dree your weird

[hawkwing_lb]

It's that time again. Time to wail, and to gnash teeth.

So, self! You spent a whole day trying to write a paragraph of a)thesis and b)thesis. How did that work out for you?

It didn't? That's terrible. And then you tried to write a whole paragraph of fiction? And that didn't work either?

O waily waily, etc.

[Exit, pursued by a thesis.]

Comments

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

A truly embarrassing amount of my "translation" of Greek verbs comes down to 1) context and 2) "Wait, is that an alpha? It must be an aorist"/"Wait, are those secondary endings? Probably imperfect" guesses.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Mine, too! Doesn't everybody's?

Apart from folks who've been doing it for ten years or more, I mean.

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

I love my Greek professor, but when she cheerfully explained to us around day two of class that Greek is viciously difficult for pretty much everyone and even she has to remember to keep studying it regularly or she'll forget important bits, I just about cried.

She's very good at brisk, sympathetic explanations of how This Is Terribly Difficult, Now Suck It Up Cupcake You Chose This Major Of Your Own Free Will.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Heh. At least A. has never gone and said that to us. Never pretended it was easy, but never gone out of his way to tell us it was hard.

Classical languages do sometimes strike me as a game of Come On If You Think You're Hard Enough, Then, though. But ancient Greek at least has the virtue of being slightly more regular in form than modern Greek, so I console myself with the thought that it could be worse. (And on Wednesdays, in fact, it is. :) )

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

I've never actually looked at modern Greek; I have a policy of avoiding any language which I will be expected to use to introduce myself or give and receive directions to a location. (I would, in general, be a lot more interested in living languages if they were presented as "And then you can read this fascinating literature in its original language!" instead of "And then you can visit this fascinating country and order food in a restaurant!".) But I will take some comfort in the greater regularity of ancient Greek.

I find some of the Greek texts we're reading interesting, and there are a lot of interesting quirks with the language in general, but I have to confess, the more I study Greek, the more I like Latin since it's Not Greek.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Constantine Cavafy!

But, also, necessary for public transport. "And then you can get fascinatingly lost and ask for help, pathetically."

<<true story. *would not have survived Greece without the kindness of strangers* Latin. One day I will have time to learn Latin.

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

Learn Latin! It's easy! Half the vocab is just Spanish or pretentious English words, you've got two cases to do the heavy lifting the dative usually handles in Greek, third declension is pretty darn regular (and fourth and fifth are so rare they're easy), all the letters look like real letters, and--this is the really keen part--verbs only have FOUR PRINCIPLE PARTS. Most of which actually look they're built out of similar collections of letters!

I love Latin. It's so compact and sensible. And it doesn't feel compelled to start every sentence with "And!!!" or "For!!!"

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Ooo.

Maybe I will scrape up enough cash to take the summer classes, then!

Only four principle parts? Only four?

...I should have been a Romanist, shouldn't I?

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

*makes tempting motions*

(Honestly, I think anyone who's taken Greek could do the first semester of Latin, if not the first year, with a copy of Wheelock's and internet access to double-check answers. It's a lot more complicated once you get into Real Texts, of course, but the basics are pretty damn simple.)

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

You very nearly convince me. Although I was already thinking about getting the Cambridge Reading Latin over winter break, since one day I want to read Seneca in the original...

(Quaesisti a me, Lucili, quid ita, si providentia mundus regeretur, multa bonis viris mala acciderent...)

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

I've never seen the Cambridge Reading Latin! I am suddenly deeply curious as to how Latin is taught differently in different academic traditions. My current prof has had some interesting things (not vitriolic, just amused notes) to say about the bits where Wheelock is a little too obscure/doesn't cover this common exception/whatever.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

I understand Wheelock is the most commonly used - it's used in Intro to Latin here, but the summer language classes are usually operated by the Classical Association of Ireland, rather than the university, and last year they used the Cambridge.

If it's anything like the Cambridge Reading Greek, it should be moderately entertaining.

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

One thing that one of my Greek textbooks did (though not my primary/most recent one, alas) that I wish my Latin one had was to have an on-going narrative with set characters, and actual little paragraphs of story. Wheelock eventually starts including edited passages from Actual Latin, but the practice sentences themselves are generally stilted and dull.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Yes. This is supposed to be the Cambridge Reading textbooks' method, and why I'm none too keen on starting with Wheelock. Give me narrative! Narrative, I tell you!

(This is also why I hate my tests. If they were unseen translations, so much better. Verbs and vocabulary without context? Ugh.)

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

I think that Wheelock is excellent in providing a really clear, simple, well-organized breakdown of grammar, especially for students who haven't done much language work before. I still grab it for the occasional reference on The Supine, How The Fuck Does That Work or what not, because I can always find what I need quickly by chapter headings alone.

But for making Latin interesting? Yeah, really not my first choice of book. If the Cambridge Reading book is awesome, I am tempted to grab a copy and read through its stories myself, if only for the brush-up on skills and entertainment value.

Oh! Though that said, there are some interesting third-party products designed to go with Wheelock's to fill that gap. One's a collection of stories--mostly myths and Aesop stuff--written in appropriate vocab/grammar to go with different points in Wheelock's, but my favorite is Auricula Meretricula, a touching drama about a little whore and the penniless poet who loves her. (Also written to accompany Wheelock's, and a blast to do readings of in class. The titular character sits around sighing "Eu!" a lot while the traditional stock characters of Roman comedy do their thing.)

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

If I end up getting it in December, I'll surely end up talking about it here soon thereafter.

The only sad part about the Cambridge textbooks is that they're two textbooks a subject, a texts one and a grammar one, not just one.

Ah, Roman comedy. Plautus and Terrence, such horrible chauvinists. (Not that Aristophanes is any better, but for some reason I find him funnier.)