I am a 17 year old student who plans on studying Latin in college, but I am also interested in learning other languages. I also have a decent background in Italian. French has also attracted my attention as I may eventually pursue a doctorate in Philosophy, and many universities recommend at least a reading knowledge of French and Latin. I essentially have three options: 1. Begin my study of Latin early. 2. Pursue my study of French now, to be more prepared to study it later. 3. Continue my studies in Italian.

What would the members of ISI suggest?

James123, I am a freshman at the University of Minnesota and one who has several of the same language goals. During high school I too wanted to study Latin, but it was not offered by my high school or any high school in my area. Instead, I studied Spanish to a very high level and was able to test into fifth semester Spanish during my first semester at the U. I took that class as well as Latin 1001 this fall and greatly enjoyed both classes.

What I would recommend first is to keep studying your Italian for several reasons:

1. You might be able to test out of your universities foreign language requirement, thus giving you more freedom to plan your courses.

2. Give that Italian and Latin are very similar, when you learn Latin it would be advantageous to know 1 Romance Language to a high degree, rather than a little bit of two.

With that in mind, I would suggest keeping your Italian and getting a jump start on Latin if you have the chance.

-J

I'd recommend just the opposite approach. If you want to study French and Latin, study French and Latin...Italian would just be a distraction from what appear to be your real goals.

Of those two languages, don't get hung up on far-off plans that may never come to fruition. Just go with the language that interests you more. You'll stick with it longer and get more out of it that way. My personal preference would be French, because it's in common use throughout the world (read: great for travel and conversation). Plus, French literature in my opinion is much more lively than that of the important but dreadfully serious works of the great Roman writers. Moreover, if you are choosing a language to study in the classroom, French is not phonetic (unlike Italian), and requires some guidance before you can pronounce it properly. So, there's more to be gained from formal instruction in French, whereas you could always study Latin (a grammar-intensive language used almost exclusively in writing) on your own.

As I said, though, this is just my preference, and there are real benefits to each of these languages. Just go with the one that calls out to you more...you can always learn the other one later!

Good luck!