Why Latin should not become extinct in school

Competence in foreign languages is becoming increasingly important in a globalized world. While many are keen to learn French and Spanish, given their prominence in today's society, students at secondary schools still have the option to learn Latin, even though its often referred to as a "dead" language given that there are no native speakers. We don't even know how it sounded because it died out long before its tones were ever recorded.

In Germany, interest in Latin has been declining nationwide. Whereas in 2008 more than 830,000 young people throughout Germany were still learning the Indo-European language at school, by 2021/22 that figure had dropped to 539,000. In comparison, French is almost three times as popular.

Professor Stefan Freund is chairman of the German Association of Classical Philologists (DAV), the professional association for Latin and Greek at schools and universities, and teaches Latin at the University of Wuppertal.

Deutsche Welle spoke to the professor about Latin and its future within German education.

DW: Is Latin a "dead" language?

SF: Latin is a living look into the past and into the functioning of language.

What is the argument for still learning Latin today?

Latin teaching imparts meta-competencies that can be applied throughout life to dealing with and learning other foreign languages, and in substance do not become obsolete. While modern foreign language instruction focuses on communication, Latin instruction focuses on language reflection, such as how it is different from German, how a sentence works, how words changed, and how certain statements are formulated in certain situations.

And, of course, Latin is the common mother of the Romance language family (French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian) and the origin of numerous English words, for instance language, computer and artificial intelligence.

Do students choose Latin instead of, for example, French or Spanish, at the insistence of their parents, or because they already have a particular field of study in mind?

One can only speculate about the students' motives. Four points are likely to be relevant: A general interest in history and mythology and an approach to language more through reflection and analysis than through direct communication. In addition, a study or career perspective for which Latin seems useful and the teachers, who are on average quite young, know how critically the public, parents and the students view their subject and therefore attach great importance to appealing teaching that has nothing to do with the selective drill from the cliche images.

For which courses of study and professions in Germany is Latin useful or even a prerequisite?

What Latin is required for varies. It tends to happen less frequently than it used to. In any case, it is useful for many subjects: History, philosophy, theology, Roman studies, law (Roman law), medicine (history of medicine, terminology), pharmacy (terminology), linguistics, all disciplines that deal with the time before about 1750 and the European area... History of Music, History of Art, History of Science, Church history, local history.

Latin died out around the 7th or 8th century but when did its significance wane?

Until the 18th century, Latin was the most common language in which newly published books were printed. Huge stores of knowledge on all sorts of issues are accessible thanks to my knowledge of Latin, since only a tiny part of this neo-Latin text is translated.

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