Why choose Latin when I could be teaching my children a “useful” modern language instead?
That’s becoming a more common and understandable question asked in many homeschool communities.
My short answer is that you should aim to do both. However, go about them in different ways, perhaps at different times, and with different expectations on what the study of them should accomplish. Holding an M.A. in Spanish myself, I am completely in favor of studying a modern language. My opinion is the more useful the better, although which language would be the most useful may vary greatly from one family situation to the next.
Which Modern Language Should You Focus On?
Spanish is clearly a very helpful second language in the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, Spain, and Central and South America. French is a more useful second language in Canada, some Caribbean islands, most of Europe, and Africa, where many nations list French as a national language. Admittedly, however, English is rapidly supplanting French as a second language in both Europe and Africa. The demand for Mandarin Chinese speakers is growing as both the Asian population in the States and China’s worldwide influence increase. More homeschool co-ops and many schools are beginning to offer Mandarin classes among their foreign language selections.
As far as selecting what modern language your children should pursue, take a look at where they might one day be living or working. What fields or careers are they looking at? Might their life calling take them frequently to Europe, Africa, or Asia, for instance? That would be a good place to start. Also, consider your own family heritage. If you have a German background, for example, perhaps your child would enjoy learning German to connect more with that heritage. Even if your child shows interest in a language that is not generally considered one of the more useful worldwide languages, there are still many valid reasons to study it. Sheer personal interest and the joy of learning are by themselves reasons enough to begin.
Language Study Benefits
The fact is, the study of any language helps develop a student’s brain. Language study involves substantial amounts of memorization and paying detailed attention to new grammar points. Both of those skills help develop a smarter brain, aiding students in whatever other subjects they choose to pursue.
Few students that study modern languages, however, will ever develop spoken fluency from coursework alone. True fluency requires ample time living among, and conversing with, native speakers of that language over an extended time period. It means falling on your face over and over again making language mistakes. And getting up over and over again to keep going. It means training your ear to understand the language when a native speaker is talking full speed. In short, it requires vulnerability on the part of the learner.
Not very many students will have the opportunity in their lifetime to take a full-on plunge into a foreign language. But all students can benefit from taking language learning as far as their particular circumstances will allow.
Reasons For Choosing Latin
So if so much good can come from simply learning a modern language, why even bother with Latin? Click here for my blog post on the primary and secondary benefits of learning Latin.
Most of the benefits from learning a modern language apply equally to a classical one like Latin (or Greek or Hebrew). However, having learned Spanish, and being in the process of learning Latin, I would say that even more detailed work is involved in studying Latin. It’s probably that Spanish will often “click in” a little easier, in part because the noun declensions so daunting with Latin dropped off before Latin evolved into modern Spanish.
The meticulous study of Latin can develop detailed work skills and concentration levels more than just about any other subject, in my opinion. I believe Latin should therefore be approached as an exercise in grammar and detailed painstaking work. The reward would be mastering a language very unlike ours in syntax.
Latin vs. Modern Language Instruction
I wouldn’t attempt to instruct Latin like I would Spanish since I’d have very different goals in mind. For Spanish, I would emphasize the grammar point of the day, vocabulary memorization, and drilling verb conjugations. But in addition, we would also do plenty of conversational exercises to increase students’ confidence in speaking the language the next time they have opportunity to.
With Latin however, although I would introduce and work on Latin pronunciation, I would not worry about the conversational part. Instead, I would drill, baby, drill. Index cards would become our cozy friends. Drill verb conjugations, noun and adjective declensions, stem vowel usage, and vocabulary. Study, recite, repeat. Memorize and recite prayers and poems. Parse sentences. Listen to hymns sung in Latin. Let the beauty of the language soak in.
Timetable
When should you begin one or both of them?
For us, we started simple Latin instruction in second grade. Starting this young serves to demystify Latin and makes it seem way less formidable later on. As far as they will have known, Latin will always have been a normal part of their homeschool day.
Spanish I introduced intermittently and for fun throughout the grammar school years. I do plan to incorporate serious Spanish study, but only starting in eighth or ninth grade. Our goal would be a full four or five years of modern language before college. In the meantime I regularly point out all the wonderful cognates between Spanish and Latin as we’re going along in our Latin studies.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Spanish should end up being one of the easiest parts of their high school academics, them having been well prepared by Latin. And I hope that they choose to study even more languages one day, modern or classical, as they begin to follow their own interests.
What languages have you studied or taught to your children? Do you have any different ideas for teaching Latin or modern language? I would love to hear about it in the comments below.
I took Latin in high school and have never been sorry. It has been very useful.
Great information! I don’t have any kids but I can tell you I was taught Spanish in school as a kid but I honestly find remember much! I can say that allot of jobs look for bilingual so knowing Spanish is never a bad thing.
This is very interesting. I know there are some schools in my area that teach Latin. One other benefit about learning another language is it actually helped my husbands speech issues. He had struggled his whole life and then learned Spanish actually went and lived two years in Boliva and a lot of the sounds he struggled with he could say.
The connection between foreign language learning helping your husband’s speech issues is fascinating. Another great benefit to language learning of any kind!
I teach English to Chinese students online, so I’ve thought about trying to learn some Mandarin Chinese myself. I agree—both, for very different reasons, is a great idea!
I’ve noticed some elementary schools these days offering Latin. What a great idea for future language learning!
Since Latin is at the root of so many modern languages, even a shallow understanding could be helpful in learning those languages. I think learning grammatical points in other languages also helps one understand our own language a littler better, because you’re constantly translating back to your own language when you first start out.
Would love to learn another language. I’ve tried Italian. I think it’s harder to learn as an adult. Ugh!
It’s definitely harder as an adult and not being immersed in the culture. I love Italian! Such a beautiful language to hear.
Great information! I still have some time to decide what language to teach my kids, but Latin would be useful for many different jobs!
I love that homeschooling affords you the opportunity to do both! I enjoy languages like Latin and Greek because they are at the root of so many of our words and understanding that meaning and context is so important. Good job!
Knowing Latin & Greek definitely help with vocabulary & other areas. I would love to study Greek one day when I have more time to devote to it.
I never took Latin, but I can see how it’d be helpful! I totally agree you should go for both, seems so beneficial.
Learning any additional language is helpful and knowledge is never wasted. I’d say go with what interests you and your family!
I would love to learn latin! Leading both is an absolute great idea and very beneficial.
Latin helped me greatly in my nursing career.
I’ll bet! It’s so beneficial for the medical and science fields.
I think it’s helpful if you are in Canada to learn french and in the USA to learn Spanish if you can only learn one other than your first language. More job opportunities in Canada for people that are english/french billingual (especially in government).
That makes complete sense! I have loved hearing and reading all the French the times I’ve been to Canada.
I studied Latin in high school, and I believe that learning the Latin roots and vocabulary was extremely helpful. Even today when I encounter a new word I can often figure it out due to the study of Latin roots.
I think knowing some Latin really opened my eyes to the history our own language. It’s fascinating!
Latin is such a helpful language to know. Especially working in the medical field. I hope to teach a little bit to my kids as they grow.
Even a little bit goes a long way. And yes, definitely very useful for the medical field.
I took Japanese for 5 years, Spanish for 2, and Latin for a little bit in college. I wish I’d taken more Spanish because it’s so prevalent where I live. I hope my kids choose to take more Spanish as they get older.
I’m sure Japanese was a challenge! Sounds fun, though. I hope you’ve gotten to use some of it.
Latin all the way! Here’s how old I am: when I was in public HS, both Latin and Greek were offered. Unbelievable that not even Latin is taught routinely in US high schools.
Latin sets you up to have an incredible vocabulary; highly recommended!
It was only one generation above me that still regularly learned Latin. I am sorry that it was ever taken out of the schools. I think it’s so beneficial to learn at least a bit of it as it has influenced so much.
Although I never home schooled, I encouraged Spanish for my daughter. She went on to receive a minor degree in it! Language(s) are so important, especially in today’s small world.
We homeschool (unschool really), My daughter started with Dutch, but now loves Japanese. I think learning language is good no matter what form. In order to learn other languages, we must know our own!
Dutch would be fun! It’s one of the closest relatives to English. I’m glad your daughter has such an interest in languages.
Both are so important for different reasons. Good luck choosing.
It’s so nice that your kids is introduce to some languages at a young age. I have to learn english and our national language tagalog when were young. And I took Spanish, Chinese and Japanese when I was in college. But of course I was not able to use them so I forget.
I studied French in middle school and high school. Later I took a year of German. But, my favorite language, besides English, is American Sign language. Being hard of hearing I dable in deaf culture but not as much as I would like.
I would love to learn ASL! It is so beautiful to watch.
I can see how useful Latin could be with helping learn other languages that had evolved from it! This is a great idea!!
Learning other languages is very important I agree!
Learning languages is so very important! I would have never thought about Latin.
They say Latin is one of the easier foreign languages to learn…not sure why. My son took a year of Latin in High School and did not agree that it is the easiest.
Great suggestions! When homeschooling my three we studies Latin briefly, as a introduction to other languages. Now I wish we had done more with Latin.
I have a bachelor’s in Spanish and a master’s in Education; I LOVE languages so I have strong opinions on this dilemma. I agree that the more useful (widely spoken, popular in commerce or literature, etc.) the world language learned, the better, in general. It’s still critically important for academics to study Latin and other “dead” and dying languages, though! I personally would consider introducing Latin to youngsters in a fun fashion, but I wouldn’t push learning them unless the students indicated a desire to do so. Just my two cents 🙂 Love these kinds of posts!
I couldn’t agree more! My husband and I both speak Spanish and are teaching it to our kids as they grow up. However, I did learn some Latin in high school and knowing some of those words helped me learn Spanish a lot faster.