Laugh With Us Blog

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Laboring Latin

Okay I confess.  I am really struggling with Latin!  I am a tutor for a Classical Conversations Community.  Translated that’s a co-op where we all use the same classical curriculum and I am called a tutor rather than teacher because I am not necessarily a master in any of the subjects.  Rather I am presenting the information and facilitating the memorization of the information.  I used to be a high school Spanish teacher, so I figured the Latin would be easy—not so!  The verb endings are similar to those in Spanish, but just different enough that I get very confused.  Today in my efforts to get the conjugations, I blurted out “amabutt” instead of “amabat.”  It took me a while to get why everyone was laughing!

My other blooper of the day was when I shouted out, “What are the three farts of the food chain?”  This one, thankfully, was lost on all but the mom sitting in the back.  We both burst out laughing!

I am really enjoying the class and still loving being back in the classroom, even though it’s just once a week.  I hope I can get a grip on the Latin soon!

Esther

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  2. Yay! I’m glad you got the Google Follower widget! Much better! I loved your post! That sounds like something I do. I do ok talking to my “everyday friends”, but you let me try to talk to my pastor, or teach literacy or ESL to a group and I get SOOOOOO tongue-tied. I don’t know why I get so nervous, but I do. (At least that’s what I blame it on because I only get tongue-tied in those instances. The rest of the time, I can talk 90 miles an hour without a glitch! LOL!

    God Bless!
    PJ

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  4. I remember saying the fox is burning instead of the meat in a French class. The teacher burst out laughing.

    Stopping from Mom Loop! Come join the Friday Follow!

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  9. I think continuing education…just small bits when you can ,is one of the best gifts you can give yourself. Whether it is something you’ll really use or not, it stretches the mind and that keeps you young. Good for you.
    ~Jessica

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  11. Hey Gal! I’m Baaaaack! I read that saying also. I think someone wrote it as a comment on one of my other posts also. I soooo agree! I am so glad God opened my heart and my eyes to see what the bitterness and unforgiveness was doing to me!

    You might want to check out your profile. I clicked on your name next to the comment you left me. It took me to your profile page, but all that is there are the blogs you follow. Usually there is a place for the blogs you create, your interest, and your favorite books, movies, and all kinds of stuff. Did you already know this and just want to “remain a woman of mystery?” LOL! God Bless!

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  12. Thank you so much PJ! That was frustrating when I went to follow someone else that their link wasn’t there and mine wasn’t either! lol I at least updated it with a few things!

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  13. I admire you for your adventurous spirit. Did you know one thing that helps to fight off Alzheimer’s in our later years is to learn another language or a new dance or how to play a musical instrument? We have to keep the mind stimulated. You certainly are doing that! 🙂
    Blessings!

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  14. Pretty impressive endeavor– Coming out of a catholic prep school, it didn’t occur to me how rare Latin instruction was. Then I mentioned our school had a Latin club and people in college burst out laughing.

    ps- visiting from Mom Loop!

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  15. I took three years of Latin in high school and even though I was in AP/advanced track classes for everything else, I BARELY eked through with that one. Latin is a freaking pain!

    Good luck!

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  18. The Latin conjugations I am teaching the kids is supposed to increase their vocabulary as they get older as well as making it easier for them to learn Spanish. We shall see… 🙂

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  22. HAHAHAHA!!! The “amabutt” reminded me of the time I got Mrs. Bell to yell “Ima Losa” at the end of study hall because I told her it was shut-up in spanish. hehehehe (I have to admit though, I did steal the joke from someone else… 🙂

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  23. Hey, there. I just ran out to the kitchen for some tea, and saw your Mom Loop post (that is to say I looked at the computer… it wasn’t in the teapot… and wanted to drop by. Not my first visit, but for some reason I didn’t have you in my Google reader (and follow) list, and now I do. As for moving between romance languages dead or alive… the similarities as you say are not as easy to navigate (at least for me) as one might think. Plus I had a bad habit of moving from country to country as a kid (I’m American born, but was raised partly in Europe)… and as I learned a new language I had to bury the previous one in the back of my brain or I’d start mixing them. Many of my friends would speak several languages all at one time, picking whatever language had the best word for something. Mostly I could follow it back then, but in my aged brain now I’m lucky to still speak English with any fluency. Cute blog. Have a night!

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  24. Great blog – I love the humor in your stories! My son and I studied Latin together one year. It was an interesting experience, but I didn’t get around to studying Latin with my daughter. Of course, she wanted to learn Russian, so that was another interesting experience! Following you back from Mom Loop!

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  25. Don’t worry. Latin is a dead language anyway, so if you don’t get it perfectly right, It’s not like there will be a whole country of Latin-speaking natives out to get you. =D

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  26. I remember my mom saying that when she was in college she went to have tea w/her Spanish Professor (a big deal then at the fancy school she went to). She was so nervous instead of saying with a perfect diction “thank you for inviting me” somehow announced she was pregnant! (which she wasn’t!) I can just imagine the Prof swallowing her tongue laughing! I know what you mean about language similarites too. When I took advanced spanish is college my professor was Portuguese and frequently taught our class in half one language and half the other. We were very confused until an uppper classman explained that she taught both languages! Love reading your trials and tribulations with learning Latin-someday I’ll do it, just to master it.

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