I have a question...

[conuly]

Occasionally, in latin, people show up asking for some translation for a tattoo. Why? Do you really want a cheesy sentiment (most of them are) forever on your body in a dead language you don't even speak? Do you honestly want to spend the rest of your life not only translating your tattoo to everyone but explaining that no, you don't actually speak Latin, some people in a Livejournal community translated it for you? Is it worth the risk that somebody will deliberately tell you something profane/funny just for the laugh (like the Japanese tattoo artist did with stupid white kids who wanted "something cool in Japanese" on their bodies...) I mean, what's the point? Why not just get it in English? That's the language you speak, after all.

Comments

[catsluvdmb.livejournal.com]

Actually, Latin is immensely useful if you plan on going into the sciences. I wish I had some working knowledge of Latin when I was studying zoology. It would have made understand scientific and medical terms much easier. Some colleges even MAKE you learn Latin if you're going into medicine.

Also, I think all history is useful, regardless of its specialty. If people didn't study history, then we'd forget it, and you don't want that happening.

I have a friend who went to the trouble of learning Elvish, and dropped out of college, got a shitty job, and can barely pay her bills. But she can speak Elvish! It just seems to me there's a lot of other languages that you can learn and then utilize to get a job other than in the retail/service industry.

[conuly]

See, your friend had other issues going on than the elvish thing. But as a part time conlanger, I don't think that learning elvish is wrong.