Am I madder!

I hope this link comes through OK, it's to a series of FREE online courses which deal with Spanish for Beginners.

It might give you a wee boost and you just do it at your own pace.

www.futurelearn.com/search?q=spanish

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When I had small children I used to say the most useful qualification I had for looking after them was O level Latin.

Like most children, mine were always asking where words came from, why some sounded odd pedestrians in towns but walkers in the country. Where did the word pedestrian come from? and so on.

As DGC developed not only has my O level Latin been useful again, but so has DS's. Neither of us went on to study classics. I am an economist, but DS is an archaeologist, so he does find his Latin very useful at times..

I enjoyed my first Latin lessons. They were well taught by a strict older woman. I moved schools and the teacher there was a younger chap from Cambridge. He was strict but a rubbish teacher. Out of the 35 girls who started his classes only 10 took o level and 1 went on to do classics at A level. I understand he married her! I was thrown out.."22% is a true reflection of PECS ability in this subject"

compared to
Oh dear! That should have been "compared with": Seeing as how I'm in the company of teachers thought I'd best correct that before someone else leaps onto it.

Oh dear Rufus, once more we disagree . sad
Marydoll; No we don't! I gave my opinion on the value of Latin (used to be called a dead language) to learning English grammar, compared to going to the nub of the matter and learning English by studying it.
Whereas you find it useful in your "Romance" studies. I've no problem with that, which is rather magnanimous of me, don't you agree, and I needed no Latin to come up with that! What's more it's now past the witching hour and I've not long finished travelling the length of NZ, so as we say in Strine, I'm bushed! I'll see if there is any further mail in my In-box tomorrow to put me in the naughty chair! Nitey-nite!

Oh dear Rufus, once more we disagree .
For those studying Romance languages, it definitely helps if you know some Latin.
Being familiar with Latin got me out of a few sticky moments, when I was stuck trying to translate some obscure text in an exam.
However, the best thing about learning Latin was it made it so easy for me to understand the grammatical structure of other languages.
Although my knowledge of my other languages needs a bit of a refresher course, the Latin vocabulary comes back with no difficulty at all. Good old fashioned rote learning, you can't beat it!.
Thank goodness, learning languages in school nowadays, is much more fun, from when I was young.

helps with the meanings and spelling of words in English
Grandma70s; Never could see the logic of that argument! You can learn all about those attributes by studying English grammar and reading books etc. Our classics Head Master (excuse that old-fashioned term!) at grammar school placed all his bright pupils, such as me in 5A to "read Latin" and
the "no-hopers" in 5B. to do Geography! That would be called discrimination these days I suppose.
The only long-term benefit that Latin has conferred on me is that I can play smarty-pants when we (frequently) come across a recipe referring to "desicated" as in "desiccated coconut"
This contribution to correct language is usually greeted with cries of "Get Lost" or "So what?" A wasted education!

I have always wanted to go to university, it must be wonderful.

My daughter in law went back to university when she was sixty, my niece graduated from Cardiff university last year at the age of fifty nine. I had a friend who some years ago, in her seventies, decided to do A level French. Went to local school on the school bus.
My son graduated from the Open University when he was sixty five.

No you are not mad sweetpea , you go for it - and enjoy it! I loved studying French at school but never took it any further. I did however, study A-level Art when I was 45. I had not been allowed to do O level Art at school and wanted to prove I could do it, but decided to skip O level and go straight to A level. I absolutely loved every moment of it and got straight 'A's all the way through. I was the oldest in the class by a long way, everyone else was in their late teens/early twenties. I learned such a lot from it and even amazed myself by what I achieved. You're never too old to learn something new.

Cu vi parolas Esperanton

Sweetpea Just in case you thought for an instant that was a serious post - I've been learning te reo Maori for a few years (started in my late 60's) and several people told me I was mad and should take up something easier. I always suggested, 'Hang gliding perhaps?'

It's amazing how many said, 'Yes, why not?'

No reira, pai rawa to mahi Haere tonu, haere tonu.

Yes, you are completely mad I'm afraid and taxing your brain far more than you should at your age. I'd advise you to stop the course at once and find a less challenging hobby.

Hang-gliding perhaps?

Chi sta sfoggiando, ora?

Google Translate is wonderful .
I wish it was available when I had to read foreign language novels at uni! Life would have been so less stressful!

¡Bien por usted! ¿A quién le importa la edad?

Grandma70s & Juggernaut.
Thank you for your replies. I will certainly consider learning Latin now. I thought it would be difficult and complicated, but I would like to learn another language again so this could be the one.

Like other posters I've experienced joining beginners groups which turned out to be full of 'non-beginners'. It's very frustrating isn't it.
I learnt Latin for a couple of years at school although didn't take O Level. I've found it useful over the years and especially being able to pronounce words correctly as I sing in a choir which often performs religious works in Latin.

At 78 I don’t consider myself old. In my German class another man is my age, and the oldest woman is 87, a wonderful holocaust survivor. We are a very small group and are taught in a traditional way, with emphasis on grammar. We also get homework. And we all have a lot of fun.

NO.
Very very sane.
Enjoy Spanish. It's great!

Ooops, sorry Maggiemaybe!
Of course it's a very superior skill, and semper recta sunt!

You’d a formidable great aunt there, widgeon.

Gabriella
As 'Nos Certe Sumus' can be translated in two different ways, for the sake of clarity......
Nos maxime definite sunt!

Ssh, Juggernaut, don’t let people know how easy Latin is! It’s the one thing I studied to O-level that DH didn’t and I’ve always let him think it’s a very superior skill.

I agree about how useful it’s been.

My great aunt in the early 1900s, having left school at 12, decided she wanted to learn a foreign language.
Unfortunately, at the time, there were no teachers in her remote Yorkshire village. Relevant books were few and far between and, of course, no computers to aid her.
She took the only book she knew would have been translated into different languages...... the Bible and instructed herself by comparing the English with the French version. When I first met her, some 20 years later she , on learning that I had just started French at the local grammar school, said' 'Please read it to me. I can now read the bible with ease but have no idea about its sound'
I did my best and learnt later that she had both a French and an Esperanto penfriend, having learnt Esperanto from a bible, too. Greek had followed by the same method and latin and Italian followed. I do not begin to understand how she had managed to interpret the Greek script
i wish I had had her guts. She continued learning thus until the end of her life in her late seventies'
Keep it up I find the U3A an excellent substitute