Learning Classics is a bit like putting on a magic pair of 3-D glasses. Once you start delving into the language and the culture, you'll start to see it all around you. This blog is a record of the club's journey through the worlds and language of ancient Rome and Greece... and through modern times, too, searching for the influence of classics all around us. You'll also be able to find vocab, home tasks, links and generally enlightening info here, too.

13 November 2016

Lesson 1 - Here we go again!

A new term and a new crop of budding Classicists at Greig City eager to learn about the influence of Ancient Greece and Rome in our modern world.

We spent the first lesson taking a trip back in time, past the Victorians, past the Elizabethans, way, way back to the point where A.D. becomes B.C. On the way, we registered the fact that A.D. stands not for 'after death' but for anno domini, which means 'in the year of our Lord' in... Latin! We discovered how language is a living, breathing tool that develops and changes over time, which spreads across countries with conquests and learning. Most importantly, we found out how English is a mixture of words from two sets of invaders: the Vikings and Nordic raiders, who gave us Anglo-Saxon, and the Normans who brought the French language, which in turn was descended from Latin.

We also had our first look at the Ancient Greek alphabet (this word actually comes from its first two letters, alpha and beta). Then the class made wonderful name badges in Greek, so well done to Αρνϖ, Σεθ, Μαρια, Δανιελ, Κεϕιν, Στεϕαν and Δαϕιδ!