The War on Christmas is Over. Christmas Lost.

[MineralMan]

5. Latin Language Lurkers?

How odd. I'm envisioning a bunch of Priests poring through DU threads. It's a funny image.

Throughout my life, I've read a lot of 19th century books, mostly non-fiction. More often than I care for, many of them are sprinkled with aphorisms in Latin. Their authors were educated in a time when learning Latin was a requirement. In self defense, I bought a Latin to English dictionary and a basic book about Latin grammar. I started deciphering those Latin passages by using those two references, along with my knowledge of Spanish and French. Over time, I needed to consult the dictionary and grammar books less often.

All of that has served me pretty well, I think. I can read and understand newspaper language in all of the Romance languages now, although I can't speak in any other than Spanish and English. So, I do understand the utility of learning Latin.