February 19, 2003
Polyglots hit the books to learn 'dead' language
Devotees gather weekly at Borders Books to plow through "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Latin'
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
If you're a language junkie, all roads lead to Latin.
Five area devotees of languages gather weekly at Borders Books and Music to explore the language weekly under the tutelage of Emily Joy Bembeneck. Bembeneck is also learning Latin, working to stay a week ahead of her students as they plow through "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Latin." Students are tackling their task aided by a Latin-English dictionary and a variety of worksheets Bembeneck creates.
Acknowledging that the Latin Group is not a formal class with grades, Bembeneck nevertheless has set an ambitious schedule for her students: complete the book in 16 sessions. This goal will provide the basics of the complex language that many classify as dead - but for these students Latin is anything but extinct. Some even consider its study relevant.
"I have a science background and just wanted to know the roots of all those works," said Melinda Novak, a nursing student at Northwestern Michigan College and a co-worker of Bembeneck's at Borders. "Latin is kind of the root of all languages and there's so much Latin in medicine. You can memorize it but not know what they mean."
Novak admits to being a language junkie, having previously taught herself Swahili and studied German and Spanish. Diving into Latin is a new level of challenge, however.
"All the different endings are most difficult," she said. "You really have to memorize them."
Former alter boy Al Cox of Traverse City said he has a smattering of Church Latin but is interested in deepening his knowledge of the language. Cox has some knowledge of German, Russian, French and Italian so his attitude to studying Latin was 'Why not?'
"I love languages, they are neat," he said.
The Latin Group meets every Monday for about 90 minutes. During the sessions, Bembeneck guides students through the intricacies of the language's masculine, feminine and neutral cases, verb endings and first and second declensions of nouns. Plus pronunciation, word order and vocabulary lists - everyone should know how to say fishpond or tightrope walker in Latin.
Throw in conjunctions and diphthongs, nominatives and genitives, and you have a grammarian's dream. Or a recipe for mass confusion.
"Gender doesn't have a lot to do with the word, like caveman is a feminine noun," she told the group.
Latin words abound in medicine and law, but who knew that margarita was Latin for pearl or that mensa meant table?
With dreams of becoming a history professor, Bembeneck said her Latin studies are just one more step along that path. A months-long visit to France last year added to her motivation to study the root of many European languages.
"I've always wanted to learn it because it is a dead language but people still study it all the time and it is used in a lot of professions," said the 1999 Traverse City West High School graduate and Northwestern Michigan College student. "It is the basis of our language today and it is cool to speak Latin."
Taking on the teaching role is not a stretch for the former homeschooler who helped teach a younger brother for years. To start the Latin Group, she just posted notices of the class and began studying the book. She was not sure, however, if anyone else in town was interested in the language.
"I'm really glad that other people want to learn it," she said. "Latin is a challenge, different than English so you have to look at it in a different way."
After meeting for two sessions, Bembeneck works hard to keep ahead of her students and provide them with both praise and motivation.
Underneath her dedication as a teacher, Bembeneck has a very ambitious goal for all of this:
"Personally, I want to be able to read the classics in Latin," she said.
For more information on the Latin Group, call Bembeneck at Borders Books and Music at 933-0412.