How popular is Latin now days?

Yes i am considering a field in science. Anyway just wondering how popular Latin is now or how far will knowing it get you? I know maybe 40 years ago it was THE thing to take, seems Spanish has taken that spot. I know the language is dead but I was still a tad interested.



How close is Spanish to Latin? NOW DAYS should I even expect anyone else at all to know it also? I'm in America and I was just wondering if learning the language (for fun/on my own time) was practical at all, especially over Spanish.How popular is Latin now days?
I'm American born and have studied several languages over the years and was pre-med at one point as well.



While my knowledge of languages came in handy some (French and Spanish in particular), most of the terms I had learned before I had even taken languages because of studying Latin and Greek prefixes and suffixes in English class and again in the SAT prep courses.



Latin is pretty much dead. If you were going to take an actual language course, your efforts would be better spent learning a current language such as Spanish, French, or Italian, as many of the prefixes or suffixes and even some words are the same or are cognates of Latin and Greek words.



Also, because most scientific terminology is combined of both Latin AND Greek, you're only getting a portion of the scientific terminology.



If you would still like to learn or bursh up on your Greek an Latin, I've cited a good prefix/suffix site in the source area. Also you can go to SAT prep course material suppliers to find more of that as well.



As far as my personal opinion goes, I started with French and that was a great help in learning Spanish (but it would've been just as easy vice versa I feel.) From that I was able to read and understand a good amount of Italian and even Greek because I learned the Greek alphabet in college and could use the pronounciation of the letters to sound out words and associate them with their cognates in English, Spanish or French.



I would recommend just brushing up on the Greek and Latin prefixes/suffixes, and actually learning Spanish...especially if you're desired career goal includes working with the public :)
It depends. Latin phrases are used constantly in Law, Medicine and Biology (scientific names) as well as of course being a good language to know if you are interested in studies of antiquity and such.



However, if you are not going into any of those fields (and maybe even if you are) Latin is not all that useful and you will seldom find a person that understand more than a few key phrases like "Veni, Vedi, Vici" and "Sic Semper Tyrannis".



Spanish is definitely much much MUCH more practical than Latin, especially in America, as most of the countries have Spanish as their major language.



It is also mutually intelligible to an extent with Portugese, which not only opens up Brazil to you but certain parts of Africa and I believe the Pacific, not to mention Spain and Portugal.



For aesthetic pleasure, however, Latin is a better option, and many English words have Latin roots, however Spanish is quite aesthetically pleasing too, especially when you listen to the stresses of the words which sound almost poetic or musical.



So I say Spanish should be the way to go.How popular is Latin now days?
If you achieve a decent command of Latin, it would not take very long at all to learn Spanish. There is an EXTREMELY uniform transformation from Latin into Spanish. If you're clever enough to get the gist of it you can transform any Latin word into Spanish, except for the percentage that use different roots or roots with transformed meanings, which are never a far stretch from their original. They're worlds closer than Old English and modern English anyway.How popular is Latin now days?
40 years ago? Are you kidding? More like 60 - 70 years ago, when a college bound student had to have it. Or earlier, when it was the international language. But that was hundreds of years ago.



thirty to forty years ago, it was that language that was only taught to the most interested linguists, by the old, mouldy teacher that no one could relate to...or the coolest teacher in the school, cause it was so off beat! (as was the case in my school...but her teachers had all been those mouldy ones).



Actually, though, in those years, it has seen a resurgence of popularity, but still among those students who are more academically/linguistically minded.



It's always a good discipline to know it.



And, others? Only other people who, like you, enjoy such esoteric subjects.



Spanish? Nope. You'll see the resemblance, and the roots, just as you do in English (only more so) but it's not as if you are going to study Latin, and understand Spanish. They ARE different languages, after all.



In fact, Romanian is much closer to Latin than Spanish is.
It is about as popular as bed bugs.
Latin has always been regarded as the language of the educated but it would be less then useful now unless you are part of the Swiss Guard, College of Cardinals or one day hope to be the Pope. I however agree with you about the interesting part; it would be incredible to know it, as long as you had people to communicate with. Many people consider Spanish, along with Portuguese, French and Italian, to just be devolved dialects of Latin.



The language you should learn depends on where you are and where you are trying to get. I am Canadian so clearly French would be best for me, but since you are American clearly Spanish would be the most beneficial. Mandarin would also be a useful language to learn for businessmen since an increasingly large number of business is being done with the Chinese. French would also be useful to you since, along with English, it is the most used language in the business world (until Mandarin surpasses it that is).
its very unpopular right now. im a sophmore and in my second year of it and i have to say its a very easy language. easier then spanish. many places dont offer latin as a choice any more.