Majors

[The Honourable Ninja-san]

Well, not all of them are Latin-based. Some are Germanic, and I bet some have other roots. But yes, it would help with several languages.

[Melinda]

isnt german based on latan though?

[The Honourable Ninja-san]

Possible, but even if it is, since English is considered Germanic (not Latin-based), then German must be very different from Latin.

[Brandon]

Well, learning Latin does increase your vocabulary. In my English 201 class we read an article that flat out said the reason America' vocabulary is going down the drain is because they don't teach Latin in school any more.

[The Honourable Ninja-san]

Going down the drain how? In quality, quantity, or both? Offhand, I'd say that if America's vocabulary's going down the drain, the main reason is because the students and/or the teachers don't care about vocabulary or sounding like a well-educated person.

[Melinda]

that tends to be true kelli. no one cares about how they sound anymore, which i think is dumb, but i cant say much, because i'm the same way.... to an extent.

[Brandon]

America's vocab is going down the drain, both in quality and quantity. I think it's because of people almost exclusively communicating via texting and e-mail and the fact that all they teach in high school English is Shakespeare..

[Jason]

That would make sense. Txtng dnt hlp mch w vcab mks u dmbr. Yeah, and Shakespeare doesn't help much, either. go figure, huh?

[Melinda]

i would be okay with going back to shakesperian english. it sounds really cool.

my daughter sent me a letter, and it has greek on it, and i have no clue what it says. in a bit, i'm going to look it up online somewhere, and figure out what it says. i wish you knew greek now brandon. it would come in helpful

[Brandon]

sorry I can't help you there. I'm not even sure when I'm going to take that class yet.

[The Honourable Ninja-san]

To Jason: Your last post makes me twitch.
When I text, I spell out the whole word and use correct punctuation. But I'm an English person.

To Brandon's second to last post: I don't think that teaching Shakespeare is the problem, though it would be good also teach some classic books/plays that don't have to be interpreted. I think the problem with teaching Shakespeare is that teacher tend to just teach the tragedies (I assume. I actually didn't learn Shakespeare in high school). How many teenagers enjoy tragedies? What's the point of a literature class is it turns kids off of reading classics?

[Melinda]

i was always a fan of the tragedies... but, i'm just wierd that way.

we learned in highschool (from what i remember) Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth (which they did up here this last two or three weeks. it was awesome!), an i think we did Much Ado About Nothing too, but i could be wrong on that last one. it seems like we did another one, but i could just be mixing that up with my shakespeare class.

then, of course, you have jason who didnt study any Shakespeare in high school either.

i think it all depends on where you went. we studied shakespeare, but we also studied a lot of other famous literature too. the scarlet letter (which i wasnt a fan of) famous poets (i recited a poem by Poe for that class , Mark Twain, and some other famous guys. we didnt just stick to shakespeare

[The Honourable Ninja-san]

It's good to teach a variety of authors and a variety of "moods" (not just tragedies, just comedies, etc). I remember that I read "Wuthering Heights" (Heathcliff ticked me off) and "The Importance of Being Ernest," (a great play) and other things I don't specifically remember.

[Melinda]

general question:
is your current major your orriginal plan of majors? like, did you plan on going into that, or something like it, before it became your major?

[Brandon]

Mine's different. Similar, but different. I was Political Science, and now I'm history. I had planned on going to law school, but after taking an intro to law test, I discovered I hated studying law. So now I'm a history major wanting to go into teaching.