Latin in My Life

Ethan Weinger

Latin in My Life

There once was a time in 6th grade where I wasn't doing Latin, but instead Spanish. It was a strange time, as Latin has helped me in so many ways outside of the classroom. Latin has changed my life in many good little ways. So, I thought why not talk about five ways Latin has changed my life.

Music: I listen to a lot of rap and not until recently I learned that several of the songs I really like have Rome and Latin reverences. The main rapper who would reverence these things is Jay-Z. Jay-Z has said in a song called Encore that, "I came, I saw, I conquered. From record sales, to sold out concerts." This line is referring to the classic line of Julius Caesar, where he says Veni, Vidi, Vici. That means I came, I saw, I conquered, and Jay-Z is referring that he is like Julius Caesar, by becoming a huge deal with his followers. Another Jay-Z line comparing himself to Julius Caesar is in the song Run This Town with Rihanna and Kanye West. He says the lines, "You can call me Caesar, in a dark Czar. Please follow the leader."Once again Jay-Z mentions Julius Caesar and this time he is referring that he is a leader like the icon of the Romans. I learned about Caesar during a Latin class where I did a project over him and learned his famous quote. Without knowing it, I would've never noticed the first line in Encore. I always want to know what rap songs are saying for the whole song, so this helps me a lot by knowing Roman history.

English: I have struggled with vocabulary in English my whole life, but recently I have started being able to match English words with Latin words they came from. With this, I can use better words when writing papers and other things. I have also just learned fun facts about English words, such as hippopotamus really means a river horse. I find these things extremely interesting and it helps me understand words better. This has helped me get higher grades on papers and more able to understand more complicated things when reading or listening.

Odyssey: While reading the Odyssey, I have found that Roman history we learned about has come into the book many times. In Latin class, we learned about the Trojan War several times and that is a key part of the book, as the main character, Odysseus, fought in it and was a hero during the battle. We as well learned about the story of Orestes in Latin and it came up in the book. He pretty much did a lot of terrible things, including killing his own mother. By knowing this from Latin class, I have a better understanding of the Odyssey and the little details of the book that many of my classmates didn't realize.

Rome: While on vacation in Italy, I had to go to Rome. It has many key features that have to do with Latin, but my favorite was the Colosseum. Latin as a language didn't help me very much while I was there, but learning about the history of Rome during Latin class helped me point out features of the Colosseum to my parents. My favorite thing that I noticed was the underground part where the gladiators or the animals came from to battle. They had a level system under there to carry the animal for a person up there. Knowing these things from my formal Latin teacher, Mr. Stewart, I was able to give me and my parents the full tour of many places in Rome.

Olympics: When I watch the Olympics, I mainly just pay attention to the sports part of it. In the sports part of it, there are many sports that came from Roman sports. Examples that I remember are boxing, racing, and the long jump are from the Romans. As well, I found out in Latin class that the slogan of the Olympics actually means faster, higher, and stronger. I had seen it in Latin and I knew exactly what it meant because of Latin class. Because I knew these things, I could once again point it out to my family so they can have a better understanding like me.

Blog Post (Jan. 31, 2020): Latin Helps us all the Time

Sara Carruth

Latin Helps me all the Time

          Being able to recognize and understand Latin vocabulary and form has helped me to further develop knowledge of literary works, movies, and even in other classes here in school. My first example of this is how I was able to dissect and further understand terms in which were used in the "Harry Potter" series of books when I re-read a few of the books over the summer last year. One area of the book in which this occurred was when I recognized the spell used for conjuring a flame, "Incendio", as being a Latin vocab word we learned in class. Another instance in which I understood something because of Latin class was the first time I heard the phrase "carpe diem", which means "seize the day". I knew what this had meant because of Mr. Stewarts Latin class last year in which he taught us this. Also when the word "ego" is used I always think of how the word means "I" in Latin, which therefore makes the word a very simple and clear derivative, as ego (in the English language now) means to be all about yourself. The first time I realized "ego" meant this was during Latin class last year with Mr. Stewart. To further illustrate the fact that Latin has aided me in the past in everyday life, another example would be how I asked my English teacher, Mr. Mazzella, this year what e.g. stood for while writing a short answer for a prompt he had given us. He told me that it derived from a Latin phrase; "exempli gratia", meaning "for example" My final instance is the word "alibi". I personally watch a lot of crime tv-shows and this word is used very often. I had heard the word before, however, when I watched the show "Lucifer" last school year, I understood the real meaning of it due to Mr. Stewart telling my class that the word meant "elsewhere". Being in Latin class these past two years has helped me significantly within and outside of school in many ways. Without the knowledge of Latin that I have at this point, or in any of the points in which these situations came upon me, I would not have had as good of an understanding of the terms/phrases that I provided. Therefore, I appreciate and value everything that I have learned so far and am continuing to learn in this class. 

How Latin Has Helped Me

How Latin Has Helped Me

I see Latin everywhere in my life, and taking Latin as a class opens my eyes to so much more Latin influence than I ever knew existed! In Global Cultures around October, we learned about many statistics and what they mean. One example is Gross Domestic Product. When ever you see GDP, it is usually followed by the Latin phrase per capita. I had no idea what this meant, and then I realized that it is Latin for "by head," meaning that whenever you see GDP, the number is per person, or per capita. I also saw Latin in Harry Potter when I read the series in 2017. One particular spell that was used by many characters was accio. This word means "I summon" in Latin. I also experienced Latin when I learned about the element gallium back in 2019 in science class. Gallium comes from the Latin word Gallia, meaning France. Since the founder of this element is French, it was fitting to name the element after his home country. When I first started reading the Odyssey for English in November, we were supposed to annotate for piety. Turns out that piety comes from the Latin word pius, meaning religious. Piety also means religiousness, so it was a fitting name. The last Latin example that I found was from the song Gloria by U2 when I heard the song last week. One of the lines is in te domine, meaning in you lord. It was a nice addition to the song and it makes it more unique. Though Latin is not the most popular language choice in high school, I think it should be more appreciated. I see Latin absolutely everywhere. It is one of the defining factors of life in this country today. English stems from Latin, and when you learn the language, you can find Latin everywhere and in popular sayings. It is a very unique language that opens your eyes to so many possibilities and knowledge in many fields. I highly recommend Latin for anyone that wants to learn about influences that you never would have recognized.

Grace Ramsey

How Latin Has Helped.

Since starting Latin in 7th grade, it has helped me gain a greater understanding and new perspective on many aspects of my life.

1) One way Latin has helped me is in my understanding of English Latin-based words. In fact, three weeks ago, as I was reading Homer's Odyssey, I took notice of the word patient. Having just studied the word patior meaning to suffer, and therefor I knew that patient literally meant to suffer. Not only was this hilarious, it helped me gain a new understanding of what the character was enduring while waiting.

2) Another way Latin has helped me, was when I was watching a TV show a few days ago called Supernatural. It's a show about a few guys who go around hunting demons. Naturally this show contains several exorcisms. In these exorcisms, they chant in Latin. One of the things they say is "omnis immundus spiritus". This means all unclean spirits. Knowing Latin in this instance helped me gain a greater understanding of what exactly was going on and added to the mood and depth of the show

3) The third way Latin has helped me is in English. This happened towards the end of last year. My class was doing their mock trial and it was chock full of latin jargon. I distinctly remember the phrase "bona fide" within the trail packet and by checking into it, I realized that it meant "good faith". This helped make the mock trial richer and I gleaned a greater understanding of the trial because of it.

4) The fourth way Latin has helped me has been in sentence structure. The first time I really noticed this was a few weeks ago, when reading the Odyssey. By going over concepts such as participles, tense, and voice, I now possess a greater mastery of English sentence structure. In sentences like "the running man" and "I should have threatened" (with running and threatened being the participles), I can understand the parts of speech and usage. This is all due to Latin and breaking down its sentence structure.

5) And finally, the fifth way Latin has helped me is in my understanding of Latin headings on buildings. This occured while on a trip to DC last year. My knowledge of Latin helped me read the seal of the National Archives. It says "littera scripta manet". This means the written word remains, signifying the importance of physical documents. This, again, helped gain a greater understanding of the place we were in and helped increase the richness of the experience.

All in all, Latin has had many uses in my life, both practical and not. Mostly it has increased my understanding of a place and context and increased my enjoyment of an experience. But there are several instances of its more concrete uses, most notably my English sentence structure. Latin is so pervasive, especially now, that it's hard to go anywhere without finding a reference. I do not regret taking this course, even if it's not as plainly useful in terms of spoken communication, its uses and references are ingrained on the surface of our language, our culture, and our history. I encourage everyone who is able to take this course.

Latin: Why it is the best

Jaclyn Miles

First and foremost, Latin has been the most helpful within different classes and aspects of life than I've observed in other languages. It's all around us every day and many don't even notice, but here are five examples which you or anyone could observe:

1) In general, lots of the English language are derived from Latin roots. That means that while in English, I can understand and interpret certain vocabulary words. A showing of this is the word "colloquial". I didn't necessarily know what this meant when I first saw it. But, I then learned the word "colloquium" in Latin and that helped my understanding of it. This is only one example, and there are many more words that I have been able to decipher due to taking Latin.

2) Recently, we just finished reading the Odyssey and Latin was quite helpful during that period because I could relate the events that happened in the book. We discussed the Trojan War and that is practically the basis of the story. So, because of my prior knowledge of the war from Latin class, I was able to connect points that Mr. Flickinger was referring to. Also, the story of Orestes and killing his mother was mentioned a few times, and because we talked about it in class, I was able to know what the characters were alluding to.

3) As I mentioned before, Latin is around us every day with us not even noticing. Earlier during the year, we did a mottos project which was us choosing one motto of an organization or college with Latin in their motto. I learned that a lot of companies usually have Latin mottos or words that have Latin roots. So, whenever their slogan or motto comes on TV, I am able to comprehend/translate it with much thought. Also, some brand names are Latin/Greek based such as Trident gum. That obviously refers to the god Poseidon and his symbol of the Trident. Through that blog post project, I'm also able to recognize connections in Greek mythology to products I use.

4) In chapel and at my church, there is an extremely common song with the lyrics "Dona Nobis Pacem" etc.. I never knew what that meant. Though, because I have been taking Latin, I was able to try and figure out the meaning of the lyrics which is "Grant us Peace". I also do this with other songs and Latin phrases that churches typically use.

5) Not only has Latin helped me in English, but overall understanding other languages like Spanish. I've been able to help and figure out certain words in Spanish due to them being derived from Latin. An example of this happening was one of my friends asked me what "easy" was in Spanish and I answered "facilis" knowing that was easy in Latin. I actually was quite close because the actual way to say "easy" in Spanish is "facile". They are quite similar and I was opened to the fact that there are so many other words in Spanish that are extremely similar to Latin. This happened in 8th grade when I was still fairly new to how expansive Latin.

In all, I would definitely recommend taking Latin in the future for even just a single course. It has been proven helpful in a lot of aspects of my life. Many may think that just because it's a dead language that it no longer shows up anywhere. But, they couldn't be more wrong and taking Latin has overall been a great eye-opening experience.

Latin Helps Us All the Time

Grant Williams

Latin in the Modern USA

In an almost ironic twist, the Latin class has helped me through so much. I was in sixth grade, and the Spanish teacher thoroughly ignored my accomodations, even after multiple meetings with the learning specialist. Then the Latin preview came around. I saw students whose interests aligned with mine, and so I said "It cannot be any worse than this." I would now describe it as a "Caesar at the Rubicon" scenario.



1. NCIS
In one of my favorite shows, NCIS, the main character, Agent Gibbs, is a former marine. He meets many other marines in the process of countless investigations. When he meets somebody who he thinks is a marine he'll say "Semper fidelis", which translates as "Always faithful". If they are a marine, they'll typically reply "Hoorah". Latin helps decipher some of the military jargon in that show.


2. DC
In the Nation's capital, there is Latin everywhere. There might as well be a hidden Rome. On the monuments, there are no Base 10 numbers (Arabic number system). They only carve Roman numerals into the eternal tributes. When I went to the Lincoln Memorial over Thanksgiving break, the founding dates of all the states are inscribed in massive font around the top of the monument. Although I could not read them, I knew how to read the last few digits. And then there's the Senate.


3. US Space Force Logo
In the US Space Force logo, which admittedly looks like somebody liked the Starfleet logo, there are Roman numerals signifying the founding date of the organization, MMXIX. I saw this while browsing twitter, and I couldn't stop laughing that somebody had the gall to put numbers under the Starfleet logo and call it the sixth branch of the US military.

4. Matilda Song
In the Upper School musical, Matilda, there is a song ominously titled "The Hammer". In it, there is mildly real Latin. It reads "BAMBINATUM EST MAGITUM, CIRCULUM EST DEUM". Which translates, confusingly, to "Children are maggots*, and Circle is god." I was confused by these lyrics, with only the second bit being real Latin.

*Not real Latin. I thought magitum was a form of "magister". A real translation would be "Liberi sunt vermiculos". However, magitum sounds like maggots, so they chose that. The second one is real Latin.

5. Te Pesce Verbero

My friends all take Latin, so our motto is Te Pesce Verbero. It translates as "I beat you with a fish." This strange call to arms came about in 7th grade Latin class, when we had studied a unit that had "beat" as one of the main verbs. We then began to force the Spanish students to learn the superior language, regardless of whether they wanted to or not.

5 Ways Latin has Helped Me

Latin has helped me throughout many different classes and outside of school. In English I, Latin has constantly helped me understand the book, The Odyssey. The book is based on Greek and Roman mythology, and also uses Roman numerals, so I was able to grasp a better understanding of the book with my connections to Latin. Latin has helped me understand many gods/goddesses and their capabilities, myths, etc. Outside of class, Latin has also helped me expand my vocabulary, and be introduced to better, more descriptive words. For example, while having conversation with teachers, I started to use the term loquacious, which is derived from the Latin word loquo, which we learned in class. Latin has also helped me understand 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person language. Before I joined Latin, I was always confused on the differences between speaking in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person, but because of the charts we used in Latin, I easily learned that 1st is I and we, 2nd is you or y'all, and 3rd is he/she/it or they. For special words that use a different plural form that we are not really used to, Latin has also helped me with that. Now, I don't know if this is completely right, but in Latin, the plural ending for a -us ending is -i. In English, some words that end with -us end with -i as their plural form, like cactus to cacti, instead of "cactuses." Finally, Latin has also simply just helped me understand Roman life, including history, weapons, etc. In English, when we were reading The Odyssey, it starrs Odysseus, who leaves to fight in the Trojan War with famous characters like Agamemnon, and throughout the book, Odysseus usually uses many old-fashioned weapons like a hasta, or spear. In these cases, Latin has just helped me gain a deeper understanding of all of this, like knowing what the Trojan War is, knowing what a hasta is, etc. Latin has helped me in many different situations, and I hope to continue to learn through the class.