#foxstudy

I have been receiving the fox all day today. My friend told me she started at a company with the name “Fox” in it. A delivery truck with a fox emblem drove past us while we were in the car, and when went to her boyfriends work to pick him up, next to the register, a plush toy fox sat idly staring back at me. 

.....

Anytime an animal, symbol, color or number repeats in my life and I align with that symbol, I take note of it mentally to research the symbolism or meaning of it later.

These synchronizations allow me to gain wisdom, inwardly and outwardly, simply by observing aligning patterns in my reality.

Some things I learned about our friendly fox:

1. He represents determination, focus and setting your intention clearly.

2. He shows us that reality is our playground. We create our own perceptions.

3. He also represents adaptability and cleverness, being able to create new solutions to problems otherwise unsolved. Thinking outside the box.

4. As well as all of these things, he shows us to realize and use the resources we have in life to adapt.

Okay, so I’m kinda new to the Studyblr community, but I wanted to take my try at writing a bit of a masterpost for the first time (so sorry if its not as impressive as some other people’s) .

Anyways, I am an AP Latin student (that means that this is my 5th year learning the Latina lingua)  I know that a lot of people on tumblr are really interested in the language so I just kind of wanted to give my opinion on the class and then give y’all some handy resources!

Personal Opinion:

I’m not gonna lie, Latin isn’t as easy as some people make it seem.  I know a lot of people that take it because it is supposed to be an “easy” course, but after your first two years or so things start to become difficult.  I personally am fascinated with Roman life and culture, so being able to know a bit of their language is super interesting to me and really has not let me down.  You are going to read all different types of literature when you start reading the classics like myths, letters, speeches, famous books, and etc.  These are SOOOO helpful because you will see allusions to these people,places, and stories everywhere and it looks really impressive to your English teacher when only you understand that obscure reference because you remember translating it in Latin class like two years ago.

Also, Latin is an extremely great language to expand upon.  There are 5 main romance languages (Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, and Romanian) which are all based completely off of Latin.  I got the Duolinguo app one day just to see what Italian was like and I already knew half of the words in the first few lessons because of my background in Latin.  Also, for all you American students taking the SAT/ACT, a majority of those daunting vocab words you need to learn have LATIN ROOTS!   In general, although you may not have much use for speaking the language, learning Latin can provide you with a great base to learn other languages or better understand your own already.

Tips:

~Learn your vocab! I know you may not have a quiz on it, but a majority of the vocab that your book might have you learn is extremely important and common everywhere.  It’s not fun to constantly be turning back and forth between the dictionary part of your textbook and the actual Latin piece because you haven’t learned the vocab.  I promise you this is a great habit to pick up (coming from someone who never did really try and learn much before and it really hurt her).

~Learn the grammmar!  Okay, when you are first starting off, grammar is pretty easy with basic declensions and conjugations.  But then, all of a sudden, you were supposed to learn the subjunctive, all the types of clauses, and gerund vs. gerundive; but gasp, you still are trying to figure out how to decline the neuter case.  I promise you that figuring out grammatical structure is crucial as you begin to go higher level because all of a sudden the grammatical structure has deep meaning in the passage and is actually really important on the AP exam.  

~Always prepare the text!  If your teacher asks you to prepare a text so you can translate it next class or have it translated by next class, your copy should look very well annotated or written.  You can’t just “wing it” in Latin.  I applaud those who are able to successfully, but most of us need some preparation, especially once the word order starts getting weird.

~Don’t take shortcuts! I know a lot of my classmates take shortcuts and go online to give them their translations or notes for the texts.  That may seem easier and quicker when you have to go to class the next day and you can just read to your teacher the copied translation you have.  But this method seriously doesn’t help once it comes time for the test.  If anything I would suggest you use the method I use:

             1. Go through the Latin and mark any unfamiliar words with their meaning and any notes the book may have.

             2. Go back through and try and sight translate out loud to yourself (it’s totally normal for it to be a really rough and messy translation!), marking anywhere you notice any other special things (like rhetorical devices or clauses).

            3. Pull out your handy-dandy translation (if its a classics text like Catullus or Cicero) and here is where it is okay to see the “answers.”  Compare the actual translation to your notes and make any more annotations you feel you need to be able to confidently translate the text from. And there you have it!

Resources:

So here are some of my favorite websites to go to for help or extra learning :)

~William Whitaker’s Words This is probably my favorite dictionary site.  It translates words Latin to English and English to Latin and gives you a lot of information about each word!  If you can’t find it in your own dictionary or textbook, I’d say go directly here before Google Translate or something.

~Theoi  I love mythology A LOT.  So if there is any source I would recommend for the most accurate Roman/Greek mythology, it would be Theoi.  I also really love how with every entry, the description of the being/monster comes with quotes from the original stories/text they were in so you can have proof of ancient writers telling of them in their stories.

~Vergil Project  Are you translating the Aeneid?  Are you unsure about anything at all in the story? No need to fear, Vergil Project is here!  Vergil Project goes through the Aeneid and tell you word by word its meaning, case and use, form, etc.  Its all the information you need to know and is super helpful when studying and you forget how a couple words come together just right, Vergil Project will provide you with all the information you need and not let you down.

~The Latin Library  Okay so this website is actually a library of a bunch of Latin authors and their works, for free!  But to be completely honest I normally use this website for its really great grammar guides.  Confession: I suck at Latin grammar.  But The Latin Library has really great guides for almost everything.  These guides literally save my life: here is the link to the guides.

~Grammatica  This is also another great guide for Latin grammar resources!

~Forum Romanum  This is a really great link if you want to learn more about the lives of Romans or Roman history!  They also have really great translations of things you will be translating one day like Caesar’s De Bello Gallico.

~Perseus Project  A bunch of Latin texts (and their translated versions)!  It also has some really great resources on mythology.

~NJCL If you did high school Latin, you may know a little bit about the National Junior Classical League.  But I encourage you to take the National Latin Exam every year if you are able to, I think its really interesting and you can get these really cute medals if you score well!  Also see if there is a Junior Classical League for whatever state you live in (if in the U.S.).  I know my state has one and I got to go to a Latin Convention back in the fall for a weekend...it was so much fun!