English through … ?

“Your first foreign language, be it ancient or contemporary, is going to be the most difficult” argues a thoughtful and positive response to yesterday’s news item about primary school children learning Greek. The link to the improbably named site is http://www.zealouswaterbuffalo.com/2010/07/why-study-ancient-greek.html

Learn English – through Greek!

A remarkable initiative is about to be tried in a number of primary schools; the children will learn some Greek as a way of improving their English.
Links to reports in today’s newspapers:
Daily Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/7917191/Ancient-Greek-to-be-taught-in-state-schools.html
Daily Mail (with some sceptical comments!) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1298787/13-schools-Oxford-set-bring-ancient-Greek-lessons.html

Virtual Libraries

Classics ~ Latin & Greek Languages and …
This is the “Virtual Libraries” page of the “Classics ~ Latin & Greek … Theoi Classical E-texts Library. A collection of Greek and Roman works in English …
guides.library.yale.edu/content.php?pid=130365&sid…

Medicine’s Classical vocabulary

As if we didn’t know, large numbers of medical terms are derived from Latin or (even more of them) from Greek. The exact statistics (in 1980 anyway) come in this message which the author entitles “Dead Languages Indeed”. I add the Classically-based words up to give over 92%.
The message says: “[T]he great bulk of current biomedical vocabulary is derived from classical Greek or Latin. Indeed, much of the latter is derived from the former. A survey of nearly 50,000 biomedical terms (Butler RF. Sources of the medical vocabulary. J Med Educ. 1980; 55:128) reveals that 58.5% come from Greek alone, 21.8% from Latin alone, and 13.2% combine Greek and Latin roots (only 2.9% originated in English).”

-from the Introduction to Haubrich, Medical Meanings: A Glossary of Word Origins (Second Edition), p. x.

Classics and Latin Threatened in Scottish Schools

By rogueclassicist
Could I ask you to look at the Facebook page, simply titled Keep Latin and Classical Studies in Scottish Schools, and give your support to ensure that a classical language remains available to pupils in Scottish schools. …
rogueclassicism – http://rogueclassicism.com/

Colouring the past

The article reminds us, “Ancient Greek statues weren’t merely the white marble we see today. They were painted. This amazing video from Amarildo Topalis shows you what the ancient world really looked like.”
There’s an imaginative video (also on YouTube, I believe) which might be useful to those who teach in this area. It is 7.30 mins and consists of a series of images of sculptures, progressively coloured in to give an idea of how they might once have looked. No commentary, but a rather irritating loop of music in the background.
Worth a look, as I say; the ‘reconstructions’ seem very well done.

Link is http://blog.garycorby.com/2010/07/colors-of-ancient-greece.html.

Latin Blog

This is one of a suite of Language blogs from the Transparent Language software company.  Latin Blog has some lively pieces and a good number of video clips from You Tube. Latest post is on Roman theatres. Well worth a look.

take “class out of the classics” and put Latin on the state-school curriculum

The indefatiguable Boris Johnson has been in the ear of his Conservative colleagues again, pressing the case for Latin to be made available to one and all across the state-school sector . You can read Helene Mulholland’s report in the Guardian here:

Boris continues to be our very own gadfly and long may he continue! Any evidence to suggest that his campaign is bearing fruit would be welcomed by the ARLT.

Doctors, dying, moral dilemmas and Greek Drama

The highly regarded Harvard Medical School has been basing its course on medical ethics on issues raised in ancient Greek tragedies. Discussions on the right to live (or die) and on how to face death follow performances of scenes from Sophocles, Aeschylus or Euripides.
“If Bryan Doerries, the project’s founder, has his way, more medical schools will employ ancient Greek drama to strengthen their medical ethics programs,” the article suggests.

The link is http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2010/07/07/screams_from_greek_stage_aim_for_doctors_hearts/.

Keeping Latin alive

From Kaitlyn Cole who works with with Onlineuniversities.com.

We recently published an article that you may be interested in entitled, “50 Fun and Educational Websites Keeping Latin Alive“.

I thought perhaps you’d be interested in sharing this article with your readers? After having followed your blog for a while, I feel that this one article would align well with your blog’s subject matter. If interested, here’s the link for your convenience: http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2010/06/50-fun-and-educational-websites-keeping-latin-alive/

Well worth a look!