CONFESSIONS OF A LATIN TEACHER, PART III

Source: Speak Up
Language level: Upper Intermediate
Standard: British accent
Speaker: Justin Ratcliffe

CONFESSION OF A LATIN TEACHER PART III BY WILLIAM SUTTON

The title of Peter Jone’s book, Vote for Caesar: How the Ancient Greeks and Romans Solved the Problems of Today, is self-explanatory. He believes that, if we study the Greeks and Romans, we can be great like them. Greek and Latin are often cited as the best languages: they are more complete and accurate than modern languages. The claims are nonsense. The Romans and Greeks had as many problems as we do. They were greedy, genocidal and cruel to animal. Perhaps that is why we like them: their errors, as well as their achievements, are familiar.

This month and next, we consider 10 unpleasant Latin legacies.

1.   EXPLOITATION

Empires come and go, but it was the Romans who developed the systematic exploitation of colonies. Their phenomenal military machine enslaves natives, extracted resources and generated taxes. The Romans gained luxuries, cheap food, wine, bathing and sanitation. Slaves provided labour, skills and entertainment (gladiatorial and sexual).

This model of empire led to European colonisation; the slave trade; exploitation of Americas; the US cotton industry and the industrial Revolution.

2.   ECO-WARRIORS

At the opening of the Colosseum, 5.000 animals were killed. In on hunting spectacle, they massacred hundred of lions, leopards and bears and thousands of ostriches, deer and wild boars. The pushed animals towards extinction. There are no elephants and lions in North Africa; there is no Syrian elephant, no Atlas bear and no hippopotamus in the Nile.

The Romans drained lakes and diverted rivers. They spread cities across Europe, causing sanitation problems that still exist today. They gave us the belief that man could dominate the environment – only now the environment is fighting back.

3.   GAMES AND GAMING

The Romans inverted sporting celebrities. We may not allow gladiatorial fights, but today’s boxing and Formula One echo that fatal thrill.

Danger was not enough. The Romans turned Greek sports into gambling extravaganzas. Fortune were won and lost at the Circus Maximus, as in horse racing today. We don’t yet kill people on TV, but Big Brother has something in common with the voyeurism of throwing Christians to the lions.

4.   DEMOCRACY (SORT OF)

The Greeks invented democracy, we are constantly told. We often forget that Athenian democracy was restricted to male citizens. This experiment led to war, plague and the collapse of Athens.

Political hypocrisy never changes. The Emperor Augustus exiled his own daughter Julia for partying and prostitution when he was passing morality laws. Tony Blair suggested fining young men who drink alcohol: a week later, his son Euan was arrested, drunk, in Leicester Square. Silvio Belusconi is mocked for appointing sexy women as ministers; but at least he hasn’t tried to make his horse a consul, like Caligula.

5.   PROGRESS

We want to believe that politics improve, moving towards justice. This is naive. The Romans threw away centuries of popular reform when they accepted emperors. Their dictatorship inspired Hitler and countless others. More Romans ruination next month!

CONFESSIONS OF A LATIN TEACHER PART II

WILLIAM’S WORDS

Source: www.speakup.com.br

Language level: Upper Intermediate

Speaker: Justin Ratcliffe

Standard: British accent

CONFESSIONS OF A LATIN TEACHER By William Sutton

The UK government has ignored demands to offer Latin in all schools. But the ancient world still holds our imaginations, from law and politics through to films like Clash of the Titans and Percy Jackson and he Lighting Thief.

CODGITO ERGO SUM

Politically, Roman laws passed through two houses. The UK copied this arrangement. The US went further, placing the Senate and House of Representative on Capitol Hill. Money stamped with our leaders’ faces is inspired by Roman coins. The Romans gave us public and civil law. Trial by jury and the principle “innocent till proven guilty. Today’s politicians are still influenced by Cicero’s oratory. We take rhetorical devices from the classics simile metaphor metonymy. Although we may prefer films to poetry, we use their literary genres: tragedy and comedy, epic and satire.

Even since Freud psychology has used classical words and concepts. We are aware of our ego, id and superego. We recognize narcissism, mania and the Oedipus complex. Philosophy is built upon Plato and Aristotle, giving us arguments a priori and a posteriori, syllogisms and reductio ad absurdum. Everybody knows Descartes’ phrase. “Cogito ergo sum.”

SCIENCE AND SPORT

Science is full of Latin from geometry’s humble oval to paleontology’s mighty Tyrannosaurus rex in meteorology, we have cumulo-numbus clouds, in physics, the quantum. We named the planets after roman gods. Neighbours Venous and Mars reflect the mythical enlargement of love and war.  The Pluto was dismissed to the underworld, in 2006, his planet was deplaneted’.

In sport, Romans took Greek pursuits and turned them into big business, with stadiums and gambling. Watch today’s racing, horses of Formula One, and you can’t help thinking of chariot racing in the Circus Maximus. The celebrities and hysteria in boxing, wrestling, rugby and football recall Rome’s gladiators.

LATIN ADVOCATES

Oxford classics professors recently urged the British government to give Latin the same status in schools as modern languages. The Department for Education replied: “Latin is an important subject, valuable for learning of modern languages and a useful basis for many disciplines. It is, however not classified in the curriculum as at modern language as pupils cannot interact with native Latin speakers or visit parts of the world where Latin is spoken as a native language.” A diplomatic response!

Even if few British schools teach Latin, nobody denies its influence on modern life. The little of a recent book says it all Vote for Caesar: How the Ancient Greeks and Romans Solved the Problems of Today. Next month we’ll investigate whether that’s really true. but there’s no doubt classical culture is  with us every day. Whatever the Education Secretary says. QED (Quod Erat Demostrandum). And, to prove our point, here are some Latin words and expressions used in everyday English.

LATIN WORDS

Virus

Antenna

Doctor

Facsimile

Via

Modus operandi

Per diem

Sine qua non

RIP (Resquiescat in Pace)

QED (Quod Erat)

Demonstrandum

Vice-versa

Alter ego

Alumnus

Alma mater

Post mortem

Bona fide

Tedium

Museum

Simulacrum

Agenda

De facto

Ex cathedra

Status quo

Quid pro quo

Sic

Ad hoc 

CONFESSIONS OF A LATIN TEACHER Part 1

Source: Speak Up

Standard: British accent

Language level:  Upper intermediate

CONFESSIONS OF A LATIN TEACHER Part 1

I have a confession to make. As well as being a writer, I am a teacher of Latin (and Ancient Greek).

Do the British study Latin? 50 years ago, a large percentage of school children did. Now it is mainly taught in private schools. Many teachers retire schools. Many teachers retire every years; only two universities train new teachers. Many students classical works only in translation. Surely this means the end of Latin – and, some will say, good riddance.

PROPHETS OF DOOM

Journalists and other prophets of doom constantly predict the end of Latin. To me it seems comical to predict the death of an extinct language.

When I admit I am a Latin teacher, people look at me as if I were a dodo. They often send me news paper articles about:

      How useless Latin is.

      How important Latin is.

      How Latin is making a comeback.

      Why do people get so worked up about it? Somehow  Latin provides a focus for all our fears about education: vocational against no-vocational, privileged against under- privileged.

      WHO AND WHY?

Why do we study Latin? It’s not the basis of our language, as it is for Italian, Spanish and Portuguese speakers. Yet, despite the Germanic structure of English perhaps 45 per cent of our vocabulary is Romance-derived. Significantly, intellectual vocabulary is often Latinate the language of science, art and technology.

Who learns Latin today? One definition of the typical English gentleman is: “Someone who once knew the classics but has forgotten them: “We think of aristocratic Oxbridge comics showing off on clever TV shows: actor/writer Stephen Fry: John Cleese and his Monty Python gang: Boris Johson, mayor of London.

This elitism elicits anger as well as admiration. The Campaign for Plain English has fought a war against unnecessary Latin layers no longer use Latin phrases where there are English alternative. Yet we love the scene in Monty Python’s Life of Brian where the centurion correct Brian’s graffiti. To get the joke properly, you need to know Latin. “Romanes eunt domus” is nonsense; he means “Romani, ite domum” (Romans, go home).

EVERYDAY LANGUAGE

Everyday English is full of Latin words. Many are borrowed directly; many more are derivations.

Science (from Latin) and technology (Greek) have filled English with classical vocabulary: galaxy, protons, electric, democracy and telephone (Greek): universe, circuit, election and Prime Minister (Latin): Bones are Latin, from patella to clavicle. Organs and diseases are often Greek: stomach, leukemia. Botanists and zoologists give plants and animals classical names. Other school subjects have Greek names: geography, history, maths, psychology, philosophy.

WHERE NEXT?

It’s all Greek to me is a phrase from Shakespeare used to dismiss anything we can’t understand. Yet we still admire those who have Latin on their curriculum vitae: George Bush Senior’s notoriously ignorant vice president, Dan Quayle, regretted not studying Latin harder in school when he visited Latin America!

People pay me to translate club mottos, degree certificates and tattoos. They buy furniture, stationery and T-shirts with Latin on them. David Beckham has Latin tattoos (and the Roman numeral VII). Why? Because it seems important. Latin has dignity, grandeour, gravitas, so, even if you think it is useless, remember: quod latine, dictum est altum vdetur, or What ever you say in Latin seems deep.

PRONUNCIATION AND SPELLING

English speakers pronouncing Latin are confused. When a word is normal English, it is unashamedly anglicised: alias, alibi, audio, doctor, exit, flux, memorandum, status. Quasi in English has long and I sound. The second c in cancer is soft, the g in agenda is also soft, and there is a j in de jure.

When the English adopt a whole phrase, their pronunciation is a little more Latinate: sine qua non, me culpa, modus vivendi, quid pro quo. When the English sing Latin in church, they use Latinale style. But in school they follow stand and European Erasmus pronunciation –and is amusing when the English  read phrases like arma virumque cano…”

When British English adopts Greek words like encyclopaedia, it keeps the ae after the “p”. Whereas the American use a simple “e,” as in encyclopedia. This causes confusion with names. Aeschylus usually can either be written with an oe, or a simple e at the beginning, while Oedipus can either be written with an oe, or a simple e at the beginning: Edipus. And Daedalus can either be written with an ae – Daedalus – or with an e –Dedalus. And we love Latin abbreviations, even if we rarely know what they stand for, but here are some example.

AD Anno Domini

Am ant meridiem

Exempli gratia – by way of example

Ie id est: that is, to explain

Viz videlicet: namely

QED quod erat demonstrandium.

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