Why learn Latin?
Latin is the foundation to many modern languages
"It's a dead language," is the most common reason a person makes for not studying Latin, Greek, or another classical language. Nothing could be further from the truth. Classical languages and their cultures are alive today. Latin, in particular, represent the default vocabularies of legal and medical terminology; Greco-Roman architecture is the model of the buildings at the centers of our cities; our free society is based on the principles of the Roman republic.
Latin is the key to the Romance languages. A solid foundation in Latin lays bricks in Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian, connecting you instantly to a giant part of the modern world. Whole continents suddenly become accessible. What is otherwise a mad mixture of languages to many people crystalizes into a single family. Much of the world speaks a modern dialect of Latin. Latin is also alive in the thousands of Latin cognates used today in the English language.
Latin Improves Your English
It's no secret that Latin improves English vocabulary. You know the difference between a superlative and a comparative. You know that a "manuscript" is something that is--technically--written by hand, and that something as otherwordly as "Transylvania" simply means "across the forest." You know that the constellation Ursus Major is a big bear. You can identify which verb in a sentence is the infinitive. Knowledge is power; Latin makes you more powerful.
Latin brings you into direct contact with a civilization that has influenced western thought, politics, philosophy, arts, and sciences for thousands of years.
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