H1 subjects

[kandinsky]

Well, I think any Asian language is difficult to learn. What makes Japanese the "easiest" out of the rest?

P.S if anyone has any other subjects that they consider easy H1s (not just languages) please contribute

To be honest I think Latin is much easier than Ancient Greek. Contrary to what notveryasian says, I think it works the other way. If you really understand Ancient Greek, then Latin (and I hate to say this phrase) seems piss easy. After all, Latin basically takes all of its grammar from Ancient Greek, but it doesn't take all the Ancient Greek grammar, if that makes sense. For example, there is no optative in Latin nor is there a medio-passive voice, to name twotwo instances. There is also an Aorist tense in Greek, which is similar to French passé composé. Also, there are no real regular verbs in Ancient Greek and verb tenses are derived through root and consonantal vowel changes rather than the common  -o -ere/ire -ivi/ii - itus/tus endings. In my opinion, the Greek verb system works much better even though it is more complicated. So for example the principle parts of the word 'to carry/bear' (from which the latin word fero is derived):

phero, oiso,enenkon/enenka,enenoka,enenegmai,enekthen, enekhthesomai

but then the verb 'I think': oiomai, oiyesomai, oiyethen

I actually find that Greek is a much more rewarding and beautiful language than Latin. Latin seems rather boring after Greek...I'm sure you will really enjoy it!

That said, definitely not a subject to do if you want a certain H1 without doing much work. Class average for translation tests last year was about 6/20 (but it may just have been my lecturer who liked to give beginners Greek passages from Aristotle's Metaphysics, which was actually really great but just really difficult). But then there were only about 7 people in the class, and some of them weren't very hard-working at all. If you want to do really well, you need to knuckle down big time. It worked for me, but it depends how good you are at unseen translation and contextual semantics.

[notveryasian]

That's wonderful!!! Did you study Cicero's Pro Caelio?

Unfortunately we only looked at the history behind Pro Caelio. From memory, we studied extracts from "Pro Plancio", a bit from his defence of Verres(can't remember the name), as well as some of the more philosophical works "De Divinatione" and his some parts of his famous speech against Marcus Anthony in "Philipics." Analysing the rhetoric in his political speeches was probably the best part of learning Cicero, in my opinion.

[90+FTW]

To be honest I think Latin is much easier than Ancient Greek. Contrary to what notveryasian says, I think it works the other way. If you really understand Ancient Greek, then Latin (and I hate to say this phrase) seems piss easy. After all, Latin basically takes all of its grammar from Ancient Greek, but it doesn't take all the Ancient Greek grammar, if that makes sense. For example, there is no optative in Latin nor is there a medio-passive voice, to name twotwo instances. There is also an Aorist tense in Greek, which is similar to French passé composé. Also, there are no real regular verbs in Ancient Greek and verb tenses are derived through root and consonantal vowel changes rather than the common  -o -ere/ire -ivi/ii - itus/tus endings. In my opinion, the Greek verb system works much better even though it is more complicated. So for example the principle parts of the word 'to carry/bear' (from which the latin word fero is derived):

phero, oiso,enenkon/enenka,enenoka,enenegmai,enekthen, enekhthesomai

but then the verb 'I think': oiomai, oiyesomai, oiyethen

I actually find that Greek is a much more rewarding and beautiful language than Latin. Latin seems rather boring after Greek...I'm sure you will really enjoy it!

That said, definitely not a subject to do if you want a certain H1 without doing much work. Class average for translation tests last year was about 6/20 (but it may just have been my lecturer who liked to give beginners Greek passages from Aristotle's Metaphysics, which was actually really great but just really difficult). But then there were only about 7 people in the class, and some of them weren't very hard-working at all. If you want to do really well, you need to knuckle down big time. It worked for me, but it depends how good you are at unseen translation and contextual semantics.

Wow, well all my friends did Ancient Greek this past year and aced it  so that is quite odd! But yes, you'll always hear conflicting things. My professor actually thinks Latin is much harder and you seem to be the only person I've met whose found it the other way around, which relates back to exactly what I said, "it depends on the person." I think talking about languages is SUCH a subjective thing (which is why I was hesitant to mention it in my question). Whether I want a H1 or not, Ancient Greek is a requirement for a Classics Major (but I do work extremely hard and I managed to get 98 in Latin without much difficulty so I have a lot of faith in myself. I've never gotten less than what I've  aimed for in life...not about to start). But I can certainly see where you're coming from Just a side note, I'm pretty sure Latin does have the aorist - this is pretty obvious when you use the sequence of tense. In fact, it's important that you're able to distinguish between the two aspects, lest you end up using the wrong subordinate subjunctive. But yes, the middle voice is something that really only belongs to Ancient Greek, although you can see the subtle connection when studying deponents.

To each their own, I suppose. If it were up to me I would just do Latin, but Ancient Greeks seems fascinating and if you work hard,  I'm sure a H1 is more than possible
And nah, haha I'm far too committed to Latin, I will defend its beauty until the end! Plus, it's important for me to learn since I'm interested in Roman Law

With that said, Ancient Greek seems lovely as well.

[90+FTW]

Unfortunately we only looked at the history behind Pro Caelio. From memory, we studied extracts from "Pro Plancio", a bit from his defence of Verres(can't remember the name), as well as some of the more philosophical works "De Divinatione" and his some parts of his famous speech against Marcus Anthony in "Philipics." Analysing the rhetoric in his political speeches was probably the best part of learning Cicero, in my opinion.

He's quite interesting and you've definitely sparked my interest with "philosophical works!"We did a fair bit of Virgil but not enough in my opinion haha. I'm just looking forward to Horace!

[notveryasian]

He's quite interesting and you've definitely sparked my interest with "philosophical works!"We did a fair bit of Virgil but not enough in my opinion haha. I'm just looking forward to Horace!

Awesome! If you liked Virgil and poetry than you'll definitely love Horace's Satires or Odes. Also, if you haven't studied him already, Catullus' is another great poet and you might enjoy some of his work(although he can be quite crude and explicit.)

[kandinsky]

Wow, well all my friends did Ancient Greek this past year and aced it  so that is quite odd! But yes, you'll always hear conflicting things. My professor actually thinks Latin is much harder and you seem to be the only person I've met whose found it the other way around, which relates back to exactly what I said, "it depends on the person." I think talking about languages is SUCH a subjective thing (which is why I was hesitant to mention it in my question). Whether I want a H1 or not, Ancient Greek is a requirement for a Classics Major (but I do work extremely hard and I managed to get 98 in Latin without much difficulty so I have a lot of faith in myself. I've never gotten less than what I've  aimed for in life...not about to start). But I can certainly see where you're coming from Just a side note, I'm pretty sure Latin does have the aorist - this is pretty obvious when you use the sequence of tense. In fact, it's important that you're able to distinguish between the two aspects, lest you end up using the wrong subordinate subjunctive. But yes, the middle voice is something that really only belongs to Ancient Greek, although you can see the subtle connection when studying deponents.

To each their own, I suppose. If it were up to me I would just do Latin, but Ancient Greeks seems fascinating and if you work hard,  I'm sure a H1 is more than possible

re Aorist. Well Latin doesn't have a dedicated Aorist tense, which is what I mean. Yes, the perfect changes to an aoristic sense in some cases of the sequence of tense in Latin, and sometimes has an aoristic sense in itself (and these things are disputed by scholars,too). But again this just comes to the problems in some of the grammatical terminology in Classical languages. Thankfully lots of textbooks are moving to a method that teaches verbal aspect rather than set terms like 'perfect' 'pluperfect' blah blah which is much better.

lol ye I'm sure you'll be fine at Ancient Greek, you absolute gun. Congrats on your score, that's amazing. But since this is a 'H1 subjects' thread I thought I'd just warn people that it's no walk in the park My views were naturally absurdly biased because I did 6 years of Latin at school before doing Greek-Latin is of course extremely difficult! I wasn't saying that one is harder than the other. I meant that doing Greek makes Latin seem easier, because all the grammar in Latin is taken from Greek, and Greek has quite a few things that Latin does not have. I think you'll understand what I mean when you finish Greek next year. I feel like you were a bit defensive about it so hope I didn't convey the wrong idea in my response (the guilt!) - just shows how much you love Latin

And yeh I have heard 2nd year Greek is much better! (No one in first year Greek was doing first year Latin, so I presume your friends were in 2nd year Greek?) I'm looking forward to it haha. It gets so much better when you can just focus on the texts etc.

Ye I agree Latin is good for Law but Greek is brilliant for philosophy. If you're interested in speeches/ Cicero you should read Demosthenes - sheer brilliance of oratory without Cicero's,umm arrogance ( it annoys me when Cicero praises himself, and he does it a lot-so I am annoyed a lot when reading Cicero). Seneca in Latin is also really great (his Moralia especially). Check it out.

[90+FTW]

lol ye I'm sure you'll be fine at Ancient Greek, you absolute gun. Congrats on your score, that's amazing. But since this is a 'H1 subjects' thread I thought I'd just warn people that it's no walk in the park My views were naturally absurdly biased because I did 6 years of Latin at school before doing Greek-Latin is of course extremely difficult! I wasn't saying that one is harder than the other. I meant that doing Greek makes Latin seem easier, because all the grammar in Latin is taken from Greek, and Greek has quite a few things that Latin does not have. I think you'll understand what I mean when you finish Greek next year. I feel like you were a bit defensive about it so hope I didn't convey the wrong idea in my response (the guilt!) - just shows how much you love Latin

Waaaa? Haha,  geesh I need to be more careful about how I present myself!I'm so sorry if I gave off that vibe, I was definitely not trying to be defensive!!! Like I said, to each their own - how can I possibly criticize someone's opinion? I'm just impressed with anyone who's able to do Ancient Greek and mega jealous.

And BINGO, my friends were all second year Greek students - except for one. Seneca is lovely but I really love Horace! Nobody loves Tacitus though...well, I just I can't imagine anyone loving him.

[90+FTW]

Also, if you haven't studied him already, Catullus' is another great poet and you might enjoy some of his work(although he can be quite crude and explicit.)

As crude as Martial? lol
He has the best epigrams I've ever read. Check them out. A personal and famous favourite that makes me cringe every single time. "Mentula tam magna est, tantus tibi, Papyle, nasus ut possis, quotiens arrigis, olfacere." Instead of intellectual philosophy, I read satirical plays (putting my Latin to good use, I see). Although I do enjoy the poets and their much more, refined language.

aaaaaaaaaand this topic has gone...off topic. Anymore H1 subjects? I really appreciate all these suggestions.

[notveryasian]

As crude as Martial? lol
He has the best epigrams I've ever read. Check them out. A personal and famous favourite that makes me cringe every single time. "Mentula tam magna est, tantus tibi, Papyle, nasus ut possis, quotiens arrigis, olfacere." Instead of intellectual philosophy, I read satirical plays (putting my Latin to good use, I see). Although I do enjoy the poets and their much more, refined language.

aaaaaaaaaand this topic has gone...off topic. Anymore H1 subjects? I really appreciate all these suggestions.

I've never read any of Martial's work, but it is as bad as Catullus 32? Or even 16? I guess I'll form an opinion in my own time, haha.

On the topic of H1 breadth subjects, your best bet would be to look into the Faculty of Fine Arts, or even subjects offered by the music department. A lot of my friends have been scoring free H1s from Glee Singing 1, which has been suggested by Pup in this thread. If you're feeling a bit edgy, you could also do some University Breadth subjects, but they can be a bit dry in content and difficult to score well in(Food for a Healthy Planet rekt me.)

I have no experience with Arts subjects so I can't help you much with core/elective subjects.

[brightsky]

I've never read any of Martial's work, but it is as bad as Catullus 32? Or even 16? I guess I'll form an opinion in my own time, haha.

I don't think anything is quite as bad as Catullus 16.

[kandinsky]

I don't think anything is quite as bad as Catullus 16.

So inappropriate.

[90+FTW]

Oh dear God, I take back everything I said...Catullus wins. WOW. That was quite graphic...

I think I choked after the first line "pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo" GEESH!!!

[Turtle]

Sports Coaching...Absolutely hands down the easiest thing I have ever done!
And 'Deafness and Communication'