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Most of the application of Latinate concepts (those systems you mention) to English grammar are pretty faulty. It's what led us down the path to people complaining about split infinitives, and all that nonsense up with which I refuse to put. It leads to situations that are akin to someone trying really hard to write a Java program in Ruby.

Which isn't to say that learning Latin doesn't improve grammar skills, or push you toward thinking more analytically about language. My argument, though, would be that learning any second language will give you pretty much the same benefit.

5 on AP Latin, here.

Right. It's amazing how many people don't realize English is a Germanic language and that despite the fact we absorbed a lot of Romance words from Norman French and other places, we still have a Germanic grammar. (For one thing, our adjectives go before our nouns, not after: We have a "red dog", not a "perro rojo".)

> Latin gave me the ability to ... be able to dissect the English language and multiple other languages quite mathematically and systematically

A formal study of linguistics will do a much better job of this than a study of Latin (of course, there's no reason one can't do both).

> If we were to reintroduce Latin, I think society's language skills would improve and thereby communication would improve.

Do society's language skills need improving? I realise you haven't said this, but there is a common myth that somehow language use is deteriorating, when actually it's just changing. This, of course, is nothing new [1].

[1] http://grammar.about.com/od/readingsonlanguage/a/The-Endless...

There's nothing special about latin.

If you teach people the grammar of a language throroughly, and expose them to all sorts of historic, philosophical and poetic writings, they will also learn some abstract thinking.

For most foreign languages, it's considered more useful to be able to do trifling things like buy food, find shelter, or write business letters.

Romans had some of these woes, but their empire-building efforts and the ensuing plundering and enslaving of half of Europe (and a corresponding part of Northern Africa) allowed them to employ philosophers and poets that were not caught up in the rat race that most such people in the 19th and 20th Century were subjected to.

Latin is not magical. While your idea is old enough to be mostly quaint and charming, the fact of the matter is that it's completely unrealistic. Not only that; it's already been tried, although using Sanskrit, not Latin. You've basically rediscovered a bad idea from the 80ies

I suspect that a lot of the "Latin helps you with English" meme comes from the coming together of a couple of things:

1. Some schools wanting to teach Latin at least in part simply because it was part of a classical Western curriculum

but 2. Wanting to justify that inclusion based on more modern practical concerns than it just being something properly educated people learn.

Nothing against Latin or classical Western liberal arts. But the idea that Latin uniquely helps with English is sort of silly.

Personally Latin helped me with English mostly because my Latin classes were the only place I ever got any formal instruction in English grammar.

English might be German, French, etc. influenced, but it's nowhere as straightforward as German. Also, it is no surprise that it's about as difficult to learn as a foreign language as Xhosa.

Quidquid latine dictum, altum videtur.

I was lucky enough to go to a private school where Latin/Logic/Rhetoric/Greek were taught as core subjects and I've also found Latin incredibly helpful in my life. I found learning French and Spanish to be quite easy and reading medical documentation comes fairly intuitively. For those of European descent (at least a large chunk of what we call Europe today), Latin is an incredibly important part of our culture and history and helps link us with an incredibly rich past. I would say for pleasure and knowledge, study any language that saw such developments in medical practice, art and naval/military sciences. I'd assume that Sino-Tibetan language groups have a similarly rich history and learning one of those languages would be of equal benefit.

That's just the classic false attachment of Latin constructs to English usage. French, Italian etc. obviously derive from Latin while the Germanic languages do not, much to the disgrace of the self professed enlightened classes for the last several hundred years.

I don't mean to defend the Latin crowd here, but your argument is flawed.

It's true that English historically comes from the Germanic side of the tree -- starting with Old Frisian with later Old Norse influences. However, the last millennium has been a long process of romancification:

* post-Hastings, all of the English ruling class spoke Norman French for centuries

* the Latin church, which was for a long time the main source of literate people

* a heavy dose of classics in school meant that the educated classes would consciously turn to Latin (and to a lesser extent Greek) when coining new words and phrases

You're right that English is Germanic by heritage. However modern English vocabulary is probably as close to French than anything else. Knowing some rudimentary Latin does let you decipher a lot of etymologies.

I respectfully disagree. I had Latin in school for 7 years and while I didn't learn as much as I should have, I know enough to discuss about. Latin, as all other languages, wasn't designed, it grew organically. As such, it has many annoying inconsistencies and I don't feel that they add much to the language.

Why do you feel Latin might be part of the key to artificial intelligence?

> Latin, as all other languages, wasn't designed

To be fair, some languages were designed, such as Volapük, Esperanto, Ido, Lojban, Klingon, Sindarin, Verdurian, and other, less-known examples.

But it's not like they influence any big parts of culture as opposed to Latin which influences pretty much everything since then.

By that measure, learning English is more important than learning Latin, and learning Sumerian is more important still.

Latin gave you a third brain and it will be the key to artificial intelligence?

> Latin (...) will be the key to artificial intelligence?

Deus ex machina. We knew that for hundreds of years. ;).

Mandarin and Simplified Chinese is a popular course these days, even in some high schools. If you want something different from the way Westerners think about writing, grammar, and spoken language, and a different body of literature, there it is. And it's more useful in practical ways.

I took an intro Latin course in university, and while I didn't get as much out of it as you did, it did give me a great appreciation for understanding the roots of words, and why they mean what they mean.

Wouldn't you get most of that understanding anyway if you took French, Spanish, or another Romance language? Albeit with the added benefit of ability to communicate with a whole new sphere of people?

Not dissing on Latin per se, but other than maybe interest in studying classics, I don't see why one would choose Latin over a living language that can be used in the 'real world'.

Auxilium! Non possum surgere et decidi. - Last words of Beowulf :)

Probably something more like 'Ekhjelpe! Ek hefi ratað eða get ek ei standa'.