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70's Ideology?

Mart68

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Has anyone under the age of 50 on either side of the Atlantic, save those that went to a good school, been taught a lick of Latin?

Only the well read, aspirational middle classes will know a few well known phrases, likely because they looked it up after seeing it in print, so they wouldn't seem ignorant. All others of this age range will know essentially none, I'd imagine.
I did Latin for 5 years, compulsory, but I'm over 50 and went to a good school.

Hated it. Could not construe a line. That 'Romans go home' bit in 'The Life Of Brian' is exactly what it was like. Exactly.

I passed the 'O' level with a 'C', I have no idea how.

A Latin lesson is the most boring thing possible. Worse than Sunday afternoons in the 1970s.
 

ahofer

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It certainly is good to know Latin, no question there. It's how I found out that Gaul was divided into three parts. Latin was required course work in my high school, way back when. The language is highly structured, what with all the orderly declensions & conjugations, but, sorry, Latin is not common knowledge, and when used unnecessarily, can make the writer seem snobbish. Latin was originally taught in high schools because its structured nature was believed to be good training for subjects with math or science content. Turns out that wasn't true, and my high school, a Roman Catholic one of very high educational standards, (Jesuit priests are superb teachers) made Latin an optional course. As for the phrase you used, I had to look up 'gustibus' in my Latin dictionary. I suspect that most ASR readers are not Latin literate, nor should they need to be. I personally am not against the usage of Latin at all, as I am able to translate some of it. It's just not all that appropriate in a technical setting. In a literary setting, then more so.
Thanks to misspent high school years, as long as it is about farmers, military campaigns, dissing proto-socialists, or piously fulfilling my destiny while my lover stabs herself/self-immolates, I’m good.
 

SIY

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Has anyone under the age of 50 on either side of the Atlantic, save those that went to a good school, been taught a lick of Latin?

Only the well read, aspirational middle classes will know a few well known phrases, likely because they looked it up after seeing it in print, so they wouldn't seem ignorant. All others of this age range will know essentially none, I'd imagine.
I'm well over the age limit there, but we studied ancient Hebrew as our classical language. Latin was more for Catholic schools here. One of my dear friends who is well under 50 managed to study both Latin and classical Greek- I am envious of her education (and ability to actually absorb it!).
 

EJ3

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Has anyone under the age of 50 on either side of the Atlantic, save those that went to a good school, been taught a lick of Latin?

Only the well read, aspirational middle classes will know a few well known phrases, likely because they looked it up after seeing it in print, so they wouldn't seem ignorant. All others of this age range will know essentially none, I'd imagine.
Even "GOOD" schools haven't been teaching it for years. Showing up at a Catholic Church & seeing a mass in Latin is damn near a miracle too.
 

EJ3

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I'm well over the age limit there, but we studied ancient Hebrew as our classical language. Latin was more for Catholic schools here. One of my dear friends who is well under 50 managed to study both Latin and classical Greek- I am envious of her education (and ability to actually absorb it!).
Having been raised with German & English (born in Austria, spent more time in the USA (although 9 trips of 3 months or so to Austria, Germany, Italy, France with excursions to other Western European nation where good) English & German sufficed. German was pretty handy in Japan, too. It seemed that medical Dr.'s of a certain age spoke it. So I made friends with medical Dr.'s of certain age.
Nether language was helpful in Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand or countries that some people call "the Sandbox" (middle east).
Latin would not have been helpful in any of the place I was outside of Europe. In those places Hebrew likely would have caused more harm to me than goo..
 

SIY

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Having been raised with German & English (born in Austria, spent more time in the USA (although 9 trips of 3 months or so to Austria, Germany, Italy, France with excursions to other Western European nation where good) English & German sufficed. German was pretty handy in Japan, too. It seemed that medical Dr.'s of a certain age spoke it. So I made friends with medical Dr.'s of certain age.
Nether language was helpful in Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand or countries that some people call "the Sandbox" (middle east).
Latin would not have been helpful in any of the place I was outside of Europe. In those places Hebrew likely would have caused more harm to me than goo..
I was strictly talking about classical languages. Ancient Hebrew is somewhat different than modern conversational Hebrew, certainly things like pronunciation, word order, and some vocabulary. In Israel, it was hard work for me to understand conversations or TV/radio. I don't speak Arabic, but my friends who do assure me that the Arabic from places other than where they came from speak dialects so different that they are not mutually comprehensible.

We had to take at least one modern language; I chose German because it was easy for me as a native Yiddish speaker to pick up. Imagine my surprise when I moved to Austria and found that my Hochdeutsch had to be significantly modified.:D Not as much as Latin vs Italian, and everyone understood me when I spoke, but definitely different when it came to understanding other people's conversation. OTOH, when I would visit Amish areas here in the US, their old type of German was amazingly easy for me to understand.
 

mhardy6647

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Bizarrely enough -- I minored in German in college. :cool:
There's a back story, but it's probably not interesting enough to tell.
 

coonmanx

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Screenshot at 2022-05-12 10-37-23.png
Screenshot at 2022-05-12 10-38-05.png
 

egellings

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I was forced to take 4 years of Latin in a Roman Catholic high school. I'm 74 now. I have never used one phrase of it. Almost no one speaks it. The reason I was given for taking Latin was that due to its rather structured nature, it would enhance my ability to do thinking in other subjects like science & math, what with all of the ordered declensions & subjugations Latin has. I am science oriented and don't really know if it helped or not. I think not. I could have just used that time to simply learn more math & science. It's good to know Latin if you are going into occupations that still use it, such as medicine and life sciences.
 

krabapple

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More like a venial sin. You don't go to hell for those. As for the de gustibus quote, I had to look it up. I was not offended by it at all because I learned something, trivial as it may be. It's NOT common knowledge. I am not against such expressions at all; it's just that there's no reason to use something that most people would have to look up, when a straightforward English expression would git 'er done, especially on a site more likely frequented by engineering types who are likely to be remedial in their Latin, rather than literary types, who may more likely understand the occasional Latin phrase. At any rate, this is my last comment on the subject.

It's not a matter of being 'literary', it's a matter of being literate.

It's very often abbreviated as just 'de gustibus', with the expectation that the reader will get the reference.
 

krabapple

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What is amazing is how good those Lafayette speakers still sound today. I am not enamored with the widespread two way system epidemic.
Reminds me of Advents and Epi and the aforementioned Rectilinear and many other brands whose main design parameter was profit margin.
A pair of EPI 100 bookshelf speakers were my first teenaged loudspeaker purchase, and my introduction to 'hi fi'.

Wish I still had one to send to Amir for sh*ts and giggles ;>
 

krabapple

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Even "GOOD" schools haven't been teaching it for years. Showing up at a Catholic Church & seeing a mass in Latin is damn near a miracle too.

Not really. There's quite a war going on in the CC these days between trad/revanchist and 'modern' (i.e., OK with Vatican II) Catholics. Latin masses are, if anything, proliferating.
 

mhardy6647

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A pair of EPI 100 bookshelf speakers were my first teenaged loudspeaker purchase, and my introduction to 'hi fi'.

Wish I still had one to send to Amir for sh*ts and giggles ;>
Pair of 100V here, with resurrounded woofers (with "proper" surrounds from Rick Cobb) and replaced XO capacitors.
I mean... I could send [one of] 'em way out West... but it'd be pricey. ;)

 

Vacceo

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It certainly is good to know Latin, no question there. It's how I found out that Gaul was divided into three parts. Latin was required course work in my high school, way back when. The language is highly structured, what with all the orderly declensions & conjugations, but, sorry, Latin is not common knowledge, and when used unnecessarily, can make the writer seem snobbish. Latin was originally taught in high schools because its structured nature was believed to be good training for subjects with math or science content. Turns out that wasn't true, and my high school, a Roman Catholic one of very high educational standards, (Jesuit priests are superb teachers) made Latin an optional course. As for the phrase you used, I had to look up 'gustibus' in my Latin dictionary. I suspect that most ASR readers are not Latin literate, nor should they need to be. I personally am not against the usage of Latin at all, as I am able to translate some of it. It's just not all that appropriate in a technical setting. In a literary setting, then more so.
In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni.

Not that rare if you live in place where several direct descendants of Latin are spoken.
 

EJ3

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I was strictly talking about classical languages. Ancient Hebrew is somewhat different than modern conversational Hebrew, certainly things like pronunciation, word order, and some vocabulary. In Israel, it was hard work for me to understand conversations or TV/radio. I don't speak Arabic, but my friends who do assure me that the Arabic from places other than where they came from speak dialects so different that they are not mutually comprehensible.

We had to take at least one modern language; I chose German because it was easy for me as a native Yiddish speaker to pick up. Imagine my surprise when I moved to Austria and found that my Hochdeutsch had to be significantly modified.:D Not as much as Latin vs Italian, and everyone understood me when I spoke, but definitely different when it came to understanding other people's conversation. OTOH, when I would visit Amish areas here in the US, their old type of German was amazingly easy for me to understand.
Before me (& before my South Carolinian [USA] Father had entered her life) my (Salzburg) Austrian mother had gone to England to work as a cook for a Rector & his wife about 20 klicks out of London Proper. There she learned "the Kings English" & was told that it would be understood anywhere in the world. After returning to Austria and meeting the man who would become my father (I came along about 1 & 1/2 years after they married) who spoke an Old Charleston, South Carolina dialect, she got the inkling that perhaps the "Kings English" didn't fit everywhere. After they married & moved to Charleston, it must have been the same for her as it was for you. Hochdeutsh vs Austrian (whose dialects vary immensely (especially for a country about the size of South Carolina). Kings English vs Charleston & barrier Island Gullah/Geechee dialects.
My mother has told me that it was some time before she fully understood what everyone was saying.
I was concieved in Charleston but born in Salzburg. Having been back & forth quite a bit: Charleston locals will say that I don't sound like I'm from here & when I am in Salzburg, people ask "Do I have a speech impediment?". So naturally I had to make things worse by marrying a Chinese women about 2 years after I met her, when I had moved to Saipan for 18 years.
 

EJ3

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Not really. There's quite a war going on in the CC these days between trad/revanchist and 'modern' (i.e., OK with Vatican II) Catholics. Latin masses are, if anything, proliferating.
In the USA? or elsewhere? Last one I saw was in Saipan about 5 years ago. On the other hand, having been raised Lutheran and now being primarily Buddhist (and no longer dating Catholic girls because I married a Chinese woman) I haven't been in a Catholic church in the last 4 years.
 

Mart68

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In the USA? or elsewhere? Last one I saw was in Saipan about 5 years ago. On the other hand, having been raised Lutheran and now being primarily Buddhist (and no longer dating Catholic girls because I married a Chinese woman) I haven't been in a Catholic church in the last 4 years.
Fair number of churches in the UK hold regular traditional Mass https://lms.org.uk/mass-listings
 
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