high school - and still have the books,too.  I took Spanish in hs also, and in college, then spent a year & a half in France serving a mission, so now my Spanish comes with French endings.    No kidding, I can understand quite a bit as I hear Spanish around me, but when I speak, it comes out French.

DS took Spanish, remembers nothing.  All 3 DDs took German.  While middle DD was in Montana this summer for part of her med school rural education,she used the German when she treated children from the Hutterite colonies.  She said one little boy was not pleased that she could speak German - he was used to not compying because the doctors didn't speak German.

I learned Latin as a child .. still pretty good at it ...my Older children took Latin but by the time younger came alot my DD spoke Spanish like it was her native tounge . and my youngest doesnt seem interested in English let along anything else but some how he speaks Spanish and his German isnt bad .. now if they count his gaming experience he do outstanding .

DS#2 is taking Latin this year.  He is a sophmore in high school.  He goes to a charter school and the only foreign language they offer on site is Spanish.  But they do have a awesome computer lab.  So, DS#2 is taking Latin on the internet as a virtual school class.  He is doing well and seems to really enjoy the class.  DS#1 took 2 years of Spanish and plans on taking at least one semester in Japanesse.  I took 2 years of Spanish in high school and remember almost none of it.  DH took 2 years of French in high school and remembers almost none of it. 

Shellia

With Spanish speakers everywhere I shop, knosing Spanish would be more helpful for me.

My HS English teacher taught her children Latin and they did benefit from it.  One thing I recall was that they went to visit an art museum and many of the peices were from French artists, but the kids figured out the name of the painting based on the picture and their Latin background.  As kids they were very impressed with themselves b/c other patrons couldn't believe these young, English-speaking kids could read the title plaques.  So for them it became cool to know Latin.  When I graduated she had been working with her kids for 4 or 5 years and they were pretty adept at it and aced Spanish class (the only foreign language taught at my small private school).

For those of you who studied different languages in school or have children who did and you/your children forgot the language....

Was it worth studying the language? What do you feel you or your children got out of it if you didn't retain it?