Latin and my term paper...

So I just turned in my term paper a few hours ago after working on polishing it up for most of the day and all of last night. I was surprised by how much easier it was to fix the passive voice sentences now that I know how to do that, thanks entirely to Latin.

Now I'm just looking forward to Friday! I'm totally free until then, so if anyone wants to study, just let me know where and when and I'll probably be able to be there.

~Rachael

Professor M.
Check your email when you get a chance. :) Feel better!


And for those of you that don't know the test was canceled today. Prof. M is taking our highest test score and doubling it to replace this test supposedly. Good luck on finals guys!
Stacey Bedard

My last posting on here talked about my "brilliant" expository writing class. I have another little anecdote from that class that surprisingly relates to Latin. Today we were going over different types of styles in writing. We have a 15-20 page paper due next week, and most of the class still doesn't understand what has to be turned in (we are in college, right?). Anyways, the professor used "Veni, Vidi, Vici" as an example of a style (heck if I remember it though). One person asked if that phrases was Italian, while another person asked if it was Spanish. I'll forgive the Italian comment, but Spanish? It hurts sometimes, it really does.

I'm going back to studying for a test tomorrow. Expect a zombie to have taken over my body tomorrow in class.

Olivia H.

P.S. - And while this has nothing to do with Latin, I can't stop laughing about this. Only in my hometown does this nonsense happen. Seriously.

I definitely posted something yesterday and now it's not here...I can't remember what it was. Oh well.
I used Latin in my short story I wrote today for Narr and Des. It seemed appropriate. I'm going to miss learning more Latin. I hope I make efforts to further learn the language and keep up with it. I'll really miss this class, Proff M, and my classmates. I can't say I've ever worried about missing another class in my college career.
Well my teacher is back to flapping his jacket and talking about the KKK. I'll be at the library around 4pm. See you guys at 1pm!
Stacey Bedard

Raise your hand if you need to study a lot of LATIN!! Olivia and I will be at the library tonight..and every other night probably! See you guys later!
Stacey Bedard

OK, I love that we've learned the verb nubere. I have been attempting to talk about my upcoming wedding in Latin... and failing miserably. However, I'm designing the programs for our wedding myself and I'm thinking of coming up with a nice little phrase in Latin to include. Talk about blowing away our families!

But on to more important things, for test #3, the vocabulary from chap. 32 will be included, yes? It's on the study guide that was passed out, so I'm assuming that... we just won't be tested on anything else from 32 until the final, correct? Also, since I have been conjugating verbs up, down, right, left, and inside out all weekend, I was wondering about the prefect of confidere. It's not in the back of the book, so is it something to worry about? I did some searching through my treasure trove of Latin websites and found that the first-person perfect is confidavi. Is this correct? Am I worrying too much?

I think that's all for now from me. Thanks!

Olivia H.

I will be studying Latin in the library this weekend.
Times:
Friday after 3ish
Saturday after 2pm (but only if someone joins me
Sunday..not sure yet. The latest would be 7pm.

Let me know if you want to join!!
Stacey Bedard

Oy! Can I vent here a sec?

Such a mess of a day! I swear... I was a total mess in Latin... This whole perfect passive participle thing is killing me... Not how to form it. I get that... most of the time... but how to translate it? Hehe... I wish! It's not coming as instinctively as all the other tenses and forms have. We're told constantly in English classes that passive voice is bad, bad, bad... Drilled to never do it, even while we aren't told precisely what it is (because grammar education in this country is a joke)... Even though the passive voice isn't incorrect, strictly speaking, it's just not "the most correct." ::rolls eyes:: What ever that's supposed to mean...

But what *really* killed me today was my seminar. We had to turn in the rough drafts of our term papers last Monday... or I should say more precisely, my half of the class did; the other half turned in their papers last week. So for tonight's class, those of us who turned our papers in this week had our papers ripped apart by everyone else. I guess I'm sensitive about such things... or maybe its because even after all the info I've gathered, I still don't feel I have a handle on it, or perhaps it's just because I already felt my paper is terribly constructed to begin with... I don't know, but it was really hard to sit there for about a half hour while everyone grilled me on what's wrong with the paper. I didn't argue with people like most others did. I didn't defend it and I tried really hard to explain myself, but I think even I didn't know what I was saying most of the time. ::sighs:: I think I came off sounding like an idiot... I don't perform well verbally when under pressure, so I was quite flustered. I tell you, I don't wish the experience on anyone.

For the rest of the class, I felt like I was going to be sick. I almost got up a few times to get some air outside, but I was afraid if I moved that much I really would be sick. So I just stayed in my seat and tried not to look obviously upset. That took most of my concentration... And I'm not even sure it was successful because I have one of those faces where you can see what I'm thinking by looking at me and I really can't hide it... And even when I got home a little while ago, I still felt a little nauseous. This was why I had wanted to go last, I knew I'd have this reaction and be perfectly useless to anyone for anything for the rest of the time I was required to be there... and I really was completely useless.

I can't even bring myself to look at the rough draft copy I got back from the prof... I just can't take it right now... I have to let it sit until at least Friday... maybe Saturday... so that I can detach myself from crying over my own awful paper. I didn't used to have this problem. I used to take constructive criticism on papers much better than this. Not sure what my issue is...

Okay, I will stop complaining now...

The only bright spots of the day were Latin class (because it can't be anything but, even when it's hard), Roman Lit (again, for the same reason), eating lunch with Stacey, seeing my friend Maria for all of 2 seconds (both she and I are *so* busy right now!), and arriving home to discover that my "Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy" t-shirt had come in the mail, and it fits! :D It really makes me much happier than it should. LOL! I will wear it to Latin tomorrow.

Oh! And about Latin ;D I have a question... "Esse" in the future tense of the 3rd plural is "erunt" but for the future perfect is it "fuerunt" or "fuerint"? The back of the book doesn't say, or if it does I haven't found it...

~Rachael

The End is Near

It's been a while since I caught up with all of you (at least the ones who read this blog). My trips to Tallahassee and Cincinnati, and my imminent trip to Greece in 24 days (but who's counting) have thrown my whole schedule into whack, but I am determined for all of us to stay focused on Latin until the end of classes *next week*. I can hardly believe that this is it, the much dreaded end, the story that repeats itself with every year of beginning Latin: the first semester climbing, the survivors into the second semester, the growing closer and more comfortable, only to separate at the end because that is life and people graduate or have had enough Latin (can you ever have enough Latin?!)

I was contemplating today about why it is that I always get so mushy, moody, and utterly depressed when the end of the Beginning Latin section is in sight. I was also thinking about the classics lecture yesterday, on the struggles of the modern Greek nation against the Turks, and the role of Greek tragedy in that context. And then I put two and two together. I am so sad to lose you all now because, as a Greek, I am culturally predetermined to experience even mild sadness as extreme tragedy. Case in point, consider the attached picture: this is a picture of my street and home in Iraklion. To your left, in the background, you see my house (with the flowers in the second floor balcony). In the foreground to the right, you see the tiny front yard of a neighbor, whose young son died a few years ago in a motorcycle accident. She made special arrangements with the church to have him buried in her front porch. Which means that all of us, her neighbors, go by his grave every single day, see her tending to it, participate in her endless grief, and still think of the deceased man as our neighbor. I am sure that this strikes you as raw, and in fact it is, but I never quite knew how heavy it was on our hearts until I came to this country and then went back and was shocked afresh by this sight. It is not a cultural baggage I wish on anyone of you. And yet I have to admit that experiencing blinding pain like Greeks do, deeply and fatally, sharpens our psyche to the intense pleasures and joys in life in a way that is almost beyond words. I am so happy to have crossed paths with all of you, I wish you had some idea of how fabulous you have been and how much I learned from you during this past year...and the other side of my joy is to feel already nostalgic for our classes and jokes and everything else that you are.

Anyway, can you tell I am in a *mood*? Before this gets too maudlin, a couple of things to lighten up the atmosphere. My good colleague and friend, Dr. Ava Chitwood, is recommending to us two book series of novels dealing with Roman topics. She calls them the 'perfect airplane reads,' and, I add, the perfect beach reads since I am sure you will all be heading there soon. Here they are, check them out:

http://www.conniggulden.com/

http://www.gladiatorsoftheempire.com/gladiators.htm

Also, I forgot to welcome Jordan to the blog--better late than ever! Thanks for the lowdown on our substitute, btw. Yes, I think he is a very interesting person, but perhaps we are not ready yet for full blown conversations in Latin! I too was terrified the first time I spoke to him, talk about tongue-tied; I think I forgot my English and my Greek too!

ok, I am heading home. Looking forward to our few more days in class,

E.

hey! update! we're still here! working hard! talking about latin! declining! conjugating! translating! watch us go! uhh, taking breaks and having a good time!

6 hours and counting....

mia, rachael and stacey!

Boho's and Mexican food...good mix

So Mia, Racheal and I are studying Latin at Tijuana Flats... going on 4 hours. I am so overwhelmed with all of the tenses..eeeeek!! I'm glad we are having a test Thursday because it's going to force me to study in advance for the final. Plus the extra test grade will be nice. INDEED.
My other classes are so demanding at this point in time. I'm constantly on my laptop trying to finish papers...ugh. I just sent in my article for my internship and the word on the street is it may be published with my name on it (for once...grrr). *crosses fingers*

Today during my Narration and Description class my very odd teacher decided to explain where the word omniscient came from, so here it goes...
OMNI- all
SCIENT- knowing everything
Mia and I had to laugh a little because although he was on the right track he butchered the translation...lol

PEACE :)

**STACEY BEDARD**

Latin Substitute

The Teacher who substituted was interesting I thought. He didn't even introduce himself and tell us his name but spoke the whole time in Latin. It was fascinating to see somebody ACTUALLY SPEAKING in Latin to us instead of the generic reading and translating. It moved the experience of Latin to another dimension for me. I felt like I was somewhat in ancient Rome and taking class with a professor like a bunch of elementary students. So maybe I would be like Robbin Williams in the movie 'Jack' where I'm forty years old and the rest of the kids are twelve but ya know...
The end of the semester is providing for some difficulty because the speed at which we're moving to crunch stuff in at the end is taxing and not to mention there are MAAAD papers due in my other classes and lots of reading requirements they are piling on for the end of the session as well. Latin has definitely increased my vocabulary which is one of the main reasons I took Latin is to not only have a segue basis to learning other languages but to also improve my knowledge of the English language and build my vocabulary as well. What did you guys think of that substitute teacher guy. I'm sure we'll hear a bit about it in class today.

Jordan

Learning the vocabulary all throughout Latin is definitely beginning to pay off in my writing classes. In my expository writing class last week, we did a fun diction exercise to help us improve our writing. Basically, we read simple and well-known phrases that were written using $10 words (for lack of better words). One of the phrases was the following: Pulchritude possesses solely cutaneous profundity. Well, since we learned "pulcher" means "beautiful" a few chapters a go, I managed to be the only person in a 3000-level class of 14 to dumb down the phrase to: Beauty is only skin deep.

And that, my friends, is reason number 1,562,031 why Latin is great.

Olivia H.

Ego sum valde infirma.

Hey kids,
I'm missing Latin today because my cold took a major turn for the worse. ( is the saying worse or worst?) If someone could let me know the homework and give me the notes that would be appreciated. Thanks

Stacey Bedard

since i'm a dweeb and apparently don't need any sleep, i decided to use my time wisely and look up songs in latin. what i really want is modern songs done in lain (i don't know how many one you say the translation of baby got back into latin and then back out, but it pretty much made my little heart go aflutter)

Wikipedia had a list of songs that have parts in latin, and i think when i'm more awake i'm going to have to find the black sabbath songs redone into latin, for pure giggles.

also of the funny is the google latin


also:
puff the magic dragon, to latin and back


sheesh, i need to sleep. like, now.

mia tignor

In a slump

Today was rough for me in Latin. I'm still getting over my evil cold and the weather was a piece of crap. I couldn't get my brain to get out of sleep mode and function. I felt shocked every time I was asked to answer a question as though I had forgotten I was in a classroom. I felt so out of it. Hopefully tomorrow will be a more productive day for me. The grammar isn't too bad, it's just piling up before I can get a chance to memorize it. I need to have some serious quality time with my Latin book...maybe if I take it to dinner and give it a foot rub I'll get better results... The whole studying by osmosis thing does not work...oh well.

Stacey Bedard :)

Behold I have arrived

Hello All,

I finally figured how to get into this Blog was that I was putting in the username and password on the old blogger and not the new one. I'm glad I get to go and study with you guys in a little bit and annoy you with my review, that you all despise me for and are yet benefited thereby. ;0)

Its all good. I hope everyone had a good productive weekend. Mine was busy and interesting to say the least.

Gotta go study some Latin before class here, but just wanted to post and say hi before by at the very end with my figuring out how to get on here and post. HA!

Jordan

Latin Lessons - "Monty Python" Style

I was watching "Monty Python's Life of Brian" today and I was very amused by this scene. I found it on YouTube, so I'm going to share... Enjoy!



~Rachael

Did this just get harder...ugh.
Olivia- Saturday after your online thing I think we should do some LATIN!!!!! yay

class?

hey all! I will not be able to make it to class this Thursday. Can anyone fill me on what I missed and whats due for Monday please???
THank you!!!

Peace!
Jeremy Y

300 spoof!!

okay, most of you have seen the movie 300. It isnt hard to notice the over the top violence and bloodshed. I am sure most of you have seen at least the preview. Well if you have, there is an awesome clip on youtube that makes fun of this excessive violence- here I will attach link! ha! this is hilarious!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNqiSkd1M6k
HAHAH!! BRUSH YOUR TEETH!!

Fun Latin Phrases

I hope you'll be feeling better soon, Prof. M!

I was looking around the 'net this afternoon and came across a site that has modern English phrases written in Latin with a Roman twist. Some of the phrases are very *wrong*... and there are some fun insulting phrases too... Enjoy!

Fun and Handy Latin Phrases

I especially like:

"Si hoc signum legere potes, operis boni in rebus Latinus alacribus et fructuosis potiri potes!"
"If you can read this sign, you can get a good job in the fast-paced, high-paying world of Latin!"

Also, this site and this site have some more if the first just isn't enough...

;D


~Rachael

OK, so I'll admit it. One of my favorite TV shows is The Golden Girls. I love those ladies (especially Sophia)! I turned on my TV this morning while getting ready and saw that the show was on, so obviously I tuned it. The episode featured how Blanche didn't have a date on a Saturday night, then Dorothy convinces her to curl up with a good book to keep her content on a Saturday night (insert a witty comment from Sophia here). So Dorothy takes Blanche to the library, where Blanche thinks it will be a great place to "pick up men." When they enter the library, Blanche looks around and goes, "I love the library. There are so many books," to which Dorothy replies, "Yes, it comes from the Latin 'librarius' meaning 'so many books.'" I have seen every episode of that series at least 10 times each, but when I heard that this morning, it had a whole new meaning. :)

- Olivia

Most of the time, when you're studying latin in modern times, a student does not expect horror, does not expect fear, and does not expect their laptop to do an impression of a bird, as it flies across the room and onto the floor, aided by a nefarious person who most likely does not know what nefarious means, much less now to spell it.

it started out as a normal night, with the normal study group of Olivia and myself sitting at our chosen table, declining nouns and conjugating verbs with smiles on our faces and songs in our hearts. but then comes the storm, and a person with large feet and a tiny brain hits the cord to my laptop, sitting quietly in the corner, charging as a polite computer does. Her foot hits the cord, and my face is pulled into a grimace as my computer flies from the table, seeking freedom and the lovely hardness of the floor. A pall falls over the room and she giggles out an apology:

"Uhhh, sorry!"

Her voice grates on my last nerve, and she scurries away.

Olivia looks at me, faced filled with horror and shock. “It all happened so FAST!”

I hurry over, cradle my computer. Slowly, surely, it awakens from its forced sleep, and I breathe a sigh of relief that has not been heard in ages. I do not have to replace my beloved computer!

Although this has nothing directly to to with latin, it does show one thing in sharp relief.

Studying for latin= SERIOUS BUSINESS.

Mia Tignor

Found Latin roots!!

Hey guys so at church today our pastor was going over Hebrews Ch.11- where it defines faith, and he explained the Greek roots of "substance." Then I thought (of course this was after the sermon, lol! sorry okay? my mind wanders sometimes, lol!) wait a second! BRAIN BLAST! sub- meaning under, and stance from stare- to stand. So what are you standing on? That is where it came from- substance- the thing you "stand on."
Is this even rght? lol...
Peace!

Jeremy Y

How about an academic question, yes?

Does anyone have any special techniques or anything to remember the endings for the future and future perfect? I study them, think I know them, and then once I take a quiz on them, the Latin part of my brain must freeze up because I cannot remember the endings. I keep looking at them and writing them out, but they're just not sinking it yet. The imperfect, perfect, and pluperfect took me a while to remember as well, and I swear I'm starting to forget the present!

So yeah, any suggestions? :)

Oh, and happy April Fools' Day. Wikipedia has amusing hoaxes from the past (here). My favorite is still the spaghetti harvesting. And just to plug myself, I wrote an article for the school paper two years ago about today. I'm surprised it's still in the archives online. (here)

Olivia H.