By Sammy Nagy

Nearly every student from seventh grade to 12^th grade remembers, or is in the process of experiencing, the school’s mandatory Latin course. Lasting two full years, it leaves some intrigued while it leaves others scrambling for any, ANY, other language with spots available for taking. Either way, it provides an interesting, and many times difficult, challenge for those who go through with it.

But what if it didn’t have to be this way? What if there was a way to make learning Latin faster and easier? What if there was a way to make it enjoyable for those who dislike it and even more enriching for those who do?

Well, wait no longer, for the answer is here. “A good understanding of English grammar is very beneficial for learning Latin, and is what I would personally like to see in all incoming seventh graders,” said Mr. Calahan, the seventh and eighth grade Latin teacher, “And one thing that would help eighth graders would be a constant review of old skills, because something I see every year is students brushing off old terms and charts as easy, then messing them up on tests and finals at the end of the year.”

To help turn this mammoth of two years and hundreds of memorized terms into a manageable cause, he said that there were a few things that seventh and eighth graders especially could do. “While thinking and memorization are major parts of both years, memorization is a lot more prominent in the seventh grade, so putting forth as much effort as possible then will really help out later.”

While Latin may be simple for some and tough for others, these tricks will only serve to make you smarter, and language learning easier.