Latin: So Stressful

As a Latin student, I have to say, Latin is stressful. Hell, learning another language is stressful, and that’s counting when you’ve had at least some sort of interaction with the language before. Most people in my community have encountered some Spanish, in some way, shape or form, as they grow up. Whether its saying si for yes, or hola for goodbye. Bonita for beautiful, or uno for one. In French, most people know oui (Pronounced we) as yes, and merci as thank you. Other languages, whether you take them because of family heritage, or just personal choices, are more difficult, because they just are not said as much. But Latin as a language that is not spoken anymore, is even more difficult to learn.

Not only do you have to learn a new vocabulary, as you do in any foreign language, you have to memorize any and all declensions and conjugations. What I mean is, certain words belong to certain declensions, and thus follow certain rules. For example, the first declension mainly consists of verbs that a feminine. Laborat, meaning he/she/it works. The verb laborat is singular, and the plural form is laborant, only slightly different. If one wanted to say that we are working, one would say laboramus. Now, if we look at the second declension, you would find that the majority of verbs are masculine, while the rest are mostly neutered. The verb sedet means he/she/it sits. It is in its singular form, and the plural is sedent, a little different from the first declension, but enough to make it noticeable.

If all that isn’t stressful enough, you have to keep in mind that there are five declensions, each with ten cases(i.e. singular accusative, nominative, etc, and plural accusative, nominative, etc.) That means that I have to memorize 50 different conjugations/cases for Latin, not to mention any irregular verbs. See what I mean?