Latin I

Offered at both Lancaster and Carlisle during both sessions.

Course Description

The Latin I curriculum covers the first three noun declension endings and four to five tenses of all four verb conjugations. The course also reviews Roman history starting from its fabled conception. Additionally, the course details the proper utilization of this inflected language and teaches the basic skills necessary to translate millenia old literature, such as the works of Catullus, Julius Caesar, et. al. The course post-test is the National Latin Examination level 1, which students have professed to be fairly easy in comparison to the coursework.

Inside Jokes, Quotes, Class History

Some fantabulous quotes/inside jokes from LAT1.LAN.04.2!:

• "Es asinus, decime"
• "Tripedalis"
• "I'm not late, everybody else is just early"
• "Canibus, w/ the dogs"
• "4 frisbees 20 minutes"
• "Marcus, the Duck" an infamous mosaic
• A glow in the dark turtle that someone brought to the class. Somehow, we started the tradition of sticking it in people's hair.

Student Commentary

• This is the opinion of someone else who took II LAT1 04 LAN: it was intriguing, but i did not find it nearly as satisfying as the writing CTY classes I have taken in previous years (The Critical Essay: Shakespeare, in particular). I did not perform well on the National Latin Exam, and didn't receive any medals. However, if you are like the previous reviewer (who I happen to personally know ~_^), and can memorize conjugations/declensions readily, then Latin 1 is for you!

• I wish this course had more history, though...I'm a big fan of Ancient Roman Culture/Mythology.

• Do not take latin class at lancaster if the teacher happens to be Whitney Snead. Only two students in the class received medals after taking the National Latin Exam, and the rest did rather poorly. CTY Lan 06.1 latin 1 students were often known to rampage across campus shouting things such as O-S-T-MUS-TIS-NT and LATINA EST UBIQUE! Also, on the back cover of the cty lancaster 06.1 yearbook, you will notice that the illustration depicts a boy sitting on a bench with a stack of books, one of which happens to say latina est ubique. The boy depicted is the TA(teacher assistant) from the class. This illustration was hand drawn by a latin 1 student who was located in Schnader Hall. Indeed, if you have interest in humanities classes, you would definetly be better off taking Ancient Greek.

• Whitney was pretty cool, and our TA, Crockett (David Driscool) was super amazing! He was practically fluent, if thats even possible. {Crockett is a beast from the Iowan east!} Anyway, Latin 1 was REALLY cool, and you should definitely take it, but be prepare to do some serious index card writing, and memorization skills ARE a major plus. We used the oxford manuals 1 & 2, which included many questionable stories, including Scintilla hanging about in the road, and many, MANY morbid references. ("Imagine your mother on her deathbed") Don't let that throw you off. It's extremely amusing, and if you like languages, it should be an AMAZING course choice for you. Prepare to perform plays in which you call people blockheads in Latin, and other such things. Making mosaics is also a plus. Over all, truly a cool course.

• Ok folks, not cool to a) have spelling/punctuation errors, or b) rag on a teacher with laying out all the facts (such as how well did the students do in the class, the fact that the class does not claim to prepare you for the NLE, etc). I took Lat1 in 01.1 CAR, with Mrs ____ and Whitney as the TA. She was a wonderful TA, very supportive and helpful and infintely nice. The next year, I came to LAN and took GRK with Sean Lake. Whitney had also arrived in LAN.

• I had a hard time with Latin simply because of the sheer memorization required. Latin 1 (at CTY, at least) is harder in 3 weeks...XD Although it was a hard class, the experience is worth it. We had to smuggle study materials now and then to pass, and most of us wound up failing anyway, but those who did pass were indeed very smart and talented.

• Ok, anyone who runs into this course unprepared is an idiot. It's a DEAD LANGUAGE, and they're teaching it to you in THREE WEEKS. Come on. It's interesting, but not "fun" in most aspects. Latin classes giggle and goof off as much as anyone (Scintilla=Sparky, FUGGIT, etc.) but your brain will be fried by the begining of week two. You will forget how to spell english words. You will develop severe ADHD. BUT....you'll also speak latin. ;-)