Benefits of Studying Latin

by S. Link

Latin is the basis for all Romance Languages (English, French, Spanish, etc.). Half of all English words are derived from Latin and so, when you study Latin you learn more about English. 

Learning Latin grammar is an invaluable experience.   Often, you don’t really understand the grammar of your own language.  It’s all intuitive.  You will use the subject noun and direct object in a sentence correctly just because it “sounds” right, but you may not understand the grammar of it.  Unfortunately, what “sounds” right, isn’t always right.  I am always trying to break my children of saying, “Me and so and so are doing this today.”  I know that “me” is the incorrect word to use in this context (“I” is the correct one) due to my study of Latin.  Because I’ve learned the Latin cases and how they are used, I can explain why.  “I” is used as the “subject” and “me” is used as the object (direct object, object of the preposition, and indirect object).  Even my highly-educated adult friends will sometimes say, “Her and so and so... when beginning a sentence.  Again, “she” is the 3rd person pronoun used as the subject, and “her” is used as the object    This is just one example of how Latin grammar can help a person better understand English grammar.  There are many more.

I recently asked my son, Luke, who is in college, if he felt that studying Latin at Granite had been beneficial.  This is what he wrote:

“Thanks to my time spent studying Latin, my subsequent study of the Spanish language was a breeze, the language that many of my singing peers struggle to master (Italian, German, Spanish, Latin) come easily to me, and I can confidently define scores of words because I understand their roots.

I am a singer.  Much of the classical music that I sing is in Latin.  I was singing a Latin piece the other day with the choir.  Unlike most of the other folks in the choir, I knew exactly what I was singing.  I love that!  

There are lots of mottos and sayings used in our culture, such as mottos for the individual 50 states and mottos for the armed forces.  Those who know Latin can understand all of these.  We Latin students know that Semper Fidelis (which is the motto for the Marines—often shortened to semper fi) means 'always faithful'.”

Okay, so there are lots of benefits to studying Latin, and I’m not even listing them all here.  But, here’s another one.  Latin is fun!  Do you like doing puzzles?  I love Sudoku and Mathdoku.  It’s so much fun to solve those puzzles.  That’s what Latin is like.  It’s like a fun puzzle that you can solve with logic.

People are always impressed when they find out you've studied Latin--not a reason to study Latin, but it's a fun benefit! Finally, did I mention that students who have studied Latin have higher SAT scores?