"Because of Latin and Greek, I am a better person"

[Astiryu1]

Look at that guy from Colorado who was arrested in some forest in Pakistan (I believe it was this country) with a gun, knife, and night vising gogles. His mission was to get Bin Laden all by himself since the US army has not been able to do it, according to him, for the past 9 years. Is this not Rambo type nonsense where one man takes on an army. Please lets get serious.

Anyway, I may be drifting OT and do not wish to de-rail Jona's original post.

That guy looked pretty serious to me! But you are right this is getting off topic.

Rambo also had the underlying plot of the Viet Nam War's effects on the soldiers(Physically, Mentally and Financially) This to me is the most important aspect of the movie(and book). This was 10 to 15 years before all the Post Traumatic Stress stuff came about. The end of the movie (to me) justifies putting it on film... I like action just as much as the next guy but with that ending it makes one rethink the "shoot 'em all" mentality. Maybe for the first time people could even slightly understand what vets go through due to this one scene.
Even Rambo can improve a person's understanding so not way OT! :wink:

Knowledge must be applied the right way to discern a use. When you have this use many things are possible. Latin and Greek give us valuable insight as to human conditions; which many are still valid today. Also learning from these histories gives us an idea of what to and what not to do in a given situation. One day maybe politicians will pick up "The Art of War" or Plutarch, Livy or countless others and get an idea that could work in modern times or to avoid one as well that doesn't work. For me language is simply a way to describe a thought, need, action, etc. but knowing these throughout the span of human history is invaluable and can't be done without their language. A key for a door to another world... Past,Present and future!

[MARCvSVIBIvSMAvRINvS]

I cannot imagine that a historian writing a book about Otto von Bismarck would say "it is so useful, because it made me more ambitious, it made me learn German languages better, and made me a better person".

Only when you have read Goethe this works......

M.VIB.M.

[Medusa Gladiatrix]

Also, after you get Latin especially, the other Romance languages suddenly get a lot easier to pick up!

You might have obtained the same result by learning, say, Italian. After that, French and Spanish become easier. At least, that's what I think.

I agree with Jona, I had four years of Latin but actually it didn't help me that much in learning French, Spanisch and Italian. It only helped me a little when I started learning Spanish. It didn't confuse me that the personal pronoun is in most cases left out because you can see it by the verb. That is the same as in Latin. But that was actually it where Latin was of help. Not much, eh?

Currently I'm learning very intensively Italian and it's more English and French and sometimes Spanish which help me, and no Latin at all. Except for the texts about gladiators that a scudo is a shield because it's derived from scutum, and that a spada is a sword because it comes from spatha.

[Dithrambus]

Granted, we can learn about the ways humans treat each other by studying, say, the Cold War or the Napoleonic Wars, but the classics are useful as a barometer of how things have changed since the dawn of recorded history simply because they're about the more distant past, and that makes the contrast between "then" and "now" much more vivid.

Let's just say "studying Antiquity can help you gain a broader perspective," and leave it at that.

Well said!!

[Ron Andrea]

Augustine of Hippo supposed said, “The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”

I've found a similar effect with language. Speaking even a little of a local language helps get you closer to the people whose nation who are visiting. Likewise, being able to read texts in their original, gives you insights to the thoughts of the author. Some of the word play, alliterations, rhythms, etc., are completely lost in translation.

Those observations, of course, are not restricted to Latin and Greek.