New!!!!

[helenv]

Hi!

I was just wondering if it's going to be hard to pick up 3&4 Latin if you've never done it before? And the only Latin you know is your school song?

 Thanks!

[werdna]

Hi!

I was just wondering if it's going to be hard to pick up 3&4 Latin if you've never done it before? And the only Latin you know is your school song?

 Thanks!

Well take it from me. I've studied it for 5 years now and I'm still crap at it. It's pretty darn hard.

[pi]

I attempted it in years 7 and 8, and I found it extremely difficult. However, I know some people who loved it and got 90+% on the end-of-year exams (I got 40% *pass by VELS*, but that's a different story for another day).

I think that if you are dedicated enough and consider yourself a 'language person', then you'll go alright (after scaling  ). Just keep in mind that it is very difficult, even for those who like it. Having said that, my friend's sister got a scaled SS of ~54.7 a few years ago, so it does have its rewards


(btw, your school song probably won't help much, my school song is in English and it aint doing me wonders unfortunately)

[eeps]

I'm studying Latin this year and I would say it's very difficult to pick Latin in Year 12 if you've never done it before to be totally honest. The grammar and vocabulary takes a long time to learn - it takes longer than just one year. The knowledge in Year 12 Latin is very much based on assumed knowledge from previous years (i.e. Year 11, Year 10 etc.). That's not to say it's impossible; though it's just very hard. An ATARNotes member by the name of "the.watchman" who goes to my school, picked up Latin only in Year 9 and he's doing quite well currently. So it can be done.

[Aurelian]

I will be blunt.

You will die.

Don't do it.

What you really have to consider is that basically, at least at my school, we'd learnt all the grammar by the end of year 10; year 11 was all about building familiarity with actual texts, and as such 3/4 Latin assumes that familiarity. The texts you study are by no means easy without being used to the language - poetry, in any second language, is always going to be really tough. To approach Vergil having just learnt your conjugations and barely knowing what the subjunctive is? Madness. Even the prose is not comprised of simple, straightford sentences - and may God save you if you got raw Livy as your exam unseen.

In short, if you were to pick up Latin in year 12 having never done it before, not only would you firstly have to learn all the grammar most students in the state took four years to learn (years 7-10)*, but you would lack the familiarity of the language and (most likely) the solid vocabulary required to do well in the subject.


*though admittedly, if you're good with languages, a year 12 brain would probably be able to cover most if not all of the grammar in the preceding summer holidays, but it probably wouldn't become ingrained without some intensive usage, in which case it becomes an issue of "do you really have that much time and motivation to do so?"

[REBORN]

The older you get the harder it is to learn languages. It's called plasticity of the brain.

[Romperait]

I will be blunt.

You will die.

Don't do it.

Challenge accepted.

[helenv]

XD

Thanks!

I don't know if your comments are putting me off or making me want to do it even more (though I'm leaning towards the not doing it). I don't mind a challenge and I'm a quick learner so I don't really have many qualms about jumping into a language like Latin (though in this case my ATAR is at risk - major risk!!!).

I don't know if this should be part of my consideration but i learnt french in 2 years. I learnt Japanese for 1.5 years previous to that and I was pretty good at both (was because I've stopped and they went poof!)...Oh actually that's not going to help...

Thanks again! I'll mull over it for a while and look at a few Latin texts before deciding...

*sigh* but Latin is so interesting!!!!!!! DX

[Aurelian]

The older you get the harder it is to learn languages. It's called plasticity of the brain.

I question the truth of this oft made statement, and even if it were true I question its applicability to Latin in particular. The only element of a language in which I can envisage neural plasticity being a factor is in the rapid-fire nature of verbal conversation. Modern day academic study of Latin, on the other hand, is predominately written-based, and as such the emphasis of initial learning is on digesting the grammatical structures involved. As a result, I would actually say that Latin is far easier to learn with age; certainly, if I were to start learning Latin *now*, I could probably compress the time it has presently taken me to learn by about 3 years. The first 2 years of my tuition, especially, I could probably reduce to 6 months (which is indeed what occurs at first year university level).

*sigh* but Latin is so interesting!!!!!!! DX

The fact that you said that indicates you'd probably be among the more able at undertaking this endeavour - you really would have to find Latin 'interesting' to have sufficient motivation to learn it in such a small period of time. =)