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

[Jona Lendering]

I am not sure what adversity you have to the classics or maybe the way you explain yourself appears to show adversity. However, I do not see anything terribly wrong with giving classic languages some importance.

I feel no adversity at all; if I hated it, I would not have devoted my life to the classics. For the past 25 years, it's been my job and hobby, 24/7, and I expect it to remain both my job and hobby. It is certainly interesting.

That does not mean, however, that I am blind to the fact that Antiquity is just one period in human history. I might have developed a passion for, say, the American Civil War, or Jeanne d'Arc, or the Dutch Indies. 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".

I am not adverse to the classics, but I am surprised by the classicists' attitude. Why is the fact that Antiquity is interesting, never enough?

As far as your language statement that French comes easier if you learn Italian is only true if you are born in Italy or live in Italy and practice the language regularly. Any average college course in languages for a few semesters is not going to provide a deep enough understanding that will make the subtle and sometimes stark difference between the romance languages simpler to learn.

True - but also true for Latin. Five years of Latin did not help me acquire Italian faster than five years of French would have done.

I think that learning classics does make you a more cultured person because it allows a perception of the world from a different view point or a point of understanding instead of just knowing that something is because it was taught that way.

Very true; "a civilized person is by definition bilingual". But again, it does not need to be Latin. One of my best friends is a refugee, and although I am sad to hear what she had to endure in the country she came from and what she has had to endure once she was here, she also has a cultural advantage I will never have. A modern "other culture" may serve as well. And again: no refugee will ever claim that he or she is a better person.

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To be honest, I had not expected the reactions above. I obviously hurt people. That was never my intention.