Werta Malayu Vol 1 No 3 May 1898 (Singapore)
Educational Department
"Benefits of the study of Latin"
Chas. S. Buchanan
Therefore it must be admitted, that no one, howsoever mercenary a character
he may be, can well afford to neglect the study of Latin. There is no
calling, profession or trade, for which it does not better fit a person, and
doubtless more so than any other language. It is more beneficial than
mathematics, the great trainer of the reason, for a language has wider field
in which to work. Mathematics should not be neglected, nor is it likely to
be, for it is more enticing to the multitude than is language. To an Asiatic
studying English, the study of Latin is a most excellent aid as a few years
of its study will prove to him. Latin should always be a prominent study in
the schools of Singapore. No board of education or college faculty in an
English-speaking country could blunder worse than to drop from their
curriculum the study of Latin.
Werta Malayu Vol 1 No 4 June 1898 (Singapore)
News and Notes
hahah! zak, if i haven't mentioned it before, is writing his thesis on colonial era newspapers in malaya. he sent me this this morning, which he came upon when he was working in the british library last night. it's full of amusing bits.
The most cogent reason for the study of Latin is that of the mental drill it
affords..
It, like any well-developed language, wonderfully trains the powers of
critical observation, memory, discrimination, reason..
The study of Latin is a first-rate mental drill, and almost the only
language study we require for vocabulary. The vocabulary of the English
language consists of Latin derivatives 55%, Anglo-Saxon 37%, Greek, with a
slight admixture of words from other languages, 8%. Besides the benefits of
mental drill and vocabulary, with its consequent understanding and
appreciation of our mother tongue, there still remains the joy of the better
appreciation of the Latin classics. Many men have studied a language for the
last reason alone. Of course this reason cannot appeal to the rank and file
of humanity, but only to those who have a yearning for and an appreciation
of the finer and more delicate joys.