Should I take Latin or Spanish? Which one would be more practical? Why?

Question

I cannot choose whether to learn Spanish or Latin. The only reason I want to take Latin is because I heard it helps in vocabulary. Eg: SAT, ACT. But does learning Latin really make that much of a difference?

Answer 1

Spanish Will help you out more in life....
Do you know spanish.. "Yes"
..."Your Hired"

Answer 2

If you are a native English speaker and plan on speaking English, primarily, for the rest of your life, Latin is going to be, by far, more useful to you. More than six out of every ten English words come from Latin--yes, more than sixty percent--and those are the words that are related to modern life: the science words, the legal words, the medical words. Speak to any group of people who learned more than a couple years of Latin, and you will be regaled with many stories about how useful Latin has been to them. The way schools teach Latin, you are likely to get a great deal of essential help not only with English vocabulary, but with grammar, and that will probably start within the first month of study. You will see a positive change in the way you write and spell in English, and a very positive change in the words you select. You will also be exposed to a tremendous amount of information about western culture. In learning Latin, you will also learn the reasons for so many things we do in our society, including aspects government, law, and religion. You will learn to recognize many cultural references that are to be found in reading English literature, including mythological and historical references. You are likely to be in smaller classes, and so benefit from more personalized instruction with your teachers. In college, this amounts to more learning for your money and time. And as far as getting into college, nothing looks better to a recruiter than 3 or more years of Latin study. People think it's hard. Of course, it's not really, but why not take advantage of that perception. It appears that you not only chose something difficult (even though it's not) and stuck with it long enough to get past the grammar. If you will be able to study AP Latin, so much the better!

Spanish is, of course, a beautiful language. Many people speak it. However, unless you are planning a career where you expect to speak Spanish to your clients or some other people, it's just not practical. Ask a group of people who studied Spanish in high school if they use it today, and how much. The way Spanish is taught, it is only useful if you will start conversing in it right away and keep it up for life.

Answer 3

Surprisingly Latin would probably be better! It is the root of the "romance" languages (Spanish , Italian, and French) plus the basis of many English words. I took Spanish, but it didn't help much in practice because schools usually teach the "official" Spanish of Spain which is quite different than the dialects of Latin American countries.

Answer 4

Spanish is definitely more practical because it is a spoken language. I took both when I was in school and use Spanish much more on a day-to-day basis. As for the SAT and ACT, you can use Spanish the same way as Latin in many cases.

Answer 5

It partly depends on what you hope to major in when you go to college.

Latin is great if you want to specialize in an area that is in science, biology, pharmarcy, or medical field. It helps with all of the Latin names most medicines and diseases have.

If you are interested in majoring in arts or humanities then Spanish would be more pratical. If you want to major in English lit - French or German is better.

The thing about Spanish -- if you stick with it -- you can always find work as a translator - especially in hospitals.

Hopefully this will help.

Answer 6

Spanish would definately be more pratical. Millions of people speak spanish in the world, while just maybe a few thousand speak latin.

Answer 7

Not really Latin is more of the formal way to speak .. mainly used in Spain... Spanish is just Spanish ... which has 3 dialects to it!

Answer 8

Learn both. I love Latin. But either will benefit your English skills. (You have to really know your native language in order to learn another.)

Answer 9

salve! (latin hello)it defently helps. i take latin now and have been for three years and it helps a ton in english, and in taking a second language in addition to latin. so many wordsin eglish are derived from latin, and it helps greatly on your SAT's. best of luck!

Answer 10

when do you really get to use latin?
I say learn as many languages as you can, but spanish will probably be more useful.

Answer 11

Latin, as it is the root language for French, Italian, and Spanish.