Instruction in Latin

Living Latin

Conversely, proponents of the Living Latin movement believe that Latin can be taught in the same way that modern "living" languages are taught, i.e. by incorporating oral fluency and listening comprehension as well as textual skills. This approach offers speculative and stylistic insight into how ancient authors spoke and incorporated sounds of the language, as patterns in Latin poetry and literature can be difficult to identify without an understanding of the sounds of words. Living Latin can be seen in action in Schola , a social networking site where all transactions are in Latin, including conversations in real-time in the site's locutorium (chatroom).

Institutions that offer Living Latin instruction include the Vatican and the University of Kentucky. In Great Britain, the Classical Association encourages this approach, and Latin language books describing the adventures of a mouse called Minimus have been published. The Latinum podcast, teaching conversational Classical Latin, is also broadcast from London. There are several websites offering Nuntii Latini (Latin News) which usually cover international matters: in Finland (weekly), in Bremen/Germany (monthly), and on Radio Vatican . In the United States, the National Junior Classical League (with more than 50,000 members) encourages high school students to pursue the study of Latin, and the National Senior Classical League encourages college students to continue their studies of the language.

Influence on artificial languages

Many international auxiliary languages have been heavily influenced by Latin; the successful language Interlingua considers itself a modernized and simplified version of the language. Latino sine Flexione is a language created from Latin with its inflections dropped, that laid claim to a sizable following in the early 20th century.

Belgium

France

Latin is optionally studied in French secondary schools.

Germany

In Germany Latin is a choice for the compulsory second language at the Gymnasium (main secondary school preparing for university entry), usually together with French and sometimes Spanish, Russian etc. Nearly one third of students at the Gymnasium^[1] learn Latin for a number of years,^[2] and a Latin certificate ("Latinum") is a requirement for various university courses. It is the third most popular language learnt in school after English and French, ahead of Spanish or Russian. In some regions, especially majority-Catholic ones such as Bavaria, it is still very popular, to the point that more than 40% of all grammar school students study Latin. However, in Eastern Germany where educational traditions were broken during the communist period, it does not command much popularity.

Greece

The teaching of Latin has a very long history in Greece. Latin is today compulsory for high school students who wish to study law, social and political sciences and humanities, and is one of the four subjects tested in Greek examinations for entry into university-level courses in these fields. In high school, the subject is taught in a very detailed manner that has provoked criticisms.

Ireland

Latin until recently was quite popular in secondary schools. Latin is now not widely taught, but can be taken as an optional subject in some secondary schools.

Italy

In Italy, Latin is compulsory in secondary schools such as the liceo classico and liceo scientifico, which are usually attended by people who aim to the highest level of education. In liceo classico, which is widely regarded as "Italy's best and most elitist school", Ancient Greek is a compulsory subject too. Italian high schools other than liceo classico and liceo scientifico normally don't include the subjects Latin and Ancient Greek. About one third of Italian high school graduates (19-year-olds) have taken Latin for five years. Latin is also taught at the Accademia Vivarium Novum.

Around 40 percent of Italian high school students study Latin at high school for five years.^[3] Latin courses comprises a quite high number of weekly periods, and this contributes to make Italian schooling system somewhat different from other countries', where only a negligible amount of students decides to take Latin courses at high school. In Italy, Latin and Ancient Greek are considered important because they are believed to help the students learn an effective study method. In Italy, it is also believed to "open the students' minds" (as people say) i.e. to make them more skilled and more intelligent, even though there is no conclusive statistical evidence for this. Moreover, Latin and Ancient Greek courses significantly reduce the remaining weekly periods devoted to math, science, English language, German language, computer science and so on.^[4][5]

Latin and Ancient Greek courses at high school comprise both grammar and literature. Grammar is normally studied in the first two years of high school. Literature is studied in the remaining three years. Students are also assigned daily homework consisting of translating short texts from Latin and Ancient Greek (in Italian, they are called versione di latino and versione di greco respectively). Students are taught to carry out a translation assignment following a strict semantic analysis of the text given, and this, among other things, is supposed to improve the students' language skills. Inside liceo classico and liceo scientifico, the almost daily translation of short texts from Latin and Ancient Greek usually takes the most part of the daily time devoted by each student to homework.

The translation of short texts from Latin and Ancient Greek has been compared by Italian physicist Guido Tonelli to "scientific research" and it is said to be a useful mental exercise.^[6]

Italian schooling system has received both praises and criticism. It has also been suggested that it should be revised to meet the needs of the contemporary era, mainly because it is very different from other successful schooling systems, such as those of Finland and the United States. Despite the efforts of Italian politicians to reform it, very little changed when it comes to Latin and Ancient Greek. ^[7]

Inside Italian schools, the pronunciation adopted by teachers is normally that of New Latin.

Netherlands

In the Netherlands, Latin is (together with Ancient Greek) compulsory at the highest variant of secondary education, the gymnasium - both languages for at least the first three years. After that, the pupils can choose either to keep only Latin, or to keep only Greek, or to keep both classical languages in their curriculum for three more years.

Poland

Latin is a non-compulsory foreign language that students of some high schools can choose to learn. Latin language and the culture of antiquity is also one of the extra examinations a high school graduate may take during his matura. Latin language is a compulsory subject for students of law, medicine, veterinary and language studies.

Spain

Latin is a compulsory subject for all those who study humanities (students can select from three sorts of study: sciences, humanities or a mixture) in grades 11 and 12.

Switzerland

Since the 1980s when about half of all Gymnasium (grammar school, type of secondary leading to university entry) students had Latin, the language took a deep dip. After modest recovery in the past years about one fifth of all students at the Gymnasium nowadays take some years of Latin. There are regional differences: whereas in few cantons like Uri the language is not being taught any more, in Appenzell, Graubünden und Glarus and Zürich around 40% of Gymnasium students take Latin.^[8]

United Kingdom

In the first half of the 20th century, Latin was taught in approximately 25% of schools.^[9] However, from the 1960s, universities gradually began to abandon Latin as an entry requirement for Medicine and Law degrees. After the introduction of the Modern Language General Certificate of Secondary Education in the 1980s, Latin began to be replaced by other languages in many schools. Latin is still taught in a small number, particularly private schools.^[10] Three British exam boards offer Latin, OCR, SQA and WJEC. In 2006, it was dropped by the exam board AQA.

Other countries

In Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Austria, Republic of Macedonia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania, Latin is studied at high school level as compulsory or optional subject. It is compulsory in Gymnasium high school programs. In Portugal, Latin is also studied. In Finland, Latin is studied at a small minority of high schools.

Canada and Mexico

Latin is optionally studied in a small number of Canadian secondary schools.

United States

In the United States, Latin is occasionally taught in high schools and middle schools, usually as an elective or option. There is, however, a growing classical education movement consisting of private schools and home schools that are teaching Latin at the elementary, or grammar school level. Latin is often taught and is sometimes a mandatory requirement at Catholic secondary schools. More than 149,000 Latin students took the 2007 National Latin Exam. In 2006, 3,333 students took the AP Latin Literature exam. There is a "National Latin Exam" in this country.

Chile

Latin is not a compulsory subject in school, and it is presented as optional in very few secondary schools. However, many universities impart Latin as a compulsory subject for the students of Philosophy, Literature, Linguistics, Theology and sometimes Law.

Venezuela

In Venezuela Latin is taught as a compulsory subject in the branch of humanities of the bachillerato for two years. Bachillerato is a segment of secondary education similar to American high schools and is divided into two branches: sciences and humanities. Students learn Latin grammar in their first year of study, then construct and translate Latin texts in the second year.^[11]

At university level, the University of the Andes offers a degree program for Letras Mención Lengua y Literaturas Clásicas (Classical Languages and Literatures). In this program (the only one of its type in Venezuela), the students learn Latin, Ancient Greek and the literature of both languages for five years.^[12] In other Venezuelan universities, Latin is a compulsory subject of the program for Letras (Hispanic Literature) and Educación, mención: Castellano y Literatura (Education of Spanish language and Hispanic Literature).

Latin is also taught in Roman Catholic seminaries.

Mainland China and Taiwan

Latin was one of the things which were taught by the Jesuits.^[13][14] A school was established by them for this purpose.^[15][16] A diplomatic delegation found a local who composed a letter in fluent Latin.^[17][18]

Latin is a rare language in Asia, including Taiwan. There are fewer than five universities offering Latin curriculum.

As a Catholic university, Fu Jen University is the most important school to offer the Latin curriculum in Taiwan. It offers short-term Latin courses with dormitory in summer vacation and even attracts many students from mainland China.^[19]

In China many universities offer Latin courses. At Beijing Foreign Studies University since 2009 there is a Centre for Latin Studies called Latinitas Sinica.