Eh. Illegitimi non carborundum.
Aside, but I figure OP would be amused: I took two years of Latin to satisfy my language requirement (majored in Philosophy, so one could argue it was as relevant as anything could be when you’re majoring in irrelevance).
In my Latin 100 class, there were two girls who…well, they didn’t quite belong. The class was mostly doughy, geeky types, and a few “nontrads” and grad students. These girls were, well, the classic freshman girl cliche – slim, tan, loud, and often showing up in pajamas with vaguely hungover expressions. Always seemed a little behind the curve, but, hey, languages are tough, Latin is exceedingly tough, who’s to blame 'em? I mean, they were friendly enough and kudos to 'em for doing something different and challenging.
About four or five weeks in, we were doing in-class reviewing for the first unit exam, covering the first few chapters of Wheelock. The professor opened the floor up to questions on the content. One of the girls raised her hand and asked, “So…where do they actually speak Latin?”
The teacher looked like a deer in headlights for about five seconds, then proceeded to try to explain the historical role of Latin in Rome and Europe, etc.
The girl replied, “…oh.”
Never saw 'em again.
There was a girl in my class who left 15 minutes into the first day because she didn’t realize Greek Lyric Poetry was actually in Greek
My thoughts exactly. Also, tell them that Petronius could fuck their face until it looked like a chimp attack. Pull out some Vulgate and cut their nipples off with it, too.
Funny stories above – I’ve heard some good ones from two friends who studied Classics as graduate students. Can’t remember them, though.
Latin isn’t “exceedingly tough,” though – I take grave exception to that notion. Reading it expediently without a dictionary takes a lot of practice, though.
Tell them that contrary to moronic popular belief, the point of going to a university is to receive an education–not to simply get a job. You can teach a monkey, or any other mildly cognitive creature, to do just about any job there is. But the desire to learn beyond was is needed for survival is a trait that is unique to a very small percentage of the human race. Then, after telling them that it is impossible to learn a foreign language by being a grade chaser, proceed to interrogate them on what they actually learned, and retained, during their own educational pursuits. Make sure you do this in front of a large crowd of friends and colleagues. Burn them at the stake!
In all honesty, PSXer, I applaud your sagacity in studying what you’re most interested in. Too many people falsely think an undergraduate education is somehow about vocational training, which is utter nonsense. It might be more credible if it weren’t for the fact that a majority of students with undergraduate degrees do not obtain employment directly in the major, and for the fact that a huge majority of employer recruiters on college campuses every year list something like the following requirement: “Bachelor’s degree required, Majors: All.” Note, not “all except for latin majors” or even “all except for liberal arts majors.” Just all.
Best wishes to you and your future.
I don’t know how to stop people from mocking you, but I think it’s really cool you’re studying Latin. I think I would enjoy studying Latin.
And many people end up spending their lives jockeying spreadsheets because they have no idea what to do career-wise and they wasted four years doing something that bored the shit out of them. At least law pays better.
Don’t quit your day job to advise kids.
If you’re a drone to start with, you just end up a drone with a degree in X when you’re done with college. Maybe you make $50k extra over the course of 20 years if you choose one major or another, but then again, maybe you don’t. Maybe you study something you end up disliking and working in that field for decades. The $50 grand over 20 years is paltry recompense.
I was a bean counter in corporate finance and now I write code in my analytics consulting job. There’s nothing wrong with that kind of work. I like programming. That I taught myself. If you find you really like writing code, then obviously getting more training can only be a good thing. The “if you like writing code” bit bears repeating.
But do you honestly think someone needs to major in accounting and get an MBA to manage a few lines in a P&L? Come on. You need to be smart and driven. You really just need a college degree that signals that you aren’t retarded and are capable of occasional original thought to an employer. It’s helpful to have a major that comes along with some barrier to entry.
Everyone graduates from Harvard or Princeton with about a 3.8. You would know that if you went to a top-tier school. 
A lot of people feel the need to go to business or law school anyway, regardless of what they major in. You did, even with your shiny engineering major. Right?
Actually, you would tell them you BE switchin’ to Ebonics.
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PSXer,
While Maeglin and msmith discuss career options - what do YOU want to do when you get out of school? Is a Classics degree a stepping stone to grad school? A PhD in Classics/History/Linguistics/etc. A law degree? An import business in antiquities? (my father in law is semi retired selling ancient coins - it isn’t a bad gig). Are you planning on getting out and want to work in your field? Or are you planning on taking a Liberal Arts bachelors and falling into a job doing - oh, I don’t know - technical writing, project management, business analysis? Are you a self motivated self learner - the type who will scramble regardless of initial field of study? Or are you the type just “looking to get by” who will be content pouring coffee at Starbucks while you continue to intellectually follow wherever your interests lead? And there really aren’t wrong answers (as long as you meet your obligations to yourself and society), but knowing for yourself what you want to get out of your degree goes a long way towards justifying it to others. But remember also, you don’t really owe others a justifications.
Despite my poking above, I do think a liberal arts degree generally helps you learn to think better than a business degree (I went through both). But, as I said, I think generally its a harder path starting out - especially right now. Unless you get lucky and/or have those self motivation, self learner skills.
Most careers are boring as shit. I mean it’s not like any of us are lion tamers or anything like that. 90% of work is spreadsheets and computers in an office somewhere.
Safety schools.:rolleyes:
Technically I didn’t “need” to career-wise. I worked in engineering (structural) for about a year until I decided to switch careers into technology / management consulting. It was the mid 90s so lots of Accenture clones were looking for anyone with any sort of mathmatics or analytical background to be programmer/analysts. I ultimately decided to get an MBA because I wanted to get away from coding and go in more of a business direction.
Not to digress, but what I’ve found is that having those programming skills actually hurts my long-term career. It basically traps me into performing a job that I am ok at, but lack the interest or desire or talent to be any sort of superstar. At somewhat solitary nature of the work becomes an unwanted distraction from activities like relationship building and networking that are essential to advancing beyond “technical subject matter expert” or “mid-level engagement manager”.
Let me put it another way. A few years after b-school, I was telling a friend I was considering going to law school to become an attorney. His reply was that with my luck, I would graduate and they would put me in charge of running some sort of legal database instead of doing actual lawyer work. Although as it turns out I ended up making a lot of money sort of doing that and without having to go to law school.
Anyhow, the point is wrt the OP, I don’t know what one does with a degree in Latin. But I wouldn’t study something you don’t like doing because there is a good chance you will get stuck doing it.
There we go. There’s your answer. I majored in something even more useless than Latin, and went to grad school in something even more useless than my undergrad major (Folklore). I’ve never had money to throw around, but I’ve done all kinds of different things and although there are some boring elements, it’s mostly pretty great.
My parents always said, “Do what you love; the money will follow.” They obviously didn’t mean “…will follow rapidly, in quantity,” but still good advice.
The broader question is how to justify the study of the humanities in a way that would make sense to people who don’t perceive an intrinsic value. Because, of course, simply pointing out that the other person is a barbarian for not “getting it” is counter-productive.
I worked in a college library for several years, and quite often I would meet people who had gotten a liberal arts degree, but were coming back to school to get a degree in engineering or management information systems, or something they hope to get a job with. However, I met just as many people who had gotten engineering degrees and were now coming back to study art history, philosophy or literature.
These aren’t contrary narratives. Both of these groups gave up something of value in their education and have come back to find it. It’s obvious what the frustration would be with not having an engineers salary, but let’s also acknowledge that those well-paid engineers also found something missing in their lives.
Of course, lots of engineers never feel any loss for anything of the humanities they could not glean from popular culture, and lots of humanities majors carve out cirsūs honōrum outside academia on the wits that they honed studying Horace. Ultimately, everyone pursues both practical goals and something else of less worldly and more intrinsic value. The question is what you’re going to focus on in those exhilarating days of your hobledyhood.
Illegitimati non lassit carborundum.
Ask them if they know the origin of the word major. Then explain it to them. Preferably in Latin.
Good point: or university, college, salary, bonus, benefits, status, position, congress, senate, president…
People just need to broaden their horizons. The language is pretty boring, but Latin music is pretty fun to listen to.
Are any video game instructions written in Latin?
If your mom doesn’t understand Latin, you can always curse at her and she won’t understand you.
You could always fill out job applications in Latin, to show how smart you are.
I didn’t realize the OP was kinda maybe on the fence about majoring in Classics.
A serious trove of insights has been written by William Harris of Middlebury College (emeritus) – I think he’s still alive. His website has all kinds of things about the value of education in classics, and some neat advice re translating, the best way to learn Greek (I took his advice and started with Homer, pretty much as he recommends – can’t remember much of the lexicon, but I can still hack through Iliad with a dictionary), larger issues in academia, eksetera.
Or dumb.
Hey! Just filling out a job application in any language would be a start for the OP.
So does my secretary.
Ouch.
Is your secretary way smarter than his/her boss too?