Moving to NYC

After a successful stint in San Francisco, I am now moving to New York City to pursue my Ph.D. I will still be available for tutoring services in the Bay Area until August, and then I will be tutoring in NYC. Good-bye, San Francisco! Valete, California! You will be missed!

Moving to California Bay Area

Sorry folks, but Latin Tutoring is now moving to California, specifically the Bay Area (San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Walnut Creek, Clayton, etc... etc...), as I was accepted into a Master's program at SFSU.

I still can do internet tutoring, but I will no longer be available for tutoring in-home at Memphis.

Good luck!

Latin Inflexion: Where English Helps

People interested in Latin who grew up with English or other declension-less languages are often at first puzzled by the nature or utility of inflexion (changing the endings depending on the use of the word). Luckily for Anglophones (speakers of English), being distantly related to Latin, English does indeed retain some inflexion, in the most common of words, too!

Cases

Nominative, accusative, genitive... These words can appear confusing at first, since they are Latin terms and not normal English ones. It is my opinion that English terms should be used for clarification, but not outright replacement. The Latin terms ought to stay, and the student will benefit more from knowing correct terminology.

But just how do you explain these to younger students, or especially to students who are not as familiar with grammar terms? The best examples are to bring up the pronouns for declensions., and modern possessives for the genitive.

English is fortunate enough to have retained the genitive as the sole survivor of the Old English declension system in regular nouns. But with pronouns we have even more.

Nominatives: Easy enough explanation - these are the subject words. I walk to the store, not me walk to the store. English speakers should be very familiar with the distinction. The terms I, he, she, we, and who are retainers of this. (Note, since students today are growing less familiar with the proper use of who vs. whom, perhaps this should be dropped.) Roughly 99% of the populace should be able to differentiate we go to the store vs. us go to the store. Here I usually digress by discussing how English used to have the same thing, but only here is it retained.

Accusative: I saw him. Him is the accusative. When something happens to someone, we put that in the accusative case. (Note again, there are exceptions to this, but it might be best to reserve that for later.) For older students more familiar with the terms direct object or indirect object, it might be useful to use those terms, although I have found that some students, even older ones, confuse them as much as they would accusative or dative. Caution is advised.

Dative: I gave her a present. Her is in the dative case. When something is given to or for someone, we put that in the dative case. There are other uses of the dative, but beginning students do not normally come across them in elementary texts. Like accusatives, direct and indirect objects appellations should be used with care.

Genitive: Is this your book? Your is in the genitive case. Students will most likely be more familiar with the name possessive, as that is what is often taught. Equating the term should be easy enough!

For helping hints, remember:

I, me, my/mine
We, us, our(s)
Thou, thee, thy/thine
Ye/you, you/ye, your(s)
He, him, his
She, her, her(s)
It, it, its
They, them, their(s)
Who, whom, whose

Students would doubly learn if taught this way, so perhaps they will stop saying "to who" and start saying "to whom". Well, we can wish!

Flash Cards: Students Best Friends

Although I never utilized them when I was in secondary school, subsequent use has made me realize that flash cards are indeed a boon to learning. They've been extremely helpful to students I've tutored, and preliminary studying with them has even helped me out. Granted, flash cards cannot be used by themselves, but only as a supplement. With this in mind, I've decided to beef up my Greek with the cards.

The ones I bought in particular are available from Amazon.com:

Classical Greek Vocabulary Cards: Academic Study Card Set by Visual Education

The same company also makes cards for Latin, too.

Latin Vocabulary Cards

There are more, however. Zondervan, which makes good Biblical study tools, has two sets, one for New Testament Greek and the other for Biblical Hebrew:

Zondervan's Basics of Biblical Greek Vocabulary Cards

This set is apparently based off of William Mounce's very successful book The Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar.

Zondervan's Old Testament Hebrew Vocabulary Cards

I'm not as familiar with Miles V. Van Pelt and Gary D. Pratico's Hebrew Grammar, but if Zondervan is publishing it with Mounce's grammar, it must be good.

For flash cards of other subjects, just browse around Amazon.com for more subject. It's amazing the number of cards they have: GRE, MCAT, Biology, SAT, and more!

Is Latin Useful?

Unequivocally and enthusiastically of course! Studying Latin has countless applications and has proven useful in many different ways and disparate fields.

1. PLEASURE - Reading books in original Latin can be an enjoyable experience. I wouldn't limit this to just Latin, however. Picking up a second language in general can open new doors to many books that weren't available before. We can finally read about how Aeneas came from Troy breaking poor Dido's heart along the way with the original meanings intact!


2. STANDARDIZED TESTS - Latin is very useful for tests like the ACT, SAT, and GRE. These tests, moreso the last two, include vocabulary portions which are much easier to be decoded if you already know Latin.


3. MEDICAL FIELD - Although Greek would definitely be more helpful here, Latin is not totally foreign to the medical field. Fibrin, gelatin, dentist, cancer, glans, labia, lupus, cervical, avulsion, adrenal, amboceptor, and bicuspid are either Latin or of Latin origin.*


4. LAW - ex post facto, de jure/de facto, habeas corpus, nolo contendere, amicus curiae, in loco parentis, bona fide - legal terminology is and will probably remain for some time riddled with Latin phrases.


5. LEARN OTHER LANGUAGES - Spanish, Italian, Romanian, Sicilian (mob language!), French, Portuguese - all of these languages are descendants of Latin. Merely learning Latin will already put you 10 steps ahead in learning one of these languages. Also, in learning another language we also learn more about our own language. Words are elucidated as we comprehend the origin of the word and its application in modern English usage. For example, in the last sentence, 6 of the words are originally Latin: elucidate, comprehend, origin, application, modern, and usage.
   


6. INCREASED INTELLIGENCE - ...and brain longevity! Studies have shown that merely learning another language can help keep your brain sharper for longer. So with all its added benefits, why not learn Latin?
   

* Taken from George Banay's "An Introduction to Medical Terminology I. Greek and Latin Derivations," Bulletin of the Medical Library Association Vol. 36, No. 1 (Jan. 1948): pp. 1-27.

Need Tutoring? I'm Your Answer (Updated)

Meet me: I'm Chris Weimer. I'm a part-time tutor and a full-time student. I live in NYC, NY, having just moved from San Francisco to work on my Ph.D. at CUNY Graduate Center. My ultimate goal is to become a professor at Classics, so teaching (and research!) is my love.

Many students tutor. Not all of them want to teach; most are happy just helping the student get it. Don't get me wrong: tutoring is mostly about helping the student understand what he's taught. But there's an added dimension to it. Sometimes the teacher assumes the student already knows certain things, or that they should deduce the implications. For the most part, students get it. Every once in a while, however, some students just can't wrap their heads around an idea, or perhaps they were never taught such and such before. In these cases, normal tutoring is appropriate.

But what of students who thirst for more? Those students who find the flaws in the traditional model, whether real or imaginary? Or students who refuse to accept "that's just the way it is"? I've found that the best teachers went into the details that others did not, explained things in such a way to elucidate the material, rather than mask the inner processes.

It must be stressed that not all students are the same. Some would prefer a quick way to find the answer; others might love to go in-depth into the material to understand its basic workings. Luckily for you parents/students, I can do both. As a researcher, the inner workings are fascinating and thus consume my attention. As a teacher, the student's understanding is important, whether superficial to let them get by (preferable for students who will not be pursuing that subject) or in-depth for maximum understanding (preferable for students who have a strong willingness to learn or who want to pursue the subject more).

My contact information:

Chris Weimer
cweimer-at-mail-dot-sfsu-dot-edu

Education:

San Francisco State University
M.A. in Classics

University of Memphis
B.A. in Classics
Minor in Judaic Studies

Subjects I can tutor in:

Latin; Greek; New Testament and Bible; English: grammar, syntax, and composition (including essay writing); poetics; ancient and medieval history; study skills and techniques; test preparation.

I do both personal tutoring and online tutoring. Hope to hear from you soon!

The Problem of Aliquis

New students are often fussy when words defy normal expectations. Take aliquis for an example. In Classical Latin, the word aliquis, aliqua, aliquid becomes quis, qua, quid after si, nisi, num, and ne. In fact, there's even another little rhyme to help remember:

After si, nisi, num and ne
All the ali's fall away.

So in Catullus' 76th carmen:

Si qua recordanti benefacta priora uoluptas,
est homini, cum se cogitat esse pium...

If there is any delight for a man recalling older
kindness, when he thinks that he has been dutiful...

Unlike quis the pronoun, the feminine singular nominative is aliqua, as is the neuter plural. However, aliquae is sometimes seen. Also, in neuter plural, you see both aliquid and aliquod.

Irregular Imperatives

A student learning Latin will come across early on five words with irregular imperatives: nolo, dico, duco, facio, and fero. Of these, the latter four are missing a vowel for the imperative singular. So, whereas 3rd conjugation verbs have a short e ending, these words lack it. There is, however, a little mnemonic device to memorize them:

dic, duc, fac, fer, drop the e and you'll find it there.

I've also seen it something "and you'll be there" vel sim. I'd prefer the former since you're not actually going anywhere, but finding the right form of the verb!

Thanks to my high school Latin teacher Ryan Sellers for this one. I never forgot it.

I also found this on YouTube, which some teachers may wish to use to be more creative in their classrooms:

I'm not sure exactly what these words are, but a creative interpretation would be:

Dic, duc, fac and fer / these four words are irregular;
Dic, duc, fac and fer / should have an e but it isn't there.

In my opinion, the first is easier to memorize, though I guess you cannot beat singing it!

Welcome

First, let me introduce myself. I'm merely an undergraduate trying to finish up at my University and preparing myself for a graduate program in Classics/Ancient Mediterranean studies. I've also been tutoring kids in Latin professionally for a while now, and have had several students already.

This particular blog will feature things I've learned from tutoring, tips and tricks both from tutoring and from being taught, and translations with help on what to do. On occasion, I may delve into other areas, such as English grammar, Greek, history, culture, and more.