Extreme Niche Blog: Let’s Learn Latin–?!

asterix-in-latin.jpg

Err okay maybe I do have a lot of time on my hands. I’ve been wanting to start this project for quite some time but I was debating on whether I would have enough content to fill this blog up. It’s a dead language you know, and only the ancient scholars of the past as well as the Vatican still speak this. If you want to take a lighter look at the language I tried to learn for four years back in high school, then do subscribe to this blog. I hope I can update it often. I’ve actually took the time to dust off my old text books and ancient scrolls.

The comic above is an excerpt from Asterix the Legionary but the text is in Latin. These are collectibles nowadays and I should have bought a few of these when I was in Rome several years ago.

A short history should suffice: I went to PAREF Southridge School for Boys and there were over 64 of us in the batch divided into two sections. We took up Latin twice a week, 40 minutes per session and it was hell. Which is why the tag “Latin killed the Ancient Romans, and now it’s killing me too” was very prominent and engraved in our hearts in the same way that Spartans were trained to kill.

So why am I doing this? I have absolutely no friggin reason. I just felt that it would be an interesting as well as humorous exercise to brush up on some of my mediocre (mediocritas, – tatis: n; in the middle, moderation – quite a far fetched meaning from what it means today) Latin skills. Note that I do not speak Latin. I can only translate. Speaking Latin is like … trying to resurrect the Betamax. [source]

I humbly present my Latin blog www.latin.jayveefernandez.com Ad astra per aspera! (to the stars through difficulties!)

By Jayvee Fernandez

Jayvee Fernandez is a tech enthusiast and sitting Techbology Editor for The Philippine STAR.

He is also an EAN certified SCUBA Diver and underwater photographer based in Metro Manila, Philippines. His photos and videos have appeared in various international and local publications including Random House Germany, Discovery Channel Canada, and CNN.

7 replies on “Extreme Niche Blog: Let’s Learn Latin–?!”

Hehe, if you are very interested in these comics, I live in Belgium, the country in which Asterix originated. If you want i can take a look in a couple comic book stores here, they’re bound to have them in French, Dutch and Latin 🙂

Well, if you want to learn Latin, it helps to listen to a lot of it. You need to surround yourself with a language for a few thousand hours if you’re ever going to master it.

There is loads to download on the latinum podcast. Then you can walk around with your mp3 player listening to Latin all day.

http://latinum.mypodcast.com

What? I thought it’s 24K lang? Hehe. 😛 I can feel it in my hands already. D40 soon yeaaahh. 🙂

About the latin blog, I mean that in a good way. Learning (and reading about) Latin is a.. uh, sweet death. (??) 🙂

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