It's funny you mentioned Latin. I started studying Latin a few months ago and it has improved my English reading and writing. I agree it should be required as it is one of the foundations of western civilization.
I had a similar experience. When I was a young warthog, I could not understand English grammar at all. The scales fell from my eyes when I began studying Latin in High School.
Roughly 29% of English vocabulary derives from Latin, it helps when trying to understand the meaning of words I don't know--if they are Latin based. Also Latin forced me to learn a lot of new grammar mechanics and review old ones. You end up needing to really know how to break down a sentence into its components(supine, participles, gerunds, etc.). This naturally carries to English, as the principles are the same.
It's funny you mentioned Latin. I started studying Latin a few months ago and it has improved my English reading and writing. I agree it should be required as it is one of the foundations of western civilization.
I had a similar experience. When I was a young warthog, I could not understand English grammar at all. The scales fell from my eyes when I began studying Latin in High School.
I totally agree, and think everyone should learn Latin, Greek, or both.
BTW, I liked Latin so much that I took the username "King of Forest Hills" in Latin. Salve! :)
How did it exactly help your English?
Roughly 29% of English vocabulary derives from Latin, it helps when trying to understand the meaning of words I don't know--if they are Latin based. Also Latin forced me to learn a lot of new grammar mechanics and review old ones. You end up needing to really know how to break down a sentence into its components(supine, participles, gerunds, etc.). This naturally carries to English, as the principles are the same.
Latin prefixes and suffixes constitute many words in modern english