Although the UCL Summer School in Classics was online rather than in person this year, it was no less enjoyable. Having been placed in the most advanced Greek class, I thought this would be a challenge, but after the first morning of lessons, I was surprised with how straightforward I found the class. I therefore decided to move to a class that would give me a challenge and was put in Advanced Beginners’ Latin.
Although I found this difficult at first (I had done much less Latin than anyone else in the class!) I really enjoyed the fast pace and it felt amazing to progress from very basic Latin to reading authors such as Cicero and Pliny the Younger in the original Latin after just two weeks! It was satisfying to gain even better insight into how Latin interacts with both Ancient Greek and Italian and I’ve been able to use my new Latin skills to the benefit of both languages.
I also really enjoyed the lectures and workshops each day on topics such as reading inscriptions and hieroglyphics – it was an opportunity to learn so many diverse things about the ancient world! I’ve been able to keep up my Latin over the rest of the summer by practising with a friend and have translated authors that were progressively harder.
I’m so grateful to have had Gateway funding to do this course as it has enabled me to continue my study of Latin and progress than I ever thought I would this summer!
Ruth Shaw
Undergraduate student, Modern and Medieval Languages