How Latin has helped me

How Latin has helped me

1. In English this week, we were reading Things Fall Apart, which is set in a country in Africa. Certain words from the local language are included in the book. We discussed in class the use of feminine and masculine words, which is not as prominent in English. By studying Latin prior to reading this book, I understood the masculine/feminine aspect of words better, and I recognized it when we discussed them in class.

2. Watching Grey's Anatomy a few months ago, I recognized the phrase "pro bono". They used this phrase when they talked about doing surgeries for free. The phrase comes from Latin and means for good or for the better. 

3. In World History this week, we were looking at different articles of a declaration from the French and American revolutions. The articles were numbered with Roman numerals, which I recognized from Latin. It helped me understand the assignment better.

4. This week, the first Parish Olympics was held. The games that the Latin section hosted mirrored some events from the ancient Olympics. The fights with the pool noodles resembled the ancient gladiator fights and other events represented ancient events as well.

5. In math, we are talking about polynomial functions and there are degrees stemmed from Latin. Some names are quartic and quintic, and I recognized them from the words from Latin numbers.

Latin is an important building block of our language. You see it everywhere. I would encourage students to take it in the future to enhance their learning and appreciate more of the world around them and how it came to be. I appreciate Latin's role in my education in all of my classes. 

Maddy Collins