Latin isn't dead--it's just napping before it makes its comeback

I know I've only made two posts in the last few weeks, but I've no plans to abandon this blog just yet. Before we return to our regularly scheduled pop culture meets Classics programming, a few words about where I've been.

Last week, I attended the Rusticatio Virginiana, a week-long Latin immersion workshop conducted by SALVI. SALVI is a non-for-profit organization dedicated to encouraging spoken Latin as a means of learning and enjoying the language.

Who the heck speaks Latin nowadays, you say? Over the past century, the idea of Latin as a speakable language has fallen out of favor with many teachers and professors, and in many schools, colleges, and universities, Latin is taught only for reading knowledge. This always struck me as a naive pedagogical approach. Listening to and speaking a language builds the synapses in your brain that enable you to remember and internalize vocabulary, grammar, and syntax. It also makes you more aware of the shades of meaning that might accompany different sentences and turns of phrase. Admittedly, being able to ask what time it is and state where you live in Latin may not help you translate and understand the most complex sentences in Tacitus. It does, however, get the electricity running in new parts of your brain, which in turn improves the knowledge and skills you already have.

While being the daughter of two scientists never got me into medical school, I did learn enough from my parents to know this: using your brain in new ways is always good. It's mental exercise. And that said: why not speak Latin? Gods forbid you do something that helps you learn the language better!

The Rusticatio Virginiana is a bit like a combination of kindergarten and summer camp, with games, classes, various chores, free time, and a play--all conducted entirely in Latin. While these activities end up being a lot of fun, they're also quite difficult. The thing one forgets about kindergarten is, it's actually pretty hard work for kindergarteners. Considering that the spoken Latin of the participants started out at a five-year-old level, it was hard work for us too. On the other hand, we made a lot of progress over the course of the week, which we realized on the last evening as we cracked jokes and made puns in Latin over dinner.

In addition to learning spoken Latin, you can learn a number of teaching strategies, as well, for incorporating spoken Latin into the classroom. The best part is, you can use any of the strategies you want in your class with or without the others--you don't need to "convert fully" and make every class a Rusticatio, but pick and choose the activities you think will work best for your particular situation.

So, that said, if you're a Latin teacher or professor interested in new pedagogy, I highly recommend signing up for the Rusticatio. Just give it a shot--no matter what, you'll learn something!

In the next entries I plan to have some book reviews and probably more covers, so stay tuned...