Episode 148: Latin Lives On… and On (Wednesday, May 1, 2024)

Episode 148:    Latin Lives On… and On

Wednesday, May 1, 2024

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Latin Lives On:  333 common words letter for letter identical in Latin and English. Each word is a mnemonic device providing extra texture, extra connections.

My list illustrates a general principle: there's always a better, quicker, cheaper way to teach a lot. The Education Establishment should focus on this. Instead of retreating from knowledge, the professors should embrace knowledge with greater cleverness.

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Bruce Deitrick Price

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Bio: Bruce Deitrick Price is a novelist, artist, poet, and education reformer.

(For a list of literary titles, visit Lit4u.com. 
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LET'S FIX EDUCATION:  OVERVIEW

 Recurring themes. Big ideas. Unifying concepts.

Transcript

LET'S FIX EDUCATION     by     Bruce Deitrick Price

Episode 148   --   Wed.,  May 1, 2024

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LATIN LIVES  ON: 333 Latin and identical English words

After I had been living in Manhattan for several years, I realized that the word transit, which is all over the subway system, is pure Latin. This was a big surprise. Why had nobody mentioned it? 

I  started collecting all the words that were letter for letter identical in Latin and English. (They had to be common words, and no medical or legal terms.)

Along the way I asked people if they knew any English-Latin identicals. Half the people said, no, never happened. The other half said, yes, there are some, but I can't think of one.

Isn't that odd? Teachers had not been taught to take advantage of what is dramatic, near at hand, unforgettable. The word exit is everywhere in our lives, a constant reminder that another language came along before we did, and that language is still part of our lives.

My Latin/English list, which topped out at 333 words, was published in 1985. I think it will be a valuable mnemonic for years. Our schools are teaching less and less. But this list teaches a lot about Latin and English very quickly, so it's an equalizer.

I just posted an update about Latin Lives On and where people can find the list, which include such Latin/English words as labor, ego, editor, actor, regimen, factor, stimulus, arena, mentor, appendix, monitor, iris, honor, and 320 more.

Many people think that my goals are linguistic or etymological. No, I'm showing that we don't take advantage of the easy ways to teach anything. Let's say you were an English teacher, and you could discuss this list and show it to the kids and talk about Rome, and you could show the Colosseum, you could show the scene from Gladiator where Russell Crowe is fighting the tigers and you could say, people in that audience 2000 years ago were speaking these words. Now that's interesting.

Safe rule of thumb if you're trying to teach something quickly, ask the lazy guy how to do this. That’s me. The lazy guy will always find the quick way. Ignorance means you have to work harder. 

When I started taking Latin in seventh grade I didn't know what a foreign language was. I didn't know what a noun or verb was. I didn't know anything because the public schools in Virginia Beach didn't teach those things. With this list you can teach Latin and English at the same time, quickly. As opposed to teaching nothing, very slowly.

You just have to be clever and resourceful. Here's another example:

Think about the word camouflage. Almost every animal employs camouflage. If children talk about camouflage, even a little, they would look at birds, cats and so on more closely. Point to an animal and ask the question, Where is the camouflage in this picture? What is its purpose. Thus begins a solid foundation in biology, nature, the great outdoors.

Most children don’t know that each branch of service, Marines, Air Force and so on, has a different camouflage pattern. A lot of thought goes into which pattern to choose. But the point is they work… because they confuse your brain. Camouflage is a special kind of optical illusion.

Then, if we look at every tank, every truck, every artillery piece, you see they’re painted to blend with the terrain. Every ship, in wartime, is painted differently. The most extraordinary camouflage was in World War I when they called in magicians to explain how to hide a ship. See graphic.

I think the goal must always be to find the easiest simplest cheapest way to do everything. For me, the Latin Lives On list is a powerful example.

In closing, please everyone go to the list of 333 Latin-English words. Each is a useful interesting word that every kid should know. Now you have a way to make that process easier.

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The List, without commentary    https://wordinfo.info/unit/3277

Update and background about the Latin/English list: https://twitter.com/educatt/status/1783697171566469508

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NB:  the Latin/English words are a huge cluster. Things that have camouflage are another cluster. When you study one part of a cluster,  you simultaneously study all the other parts. See Episode 144: Best practice: teach items in clusters. Obviously, I am obsessed by the fact that our public schools are almost totally inefficient.