Why study Latin and Greek?

I got this question in my comments-- here's the drawn out answer:

My husband had the unique opportunity of studying Latin as a high school student and one year at BYU. More than anything else he attributes his ability to think clearly and logically to his study of Latin. Also by learning Latin, he learned Grammar with a capital "G", most of us won't understand what he means until they study Latin. Grammar schools get their name from the schools where the kids attended to learn Latin, like in Anne of Green Gables. It was and can continue to be done.

Latin is a very organized language. The nouns, adjectives, adverbs and other parts of speech will have a different ending depending on what it is doing in the sentence-- subject, direct object, indirect object, possessive, or what word it is associated with etc. Therefore, in order to make a sentence properly in Latin, it must be clear exactly what it is you are tying to say. Same with the verbs and other parts of speech. I think the Grammar is what makes it so difficult. There is so much to keep straight which trains the mind very well. Also, by learning Latin, the student will learn English grammar as a by product and way better than they would by studying any modern language.

Another reason to study Latin is that many English words come from Latin, so it helps us understand our own language so much better. Latin is also the underlying language of our civilization. By learning Latin, we learn about history, art, science, and everything else Latin has touched which is just about everything in Western Civilizaiton.

So now why Greek? Greek has one less declension than Latin, so it is not quite so involved. So the Grammar is a little easier and that makes it a nice precursor to studying Latin. Many English words also come from Greek and how cool would it be to read the New Testament in the original Greek? And it is pretty fun to read in a different alphabet.

Tough subjects turning out disciplined minds?-- yes, just what I want. Do my girls like it-- yes when it's easy, and no when it's hard. They sure are pleased with themselves when they struggle through and finish what they thought was insurmountable.

Check out these articles from Memoria Press on studying Latin, scroll down to the bottom to see the Latin section. The section on studying formal Logic is also enlightening.
http://www.memoriapress.com/articles/


Need a short answer?
Mean Verbal SAT scores for 2006:

LATIN STUDENTS: 672
Spanish Students: 577
French Students: 637
German Students: 632
Hebrew Students: 623

Average for all students: 503

Learning Greek is Great!!!

My oldest child was upset today because her Greek work was so hard and she was so tired and couldn't do any other "school" work today!!! I am so pleased!! We have been using a program written by Cristine Gatchell called Elementary Greek. My oldest finished her first year workbook a few months ago and has started on the second year, and I have too for that matter since I'm learning along with her. It was pretty frustrating at times that first year, because we had to take about 18 mos. instead of just 30 weeks as the book is set up. But we were thorough and we didn't move on until we understood everything in the first year book ( although we could use some continued vocabulary review), but other than that, we got it. We understand nouns, verbs, nominative case, genetive case, adjectives, prepositions and number. In Greek the ending of the noun will change according to it's part of speech in the sentence, so you really have to understand exactly what it is you are saying in order to get the right endings on all the nouns and the adjectives for that matter. So we spent a lot of time memoriziing and reciting noun endings for masculine nouns, neuter nouns and feminine nouns. Also, the articles and adjectives match whichever ending is being used. So there really is a lot to it and there is a ton to learn. And my little girl gets it!! It is hard brain work, but her brain is being wired and trained to think and to understand grammar and speech and meaning. It is also neat how many of our English words come from Greek!!

So anyway, after being excited that she is tired, but successful, I thought about all the things we've learned and learned well from just this first year of Greek and I grabbed the 3rd year book to look at where we'll be in approximwtely 2 years and we'll know all about the verbs and all the tenses. I'm so excited!! It's really hard to learn a lot of these from English because the endings just don't change. We express the same tenses like I was looking in the store would be something like imperfect past or something ( I haven't learned it yet) but in Greek the endings would change according to the tense and use so it is a little more clear and necessary to understand grammar than it is for us English speakers even if we did learn to diagram sentences.

Now that is an education!!! I wish I had learned Greek, Latin and Hebrew as a teenager or kid. Wouldn't it be awesome to be able to read the Bible in its original language?, as well as all the other great books like the Iliad. I bet it sounds so much better in Greek!!

Anyway, today was a nice acknowledgment day. All this hard work is starting to pay off, even if we never did mop the floor last week!! Maybe tomorrow, but probably not, we've got to get our Christmas presents mailed!!!!