Should I take Latin?

[Boidae]

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My college I'm enrolled in doesn't offer any foreign languages I like, and I'm currently stuck in what feels like my millionth Spanish class since middle school. However, my local community college offers tons of options: Arabic, American Sign Language, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Russian, and of course, Spanish.

I'd like to take German or Latin and I heard the latter was once a requirement for med school. Of course, I have a long and fruitless history with Spanish that I'm really tiring of.

 

[orca2011]

Eh, you can if you want. It's helpful at times when you actually remember to sit and think about roots and suffixes, etc. I took 5 years of it in high school and I can honestly say I don't use it too frequently. I just haven't trained my brain to really sit there and break down words. Sure, it was slightly helpful in anatomy, but it's not going to make or break you. I also don't think it particularly helped my SAT/ACT/GRE scores either. Plus, Latin classes are generally super focused on the grammar since it's a "dead" language and there are a TON of irregulars.

It was helpful when I took Italian in college because it made the grammar aspect of that language soooo much easier . Couldn't speak it to save my life.

Also, a lot of medical terminology has Greek roots as well, which I actually did cover in my Latin class, but that was probably like sophomore year of high school.

 

[epivetlove]

If you need the language credit and you think you'd do well in it, then why not? I don't know if any vet schools care one way or another...I imagine Latin could be helpful for knowing the roots of medical terminology, though. But I took Spanish all the way to AP 5, and I've found it quite useful for the same reason.

 

[Boidae]

I see! I figured it wouldn't be a tremendous boon but asked here anyhow to see what everyone else was doing. 🙂 I hate irregulars; blech.

I'll just take German. I can't tolerate another semester of Spanish.

 

[twelvetigers]

You can always take stuff like that for fun. I took Japanese. It actually made for a damn hard semester when paired with organic and physics and microbiology (and a wedding, but I digress). It's mostly forgotten now. But I don't necessarily regret it.

 

[onisteverina]

You can always take stuff like that for fun. I took Japanese. It actually made for a damn hard semester when paired with organic and physics and microbiology (and a wedding, but I digress). It's mostly forgotten now. But I don't necessarily regret it.

I decided to take Japanese in college for fun..... and of course ended up with a C! That class was super hard :/

 

[pp9]

I see! I figured it wouldn't be a tremendous boon but asked here anyhow to see what everyone else was doing. 🙂 I hate irregulars; blech.

I'll just take German. I can't tolerate another semester of Spanish.

I took German in high school, loved it (although I never did get any of the grammar down pat)!

 

[DVMDream]

I am going to be odd and suggest the American Sign Language course.... I have had to work with a few deaf clients before and knowing sign language would have been really nice... having to write down everything when discussing treatments, costs, etc... gets a bit frustrating for both the client and you as a vet/technician. I know the alphabet and some basic signs/signals but not enough to have a full conversation. Although, I am not sure how needed Sign Language will be in the future with the advancements in hearing aids and other hearing devices.

I guess the same could be said if you plan on practicing in an area that has a lot of people that speak a foreign language. I have thought about learning Spanish for this very reason... it is frustrating for both the vet and the client when you don't speak the same language.

 

[T_Rose]

You can always take stuff like that for fun. I took Japanese. It actually made for a damn hard semester when paired with organic and physics and microbiology (and a wedding, but I digress). It's mostly forgotten now. But I don't necessarily regret it.

I decided to take Japanese in college for fun..... and of course ended up with a C! That class was super hard :/

I took Japanese as well. At my undergrad, it wasn't bad until you got to the highest level. However, my undergrad also didn't really have an intense program in the language either. It is a very difficult language, and I'll probably forget most of it in the next year.

If I would have known my university taught Latin (didn't find out until my last year there), I probably would have tried to take it for fun. Take a language you would enjoy. However, don't underestimate how useful Spanish may be to your career.

 

[wildcatj]

I am going to be odd and suggest the American Sign Language course.... I have had to work with a few deaf clients before and knowing sign language would have been really nice... having to write down everything when discussing treatments, costs, etc... gets a bit frustrating for both the client and you as a vet/technician. I know the alphabet and some basic signs/signals but not enough to have a full conversation. Although, I am not sure how needed Sign Language will be in the future with the advancements in hearing aids and other hearing devices.

I guess the same could be said if you plan on practicing in an area that has a lot of people that speak a foreign language. I have thought about learning Spanish for this very reason... it is frustrating for both the vet and the client when you don't speak the same language.

I second this. I took a few signing classes and loved them. It could definitely come in handy and it's a totally different way to have to learn a language. Plus it's nice because you don't have to learn grammar, just signs/sentence structure to go along with what you already know.

 

[primatevetjess]

I second this. I took a few signing classes and loved them. It could definitely come in handy and it's a totally different way to have to learn a language. Plus it's nice because you don't have to learn grammar, just signs/sentence structure to go along with what you already know.

Yep, I'm going to go ahead and third it. In high school I took 2 years of Latin and 2 years of american sign language. I absolutely hated Latin, it was difficult and confusing and awful. It did not help me at all with learning medical terminology because I didn't learn it well enough to begin with and promptly forgot it. In undergrad I took a medical terminology class, and that helped me immensely more than the 2 years of Latin. But ASL is so much fun, and I loved it. I worked food service at the time, and deaf customers were always so relieved to be able to really communicate with someone. Also, because I enjoyed it so much, I actually remember a surprising amount considering I graduated high school 14 years ago.

 

[CanHardlyWait]

I took Latin in undergrad just because I wouldn't have to attend the verbal labs associated with other foreign language classes...and ended up falling for Latin lit big time! In fact I ended up getting a Classics degree, I loved it so much. So I would say take Latin for sure! (but I'm pretty biased)

 

[equineconstant]

I took Latin in high school, and it has been somewhat helpful with medical terminology. I feel like I may have known some roots or something already that helped me in Latin in the first place...it was a while ago. I then went on to take Japanese in undergrad just because I really wanted to. Latin class is going to be more about grammar; you can learn roots on your own if you want to. My advice is to take a language you want to take. If that's German, go for it!

I also agree with the above posters that ASL sounds realy cool, and I would love to take an ASL class. But it matters more what you want to do.

 

[epivetlove]

Although, I am not sure how needed Sign Language will be in the future with the advancements in hearing aids and other hearing devices.

I interned with a disabilities service organization from January to August and took a great deal of ASL classes (they were free to me as an intern, so why not?). The classes were taught by a lovely lady who has been deaf from birth, and it was cool because we learned true ASL, not signed English (very different!), as well as a lot about Deaf culture. I was surprised to find that many deaf individuals do not seek to get hearing aids/devices since they feel being deaf is a difference of experience and not a disability. It kind of depends on if both parents are Hearing or not, though...but to make a long story short, I am agreeing with you and I think knowing ASL is a great skill to have. And it's particularly helpful because many signs can be universal, so you can speak with people all around the world!

 

[ChittyBang]

I fourth? ASL. If you already know Spanish, ASL will come in handy the most (think job versatility 😉 ).

 

[grrrr121]

I used ASL quite a few times when I worked at a pet store, and also once when I was a dog trainer. It's much easier than trying to communicate by writing notes. But take whatever language interests you, I'm sure it'll come in handy at some point.

 

[Boidae]

All this talk of ASL is tempting me... I'm just not sure how I would be with the actual hand signals, but I'm pretty terrible at stringing sentences in Spanish because it's basically backwards in comparison to English. It makes sense that it would be useful...

 

[variegata]

I took Italian in college since I didn't want to continue with Spanish. Lots of fun and it's such a pretty language. Plus, I got a taste of some relevant Latin roots in the context of a language that is not dead. Studying abroad in Italy was pretty awesome, too.

 

[mysandiegovet]

I took Latin in undergrad just because I wouldn't have to attend the verbal labs associated with other foreign language classes...and ended up falling for Latin lit big time! In fact I ended up getting a Classics degree, I loved it so much. So I would say take Latin for sure! (but I'm pretty biased)

the use of latin as part of medical terminology is vast.
I would take latin for sure.