Post by Dorothy J HeydtPost by Karl JohansonBad old students reading & studying :)
I had the mirror of that experience in a Latin class once. The
teacher was giving us texts from the back to translate at sight,
which supposedly we hadn't seen before. And I hadn't seen mine
before, but it was a medieval text about a boy who got the Devil
to do his homework for him, and I find medieval Latin much easier
to read than classical.
Is there a 'modern' Latin as well?
Post by Dorothy J HeydtI knew all the vocabulary, for one
thing. So I read it off and the professor said, "You were
*supposed* not to have seen that before."
Our psych text book in grade 11 had a bit on memory. They had several
'random' letters in a row, which the students were to glance at & see if
they could remember them. Something like "PNPVHFTTLUHFMHZ". I was the
only one to remember them all. The teacher asked if I'd read ahead. I
hadn't the trick, also noted on the next page of the text, was that all
the letters were all three letter acronyms (or abbreviations) of
electronics hardware that some (myself included) happened to already be
familiar with. So for me, a letter combination like "PNP" was one data
point rather than three. Rather like listing FIWOLFIJAGDHGAFIADNQ as a
listing of 'random' letters, which fans would tend to find quite easy to
memorize.
Karl Johanson
(My second favorite scene from Life of Brian, where Brian has just
written what he thinks is "Roman's Go Home' on the wall of a building:)
CENTURION: What's this, then? 'Romanes Eunt Domus'? 'People called
Romanes they go the house'?
BRIAN: It-- it says, 'Romans, go home'.
CENTURION: No, it doesn't. What's Latin for 'Roman'? Come on!
BRIAN: Aah!
CENTURION: Come on!
BRIAN: 'R-- Romanus'?
CENTURION: Goes like...?
BRIAN: 'Annus'?
CENTURION: Vocative plural of 'annus' is...?
BRIAN: Eh. 'Anni'?
CENTURION: 'Romani'. 'Eunt'? What is 'eunt'?
BRIAN: 'Go'. Let--
CENTURION: Conjugate the verb 'to go'.
BRIAN: Uh. 'Ire'. Uh, 'eo'. 'Is'. 'It'. 'Imus'. 'Itis'. 'Eunt'.
CENTURION: So 'eunt' is...?
BRIAN: Ah, huh, third person plural, uh, present indicative. Uh, 'they
go'.
CENTURION: But 'Romans, go home' is an order, so you must use the...?
BRIAN: The... imperative!
CENTURION: Which is...?
BRIAN: Umm! Oh. Oh. Um, 'i'. 'I'!
CENTURION: How many Romans?
BRIAN: Ah! 'I'-- Plural. Plural. 'Ite'. 'Ite'.
CENTURION: 'Ite'.
BRIAN: Ah. Eh.
CENTURION: 'Domus'?
BRIAN: Eh.
CENTURION: Nominative?
BRIAN: Oh.
CENTURION: 'Go home'? This is motion towards. Isn't it, boy?
BRIAN: Ah. Ah, dative, sir! Ahh! No, not dative! Not the dative, sir!
No! Ah! Oh, the... accusative! Accusative! Ah! 'Domum', sir! 'Ad domum'!
Ah! Oooh! Ah!
CENTURION: Except that 'domus' takes the...?
BRIAN: The locative, sir!
CENTURION: Which is...?!
BRIAN: 'Domum'.
CENTURION: 'Domum'.
BRIAN: Aaah! Ah.
CENTURION: 'Um'. Understand?
BRIAN: Yes, sir.
CENTURION: Now, write it out a hundred times.
BRIAN: Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Hail Caesar, sir.