Re: Little known Scottish facts.


Ian Morrison wrote:
> The Real Fifeshire Bimbo wrote:
> > "uNkulunkulu" <izulu@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote
> >
> >>when I was at school in Scotland we had the choice of French, German or
> >>Latin.
> >
> >
> > At Kirkcaldy High we had a choice of French or German, but Latin was
> > mandatory.
>
> At Madras College, St Andrews, we had a choice of Russian or German and
> Latin. I dropped Latin after two years to do "applied mathematics",
> after a considerable fight with the Rector (a classicist). I sometimes
> wish I had carried on with the Latin. Everything I covered in the
> Applied Maths "O" Grade was covered again and again in other courses.
>
> Oddly enough, my sister, who was four years ahead of me at school, was
> allowed to study both Russian and German. That would have been my
> choice. Most of the German I know has been derived from listening to
> Bach's cantatas and Passions, in the same way that most of the French I
> know has been learned from watching numerous films in that language.
>
> The Gaelic I know was picked up from entering large amounts of text, in
> both Gaelic and English, into a database which fed an interactive
> multimedia application (of my design). That experience gave me a fair
> understanding of written Gaelic. At least I usually know when someone is
> trying to insult me in that language.....
>
> >
> >>French and German were OK, why anyone would want to learn a language that
> >>no one apart from catholic priests speak anymore
> >
> >
> > I dunno, but since many *nglish words have Latin roots, I found it very
> > helpful in guessing (successfully I might add) the meaning of many new
> > *nglish words that came up.
>
> Decades later, I found a smattering of Latin extremely useful when I
> started learning Spanish. Apart from that, it has proved useful in
> interpreting the scientific names of plants and animals.

At Holy Cross in Edinburgh, French was compulsory and German was an opt
in. I had to do Latin for the first two years as I was in an 'A' class.
If you were in a 'B' or 'C' class you did techie drawing. Considering
that i went on to become an Engineer in the Merchant Navy, guess what i
would rather have taken?

Having said that, Latin has been slightly useful over the years in
learning other languages. Not as useful however as one of my teachers
used to tell us. He insisted that he was on a train in Italy with an
Italian who couldn't speak *nglish, so they communicated through Latin!
Yeah, right!

Mike

.

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