I am a Latin teacher, living in Toronto. I'm married, have two kids, a job I love and an interest in language. I should say I came late to the latter interest. All through high school, I used to swear that I hated language (French in those days) and that I was bad at it. I continued to be convinced of my lack of talent for language all the way through my undergrad. Oddly, my marks in languages seemed to bear me out. I rarely would reach above a B and, usually, skulked around a C or a D. I continue to be amused at the places life takes me because my mark in first year Latin was a D+ and I'm now teaching Latin in a high school. Not am I now very surprised at the results, given how I was thinking about language.
My problems with languages was twofold. First, I have a bit of a tin ear for the sound of language. For whatever reason, I never really developed a good ear; something that has afflicted me in music as well as language. I have mitigated this flaw over the years for Latin and ancient Greek just through lots of practice, but oral language is not my strongest point even now.
Second, I didn't do the memorization work. I have a pretty good head for grammar, so I understand the structures of language reasonably quickly and I can understand how the rules work in reality. However, as anyone who is good at language will tell you, if one doesn't memorize vocabulary and forms, it doesn't matter how good an understanding one has about the structures. When it comes to do something practical, one literally doesn't have the words. So, that is that is what happened to me, time after time with my languages. I've since learned that that simply doesn't work and, believe me, I tell my students that I've tried to get away without memorization in a language. It doesn't work.
So, why did I keep taking languages, if I hated them so? Why didn't I, like so many of my peers, just drop French already and give up studying languages. Well, I did drop French...and picked up again later. What really stopped my escape from language was my interest in history- mediaeval history at the time. Sometime in undergrad, I decided I wanted to study mediaeval history at the post-graduate level and, I soon discovered, I needed Latin for that. Then, I discovered I liked the history of the Byzantine Empire, so add ancient Greek for that. Then, I realized I needed to read the secondary literature for those areas, so add German and French. So, before I knew it I was either trying to learn or actually using four different languages- not particularly well, but I was trying. As my old Russian prof said to me once, "For someone who doesn't like languages, you're taking an awful lot of them". And I was.
So, all that language activity and a realization after completing an MA in Ancient History that I actually needed some proficiency in Latin to be taken seriously, eventually, led me into an MA in Classics. That meant a lot of language work. For the first time, I actually bore down and memorized hard. And, oddly, my understanding of Latin and ancient Greek got better and better until I qualified for a PhD in Classics. It was a really steep learning curve and the hardest intellectual work I've ever known, but I made a lot of progress very fast. Ultimately, the steepness of the learning curve caught up to me and I withdrew from that PhD, but all that work left me with a good understanding of Latin and ancient Greek which, because it was hard one, left me determined not to lose. So, I kept translating even after I left formal grad work and I've kept at it. Then, I found my way into teaching Latin, so I deal with language everyday. I hardly ever have a day where I don't wonder how I got here. I'm grateful, mind you. I love my job and my students, but going from language-phobe to Latin teacher seems mighty odd, if you ask me. Yet, I think that journey gives me advantages as a teacher because I'm not an intuitive linguist, so I can explain better the steps along the way to proficiency in a language. I hope so.
So, what am I translating? Right now, I'm working on a long-term project to translate the works on St. Martin by Sulpicius Severus- the Martiniana as I call it (the Life of St. Martin, the Letters of the Sulpicius Severus, and the Dialogus). I've posted the Life and two of the Letters on my other blog, hyperekperissou but will re-post them here soon for those who haven't seen them. My intention is post my translations as I find time which is, as you might understand, at a bit of a premium for a father with two young boys and a teacher with a thriving Latin program and extra-curriculars. My interest tends to lean towards patristic authors, especially those who have a historical bent, but I'm not ruling out translating anything really. I'll just follow my interests.
So, for what it is worth, is my introduction. I'll post translations and the observations on translation as time permits. Please feel free to comment and constructively critisized. I've chosen moderated comments to keep the spam down, but I look forward to conversations on language with my readers. I hope you enjoy what you see here.
Peace, |
Phil
