Chapter 9: Dead Languages for Live Kids: Latin (And Other Languages Still Living) / 第九章：为活跃孩子设计的死语言：拉丁语（以及其他仍在使用的语言）

Docendo discitur.
—Seneca塞内卡（古罗马哲学家）/ˈsɛnɪkə/

SUBJECT: Latin拉丁语/ˈlætɪn/ and other foreign外国的/ˈfɔːrɪn/ languages语言/ˈlæŋɡwɪdʒɪz/
TIME REQUIRED: 2 ½–4 hours per week, beginning in third第三/θɜːrd/ or fourth第四/fɔːrθ/ grade年级/ɡreɪd/.

As you've no doubt noticed注意到/ˈnoʊtɪst/, we don't consider认为/kənˈsɪdər/ Latin to be the defining定义性的/dɪˈfaɪnɪŋ/ element要素/ˈɛlɪmənt/ of a classical古典的/ˈklæsɪkəl/ education教育/ˌɛdʒuˈkeɪʃən/. Classical education has to do with setting up solid foundations基础/faʊnˈdeɪʃənz/, with learning how to learn, with mental discipline纪律/ˈdɪsəplɪn/ and intellectual智力的/ˌɪntəˈlɛktʃuəl/ curiosity好奇心/ˌkjʊriˈɑːsəti/ and a willingness意愿/ˈwɪlɪŋnəs/ to grapple努力解决/ˈɡræpəl/ with the lessons of the past.

All of this is much more important重要的/ɪmˈpɔːrtənt/ than a single foreign-language course课程/kɔːrs/. But you should still study Latin.

Elementary小学的/ˌɛlɪˈmɛntəri/ students are perfectly capable有能力的/ˈkeɪpəbəl/ of beginning Latin. In third and fourth grade, the students do basic memory记忆/ˈmɛməri/ work (vocabulary词汇/voʊˈkæbjəˌlɛri/ and parts of speech词性/spiːtʃ/), work on English derivations词源/ˌdɛrɪˈveɪʃənz/ from Latin words, and study elementary基础的/ˌɛlɪˈmɛntəri/ Latin grammar语法/ˈɡræmər/.

Why bother费心/ˈbɑːðər/ with Latin? It is, after all, a dead死的/dɛd/ language (a pejorative贬义的/pɪˈdʒɔːrətɪv/ phrase)—no literature文学/ˈlɪtərətʃər/ is being produced创作/prəˈduːst/ in it, no one's speaking it or doing business商业/ˈbɪznəs/ in it.

We bother with it for a number of reasons原因/ˈriːzənz/.

Latin trains训练/treɪnz/ the mind to think in an orderly有序的/ˈɔːrdərli/ fashion方式/ˈfæʃən/. Latin (being dead) is the most systematic系统的/ˌsɪstəˈmætɪk/ language around. The discipline纪律/ˈdɪsəplɪn/ of assembling组装/əˈsɛmbəlɪŋ/ endings词尾/ˈɛndɪŋz/ and arranging排列/əˈreɪndʒɪŋ/ syntax句法/ˈsɪnˌtæks/ (grammar patterns) according to sets of rules is the mental equivalent等价物/ɪˈkwɪvələnt/ of a daily two-mile jog慢跑/dʒɑːɡ/.

And because Latin demands precision精确/prɪˈsɪʒən/, the Latin-trained mind becomes accustomed习惯的/əˈkʌstəmd/ to paying attention注意/əˈtɛnʃən/ to detail细节/ˈdiːteɪl/, a habit习惯/ˈhæbɪt/ that will pay off—especially when studying math数学/mæθ/ and science科学/ˈsaɪəns/.

Latin improves English skills技能/skɪlz/. The grammatical语法的/ɡrəˈmætɪkəl/ structure结构/ˈstrʌktʃər/ of English is based on Latin, as is about 50 percent of English vocabulary. The student who understands理解/ˌʌndərˈstændz/ how Latin works is rarely tripped up绊倒/trɪpt ʌp/ by complicated复杂的/ˈkɑːmplɪˌkeɪtɪd/ English syntax or obscure晦涩的/əbˈskjʊr/ English words.

And for decades几十年/ˈdɛkeɪdz/, critical批判性的/ˈkrɪtɪkəl/ studies研究/ˈstʌdiz/ have confirmed证实/kənˈfɜːrmd/ that children who are taught Latin consistently一致地/kənˈsɪstəntli/ score higher than their peers同龄人/pɪrz/ in reading comprehension理解力/ˌkɑːmprɪˈhɛnʃən/, vocabulary, and even critical thinking and problem solving.

Latin prepares准备/prɪˈpɛrz/ the child for the study of other foreign languages: French, Spanish, and Italian are all related相关的/rɪˈleɪtɪd/ to Latin. Even non-Latinate languages can be more easily learned if Latin has already been studied. The child who has been drilled训练/drɪld/ in Latin syntax understands the concepts概念/ˈkɑːnsɛpts/ of agreement一致/əˈɡriːmənt/, inflected屈折的/ɪnˈflɛktɪd/ nouns名词/naʊnz/, conjugated变位的/ˈkɑːndʒəˌɡeɪtɪd/ verbs动词/vɜːrbz/, and grammatical语法的/ɡrəˈmætɪkəl/ gender性/ˈdʒɛndər/, no matter what language these concepts appear in.

Latin guards against arrogance傲慢/ˈærəɡəns/. The study of the language shows the young child that his world世界/wɜːrld/, his language, his vocabulary, and his way of expression表达/ɪkˈsprɛʃən/ are only one way of living and thinking in a big, tumultuous混乱的/tuˈmʌltʃuəs/, complicated复杂的/ˈkɑːmplɪˌkeɪtɪd/ world.

Latin forces the student to look at words and concepts anew:
What did this Latin word really mean?
Is this English word a good translation翻译/trænsˈleɪʃən/ for it?
Doesn't the Latin word express something that English has no equivalent等价的/ɪˈkwɪvələnt/ word for?
Does this reveal a gap空隙/ɡæp/ in my own thinking?

A foreign language, as Neil Postman尼尔·波兹曼/niːl ˈpoʊstmən/ writes in The End of Education, "provides one with entry进入/ˈɛntri/ into a worldview世界观/ˈwɜːrldˌvjuː/ different from one's own. . . . If it is important that our young value重视/ˈvæljuː/ diversity多样性/daɪˈvɜːrsəti/ of point of view, there is no better way to achieve it than to have them learn a foreign language."

You can learn Latin along with your child, but it will help if you have some basic understanding理解/ˌʌndərˈstændɪŋ/ of how the language works. Latin is an inflected屈折的/ɪnˈflɛktɪd/ language, which means that word endings词尾/ˈɛndɪŋz/ are more important than word order顺序/ˈɔːrdər/.

If I want to say that my husband丈夫/ˈhʌzbənd/ just planted his shoe鞋/ʃuː/ in the dog's ribs肋骨/rɪbz/, I say:
Peter kicked the dog.
(although he would never do such a thing). How do you know that the dog was the receiver接受者/rɪˈsiːvər/ of the kick and that Peter was the giver给予者/ˈɡɪvər/ of the kick? Because Peter comes before the verb, and the dog comes after. This tells English speakers that the dog is the object宾语/ˈɑːbdʒɪkt/ (receiver) of the kick and that Peter is the subject主语/ˈsʌbdʒɪkt/ (the doer) of the kick.

But Latin works slightly differently. A set of endings called inflections屈折变化/ɪnˈflɛkʃənz/ tell the reader whether a noun名词/naʊn/ is the subject or the object. It's as though, in English, every noun acting as a subject had an s on the end and every noun acting as an object had an o on the end:

Peter-s kicked the dog-o.
If English worked this way, we could reverse the sentence:
The dog-o kicked Peter-s.
and the reader would still realize that Peter had done the kicking and that the dog had received it—because of the ending.

That's how Latin works. Case格/keɪs/ endings take the place of word order. Case endings tell you whether a word is being used as a subject, object, possessive所有格/pəˈzɛsɪv/, and so on.

You also need to know that Latin uses these word endings on verbs动词/vɜːrbz/ to take the place of pronouns代词/ˈproʊnaʊnz/. If I say:
I kicked the dog
you know who did the action, because "I" comes before "kicked." But instead of using pronouns before verbs, Latin conjugates变位/ˈkɑːndʒəˌɡeɪts/ verbs by tacking the pronouns onto the ends of the verbs:
Kicked-I the dog.
Now I could say "The dog kicked-I" and mean the same thing.

There's more to Latin than this, of course, but the above explanations解释/ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃənz/ will get you started.

There are several different ways to pronounce发音/prəˈnaʊns/ Latin: the so-called classical古典的/ˈklæsɪkəl/ pronunciation (in which, for example, v is pronounced as u or w) and the "Christian" or "ecclesiastical教会的/ɪˌkliːziˈæstɪkəl/" pronunciation, used by choirs合唱团/kwaɪərz/, are the two most common. We prefer not to worry overmuch about pronunciation. Even in ancient古代的/ˈeɪnʃənt/ times, Latin pronunciation varied widely by region地区/ˈriːdʒən/ and by century世纪/ˈsɛntʃəri/. The ecclesiastical pronunciation will be useful if the child ever gets to sing in Latin; otherwise, don't get too sidetracked trying to master pronunciation.

If you decide to begin Latin in third or fourth grade (see Chapter 19 for other options), you'll take advantage优势/ədˈvæntɪdʒ/ of the child's most natural "window窗口期/ˈwɪndoʊ/" for language learning. The resources资源/ˈriːsɔːrsəz/ that we suggest at the end of this chapter are suitable合适的/ˈsuːtəbəl/ for elementary students, and do not require that you have previous knowledge of the language.

The curricula课程/kəˈrɪkjələ/ we suggest are "parts to whole" (conjugations动词变位/ˌkɑːndʒəˈɡeɪʃənz/ and declensions名词变格/dɪˈklɛnʃənz/ are taught all at once rather than incidentally偶然地/ˌɪnsɪˈdɛntəli/), rather than "whole to parts." Here's what we mean: In Latin, every verb (such as amo, "I love") has a root词根/ruːt/, which carries the verb's basic meaning (am-, "love"), and endings, which serve as pronouns: -o means "I," –as means "you" singular, and so on. These pronoun endings are the same for every verb the child encounters遇到/ɪnˈkaʊntərz/ in the first two years of study.

So once the student learns the list of endings for I, you (singular), he/she/it, we, you (plural), they (the endings are –o, -as, -at, -amus, -atis, -ant), he can put them on any verb he wants:
amo I love      voco I call
amas You love      vocas You call
amat He/she/it loves      vocat He/she/it calls
amamus We love      vocamus We call
amatis You love      vocatis You call
amant They love      vocant They call

This is parts-to-whole instruction: first the student learns the parts, then he learns how to put them together to form a whole. Whole-to-parts Latin primers入门书/ˈpraɪmərz/, on the other hand, tell the child that the word amamus means "we love," never explaining that the word has both a root and a personal ending. Later, the child will meet vocamus in a sentence and discover that this word means "we call"—again with no explanation. Sooner or later, he'll figure out that -amus means "we." Or he may get frustrated沮丧的/ˈfrʌstreɪtɪd/ with this apparently patternless无规律的/ˈpætərnlɪs/ language and quit.

Either way, he'll have wasted a great deal of time and energy trying to understand how Latin works. But if he is simply given the list of personal endings to memorize记忆/ˈmɛməˌraɪz/, he will have the power to form any Latin verb he likes as well as the knowledge to decode解码/ˌdiːˈkoʊd/ the Latin words he encounters in his reading.

Whole-to-parts Latin instruction is frustrating令人沮丧的/ˈfrʌstreɪtɪŋ/ and counterproductive适得其反的/ˌkaʊntərprəˈdʌktɪv/, and breaks down the very skill that systematic Latin lessons develop—the habit of systematic thinking.

Why do we recommend beginning Latin when everyone knows that starting a modern foreign language at a young age is the best way to achieve fluency流利/ˈfluːənsi/? Well, we agree. The elementary grades are the best time to learn a modern foreign language, and we think every American child should learn to speak Spanish (at the very least). At the end of this chapter we've recommended a couple of modern language programs suitable for home use. However, in our experience, none of these programs will get you speaking a foreign language. This only happens if you're able to speak the language (with a live person) at least twice a week. Conversation对话/ˌkɑːnvərˈseɪʃən/, which requires you to think in the language you're learning, is the only path to fluency.

If you speak a foreign language fluently and would like to teach it to your student, go ahead and do this during the third- and fourth-grade years, and save Latin until later. Or if you can arrange for a tutor导师/ˈtuːtər/ (preferably a native母语的/ˈneɪtɪv/ speaker) to come in and converse交谈/kənˈvɜːrs/ with your child at least twice a week, go ahead and study a modern language now and wait on Latin until sixth or seventh grade. Many parents have also told us that attendance参加/əˈtɛndəns/ at Saturday language school was the only way their children attained even basic fluency in another language.

But if you can't arrange for modern-language conversation, make Latin central to your foreign-language learning for right now. The study of Latin syntax and vocabulary will provide many of the same benefits as modern-language study, as well as improving the child's general language skills. The student who has completed a Latin course will have much less difficulty when she encounters遇到/ɪnˈkaʊntərz/ a modern foreign language later on. And since Latin isn't a spoken language, you won't need to worry about the conversational会话的/ˌkɑːnvərˈseɪʃənəl/ component.

As you study Latin, you may want to use one of the modern language programs listed below as an additional resource, perhaps adding it to your schedule once or twice a week. This will give the student exposure接触/ɪkˈspoʊʒər/ to a modern language and prepare her for later learning.

Plan on spending between 2 ½ and 4 hours per week on Latin, depending on maturity成熟度/məˈtʊrəti/ and interest. It's more productive有效的/prəˈdʌktɪv/ to spend thirty minutes every day than to do one long session or even two shorter ones per week. Three days per week is an absolute绝对的/ˈæbsəluːt/ minimum; four is better.