Here's a word we should all start using

[Gillg]

I read Modern Languages (German and French) at university in the 1960s, but I wouldn't have been offered a place without having A level Latin.  It was obligatory in those days for anyone wanting to study Modern Languages.  It helped, of course, for the Romance languages and explained much of the grammatical constructions in German.  My limited Italian is entirely based on Latin, yet the Italians seem to understand the few words I have and I even found it useful when translating documents in Romanian!

My 14 year old grandson quite enjoys his Latin studies at school, though his favourite subjects are the sciences and Maths.  I suppose it's the logic of the language that appeals.  Although the school takes all levels of abilities, there is a certain amount of screening there for some subjects, including Latin, done on the reports from primary schools.

Students of Medicine used to have to have at least O level Latin - I remember a friend having to take the exam 3 times before he eventually passed it through a crammer.  He's now a surgeon.

[JenB]

I read Modern Languages (German and French) at university in the 1960s, but I wouldn't have been offered a place without having A level Latin.  It was obligatory in those days for anyone wanting to study Modern Languages.

'A' level Latin or Greek was also a requirement for entry to read Theology at Oxford in the 1960's. My sister in law had set her heart on this, and achieved Latin A level virtually from scratch in two years in order to achieve her ambition.

[MollyC]

I had two classmates who took Greek at O level, then one of them then took Greek, Latin and Maths at        A level - the logic factor?  Her father was a vicar so perhaps he was a classics scholar.  The last I heard of her, she was at college doing Domestic Science!

[Forfarian]

I read Modern Languages (German and French) at university in the 1960s, but I wouldn't have been offered a place without having A level Latin.  It was obligatory in those days for anyone wanting to study Modern Languages. 

Likewise, although in my case it was Higher Latin, not A level. Thank goodness, because A level involved set books but Higher didn't - it was exclusively language and not literature.

I am extremely glad to have done Latin at school. It is so useful in genealogy, botany, ornithology and geology besides being essential background for modern western European languages.

It was even useful studying Russian because the concept of declensions and conjugations wasn't new to me and I didn't need to spend time getting my head round that particular aspect of Slav languages.

[bevj]

I got A levels in French and Latin and always found Latin very useful, as Forfarian says, in matters of genealogy and also as a background for my later learning of Spanish and Catalan.
There were only three of us in the A level Latin class and fond memories, our teacher was a young man who had a very modern outlook on this 'dead' language, really made it come to life, and what's more was mad about cricket so that as soon as the cricket season started we had our lessons outside with the radio commentary in the background!
My (girls' grammar) school was quite a pioneer back in the '70s offering O level Russian which I also took. I can still read the alphabet but sadly only remember a few words now.
Bev