I’m an American and I only speak English fluently although I speak a little (VERY little) German. I had three years of Latin in high school. I’m looking to learn to speak Spanish, but I don’t want to take classes if I don’t have to. Anyone know of a product/system that worked for them?

I’m a classical arcaheology major and I have to take Greek. I was wondering if it is really hard to learn. I already Speak English and Spanish, conversational French, and some Italian and Portuguese but I don’t think if these languages will help me since they are Latin based.

i want to major in greek and roman mythology, and i want to learn to speak latin and greek, does the college of charleston( in south carolina) offer theses courses? what other colleges do in south carolina?

i am thinking about learning latin but half the people i asked said it would look bad and the other half said it would look good on my college application. what do you think? thank you!

p.s. i already speak spanish and german and i know about 50% of french… :]

Ok, so I will start by saying that I am a smart kid, although my past grades don’t show it. Through high school I didn’t really have anything to strive for and was never pushed hard and this combined with barely ever studying led me to have just average grades. I did my first semester at Nassau Community College by me on Long Island and didn’t do so well. I’ll be frank, my Latin America class was extremely difficult and not what I expected at all considering it was an elective course. My English professor got fired from his old job, did a semester at Nassau and got fired again because his work habits are redicuolous. The class started with 30 kids and when I couldn’t take it anymore and stopped going it was down to about 8.
I got a B and a B+ in my other two classes and all that said my first semesters GPA was a disgusting 2.75. Since then I have definitively found the drive and have learned how to study, strive and use my intelligence. Right now I’m mid-spring semester and doing quite well. I would say at this rate my GPA will end up at about 3.7.
Now here’s my question.. realistically speaking, how are my chances of getting into Penn State U. Park after this semester? I know that first semester is going to look terrible but I need honest opinions. A lot of people have said “What do you have to lose?” so I’m leaning towards trying it anyway. If not after this semester, after Fall semester with another 3.7?

Any help is appreciated,
Luke

Am I using apostrophes, hyphens, dashes, and parentheses correct?
1. it was after the Norman Conquest (A.D. 1066) that the English began using last names.
2. Some last names—Weaver, Smith, Archer, Carter, and others—refer to occupations.
3. Charity’s and Charlotte’s names have completely different origins.
4.His true Weish name—a real tongue twister— was impossible to say.
5. If I had been born a girl, my parents had three friend’s names selected for me.
6. Our three sheep’s names are Bambi, Mambi, and Lambi.
7. The Governor-elect told us that her name originally meant “self control.”
8. People who know a Romance language–that is Spanish, Latin, Italian, French, or Rumanian—often recognize names as words.
9. In some countries (especially Spanish-speaking ones) children use the last names of both parents.
10. Did you know (I just discovered this) that “McDonald” means “son of Donald”?
11. No, but I just learned (what a coincidence) that “Dankovich” means “son of Dan.”

This is the second speech I’ve ever written. The first was in english last year. This one is probably even worse since I’ve got worse! But my teacher made me do a public speaking competition because two of my close friends are doing it too. The speech is about memtal health. So here’s what I wrote. Be as critical as you like! Thanks a loooooad!

Note: She decided together the three of us should have an ongoing story theme, one person tells the story of how somebody commits suicide when troubled about a problem, the next tells how his class mate does not deal with it well, and the last (me) tells how another class mate deals with it well and learns to move on and maintain mental health.
Where I said ____ I mean the suicide victim’s name – my friend can choose that in his own speech.

Chairperson, adjudicators, distinguished guests, fellow speakers, ladies and gentleman, suicide: A permanent solution for a temporary problem. Why could he not see this? He never seemed sad. Was there an inner scream? This was his kamikaze in a war for happiness. But when times got tough, why did he not call for reinforcements? He had friends, he was a popular guy. Support was there. Why did he not take it? Thomas wished he could have done something for his dear friend, _____. When he found out, the significance did not occur to him straight away. He was, of course, surprised, but did not cry or faint. Instead he wondered what his last words had been, what his last thoughts were. Ironic, he thought, that death is found by ‘walking towards the light’, when the darkness of death clearly smothers any last remnants of light. The light is easy to find: Stay plodding along, talk to people, call help lines, find help and realize that no matter how bad it gets, it can always be worse. Once it is over, it is over. There’s no going back. ____ learned this the hard way. Thomas remembered something he heard on the radio a few days earlier: ‘Life is like a pizza. When it’s good, it’s really good. When it’s bad, it’s still pretty good.’ It was a pity ____ had not been listening.

A situation like this would be difficult for any class, but exam year students would find it particularly tough to deal with. Not only would it be the first bereavement many in the class would have ever suffered, but also the exam stress would be entwining itself in the students’ minds. When stress and pressure is knitted thickly around students, many will not be able to handle it and will be choked by a wooly scarf of physical illness, lack of concentration, uneven sleeping patterns and nightmares, but to name a few of its dark shades. In this case, Thomas handled them well. Exercise is one of the key ways to handle stressful situations. As with nearly all health issues the link between mind and body is crucial as the Latin phrase ‘mensauna encorpore sano’ explains. It means healthy mind, healthy body. Exercise encourages the release of brain chemicals called endorphins, which encourage a naturally happy feeling. It also works off muscle tension and makes you feel physically better and therefore more comfortable with your appearance. Talking to people is also a main factor in maintaining mental health and stability. Telling people about anything from somebody being unfairly kicked out of the X-Factor to what you think the meaning of life may be is a key to building healthy relationships and to relieving yourself of problems you have. Share your burden. And the last factor I will point out to you is that of sleeping, probably one of the easier methods of maintaining order in your mind. But if you claim to be too busy even for this, you are in luck. A study carried out by the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the American Cancer Society is good news for you. It claims that the idea of necessarily having 8 hours of sleep every night has no scientific basis and about 6.5 hours is perfectly sufficient, and may make you live even longer.
Thank you.

I was supposed to cover drug abuse as well, but this takes me nearly 6 minutes as it is and we are meant to have a limit of about 6 minutes.

Thanks again! =]

I just learned that I can sub for classes that I have no background in such as secondary Chemistry, Latin, etc.. I can even sub for PE classes if needed. I have some ideas as to what I might want to do with students if I am assigned to a class where I am clueless or at least have little practice in the subject matter.My certification is in Elementary. Please comment after each scenario. Thanks.

1. Secondary Chemistry, Bio, Physics, and the like:
I would like to have students write a few paragraphs (in their own words) on what they have learned so far in their class. I would tell them to not think about this as an assignment but rather to have a chance to reflect on what they’ve accomplished and learned throughout their time in the class PLUS how they feel about the class. The benefits of this are that it an opportunity for them to write and express themselves, and to get them to reflect upon their experiences.

Another idea would be to have them write a letter to their instructor telling them what they appreciate about him or her – a thank you letter. I would gage to class to find out what the overall feeling is toward the teacher.

Or, I could have them teach me and the rest of the class – topics from their coursework. This would be an opportunity for public speaking/teaching (I would give each student 5 minutes or so and have opportunities for writing and gathering their thoughts first). It would also allow them to reinforce what they already know by teaching it.

Or, I could have them get into study groups so that the students having trouble with certain topics could pair up with those who can help them.
I don’t want them to sit there all period doing nothing, but I don’t want to stress them either.
Ideally I would like them to do something that is of value and also to enjoy it!!!

2. PE class – I would like to find a quiet classroom, have the students take off their shoes, and lead them through a hatha yoga session. I would like to bring in music and my portable CD player and turn the lights down for this. I would teach the asansas or poses but would not focus on the religious aspect of yoga. I would keep it to the act of the poses and breathing.
Do I risk getting kicked out of the school for this? I want to take chances and go outside the box and offer the kids something new, but not get in trouble.

I could also take them through basic ballet positions but the boys might not like this too much.
My opinion is that males should be exposed to ballet at least once in their lives but I may by asking too much here. Please bear with me as I am brainstorming here!

These are just some ideas.
If you have any of your own, please share.
Thanks