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Nov. 11th, 2009 03:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
suckmy12inchTrying to finish off my UCAS acpplication but I can't find the statement of results for my AS subjects last year. So who wants to read my personal statement in the meantime?
Before studying Latin for the first time in Year 7, it existed to me only as that odd language spoken thousands of years ago, full of words ending with 'us'. It might have provided the basis for parts of our language, and its influence is apparent in the Romance languages such as French, but what possible use could a dead language have for us today?
Six years later, I am still studying the 'dead' language, and its relevance today has not escaped me. In some ways, the very fact that there are those who strive to understand it gives it a life beyond the Romans. The understanding of Latin gives us a much deeper insight into the life and society of our ancestors who lived all those thousands of years ago, allowing a glimpse even into their very thoughts at times. Through my study of Latin, I've been able to grasp this keener understanding and found something incredibly exciting about getting to see the workings of a poet who wrote such an epic long before my time. Latin is not simply the understanding of a dead language, it is the understanding of a culture so old, and yet advanced, and one that even today we find ourselves influenced by.
I'm furthering my knowledge of the ancient languages with a GCSE in Ancient Greek. Having taken a few tentative steps with it at the end of last year, learning a new alphabet and already starting to decline its nouns, I've rediscovered the joy of working out the meanings of even simple sentences: being able to decipher letters that to others are meaningless would probably form part of the reason why. Developing this interest in Greek has led me to begin reading a translation of The Odyssey; but while it is all very well to read the foreword explaining Homer's use of repeated epithets, but something of the impact is lost in translation. This year, my Greek GCSE will allow me to once again understand more fully how well Homer could make the language work for him.
Working as a volunteer for Horizons, a sports club for disabled children has allowed me to communicate in ways without the use of language. The challenge of teaching a child to play tennis when he would much rather ignore all you say and play football forced me to come up with new ways to compromise. Learning to cope with this sort of thing meant I had to be ready to adapt my technique from session to session.
By taking Classics, and so Latin and Greek to university, I hope one day to be able to pass on my love of it to those younger than me, who might themselves have a budding linguist within them. My time spent as a tutor assistant for a Year 7 form has allowed me to demonstrate the leadership skills necessary for such a career, while forming an understanding and appreciation for the hard work any teacher needs to put in. Having overcome the first hurdle of dealing with the children, a task that is certainly not as simple as I once thought, I still find myself wanting to have an influence on the generations beneath me, even if it's something as simple as teaching them that 'rivus' is in fact not Latin for river, but a stream.
It has been no easy task to persevere with a language like Latin: one that appears complicated but on closer inspection conforms to logical rules that I delight in following. Yet these challenges are the kinds that fill me with deep fulfilment upon their completion. I hope that my study of Greek will allow me to continue to find this feeling, and that the continuation of these languages at degree level means I can pursue that pure enjoyment that for me is to be found nowhere else.
Lmao, sickening, isn't it?
Before studying Latin for the first time in Year 7, it existed to me only as that odd language spoken thousands of years ago, full of words ending with 'us'. It might have provided the basis for parts of our language, and its influence is apparent in the Romance languages such as French, but what possible use could a dead language have for us today?
Six years later, I am still studying the 'dead' language, and its relevance today has not escaped me. In some ways, the very fact that there are those who strive to understand it gives it a life beyond the Romans. The understanding of Latin gives us a much deeper insight into the life and society of our ancestors who lived all those thousands of years ago, allowing a glimpse even into their very thoughts at times. Through my study of Latin, I've been able to grasp this keener understanding and found something incredibly exciting about getting to see the workings of a poet who wrote such an epic long before my time. Latin is not simply the understanding of a dead language, it is the understanding of a culture so old, and yet advanced, and one that even today we find ourselves influenced by.
I'm furthering my knowledge of the ancient languages with a GCSE in Ancient Greek. Having taken a few tentative steps with it at the end of last year, learning a new alphabet and already starting to decline its nouns, I've rediscovered the joy of working out the meanings of even simple sentences: being able to decipher letters that to others are meaningless would probably form part of the reason why. Developing this interest in Greek has led me to begin reading a translation of The Odyssey; but while it is all very well to read the foreword explaining Homer's use of repeated epithets, but something of the impact is lost in translation. This year, my Greek GCSE will allow me to once again understand more fully how well Homer could make the language work for him.
Working as a volunteer for Horizons, a sports club for disabled children has allowed me to communicate in ways without the use of language. The challenge of teaching a child to play tennis when he would much rather ignore all you say and play football forced me to come up with new ways to compromise. Learning to cope with this sort of thing meant I had to be ready to adapt my technique from session to session.
By taking Classics, and so Latin and Greek to university, I hope one day to be able to pass on my love of it to those younger than me, who might themselves have a budding linguist within them. My time spent as a tutor assistant for a Year 7 form has allowed me to demonstrate the leadership skills necessary for such a career, while forming an understanding and appreciation for the hard work any teacher needs to put in. Having overcome the first hurdle of dealing with the children, a task that is certainly not as simple as I once thought, I still find myself wanting to have an influence on the generations beneath me, even if it's something as simple as teaching them that 'rivus' is in fact not Latin for river, but a stream.
It has been no easy task to persevere with a language like Latin: one that appears complicated but on closer inspection conforms to logical rules that I delight in following. Yet these challenges are the kinds that fill me with deep fulfilment upon their completion. I hope that my study of Greek will allow me to continue to find this feeling, and that the continuation of these languages at degree level means I can pursue that pure enjoyment that for me is to be found nowhere else.
Lmao, sickening, isn't it?
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