Lauren Fakhoury is studying Latin at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, this summer. Located in the heart of Manhattan, Lauren is immersed in the “New York Experience.”
“These past two weeks have been both exhilarating and exhausting. Surprise is, above all else, what has characterized them. I had looked at the Graduate Center on Google Earth, but I still had not quite realized that I would be right in the center of Manhattan. Besides, I had never been to New York City, so books and movies were all that I really had as a gauge of what to expect. That first day, of course, was a bit surreal, and even now that the initial shock has worn off, being in the city is very different from anything I have ever experienced. It is invigorating to be around so much of everything and everyone all of the time, and I can already tell that, come August, it will be extremely difficult to leave,” Lauren says.
“If the location of the Graduate Center took me by surprise, my Latin class has been ten times as much of a jolt. I knew that it was an intensive course, and that I would be asked to learn a great volume of information very quickly. Nonetheless, I had not realized I would be learning this much, this quickly. In two weeks, we have covered a semester’s worth of Latin: five declensions of nouns, three of adjectives, four conjugations of verbs, and so on. Each night, we have a list of forty to fifty words to memorize, along with characteristics such as their principal parts, gender, or declension. Additionally, each day we learn new grammatical elements, to this point usually a combination of declensions, conjugations, and syntax. Then, each morning, we are quizzed on the previous day’s material before drill, in which we go over the sentences we translated as homework,” Lauren explains.
Lauren reports that although the course has been overwhelming at times, it has also been very rewarding.
“I have always been impatient in my high school language classes, as I want to reach a level of fluency that enables me to read in my target language. Here, though at a snail’s pace and with questionable accuracy, I am already reading. Yesterday, on the ninth day of class, we read a poem by Catullus, about a dinner party and an ointment that smelled so good, it would make the person who smelled it beg the gods to transform them into giant nose. Today we read the first few lines of the Aeneid, and there is more to come: I am very excited for the second five weeks of class, during which I will be able to choose from a number of electives such as Roman love elegy and philosophical epic,” Lauren adds.
When not studying Latin, Lauren has been enjoying the local culinary offerings of New York City. After a mild case of Covid, Lauren has recovered and been on a quest to find the perfect New York bagel.
“Outside of class, I mostly study; learning at this pace takes just about all of my time. Luckily for me, though, I have to eat, which has given me an excuse to embark upon a great quest to discover the best bagel in New York City. Covid, of course, threw a bit of a wrench into things, but having recovered, I have been able to go pick some up from a few different places. Tal’s had a very good crust and so many poppy seeds I could barely see the bread beneath; however, the bagels themselves did not have too strong of a flavor. Still, Tal’s has been better than the other places I have tried—with one exception. Today’s bagel foray, which yielded a small hoard from Ess-a-Bagel, was immensely successful. The bagel was doughy, yet with a slightly crisp crust, and so round it sat on my plate like a sesame-encrusted top. I bought one for tomorrow too, and I have a suspicion it might make an appearance in my dreams tonight,” Lauren reports.
The last two weeks of her Latin course have been the best yet, according to Lauren. She is now attending class in person and collaborating with her classmates on homework assignments.
“These past two weeks have been the best yet. I have fallen into a rhythm now that I am back to in-person learning, and the gaps that Zoom classes left in my Latin progress are beginning to fill in. After school, I can again work with my classmates on the translations we are assigned as homework. Also, being in class with them, as well as with my teachers, throughout the day has helped me become a lot more comfortable with the program and the larger city,” Lauren says.
“In terms of classwork, we have nearly made it through the grammar portion of the course. We are now to the seventeenth of eighteen units in our grammar textbook. Our final will be next Friday, and after we have completed it, we will have the opportunity to take one of a handful of electives. I do not remember the whole list, but I do recall having been interested in the philosophical epic option. I am excited for the electives to begin so that we can start to put all of the tedious grammar rules we have learned to use,” Lauren adds.
Lauren is not only learning how to speak, and write Latin, the class also includes reading and translating classic works and poetry.
“Content-wise, we have finally made it through all of the conjugations and declensions, adjective and adverb formation, and a good number of sentence constructions. Now we are mostly focusing on memorizing translation formulas and vocabulary words, though we are still being introduced to odds and ends like gerundives and supines. As class has become more reading- and less lecture-based, we have continued mostly to translate Catullus’ poems. I have found that I am much more of a fan of his when I am reading a poem that is not about his lover, Lesbia. Beyond Catullus, though, we have read adapted portions of Caesar’s Gallic Wars and snippets of various works by Cicero. My favorite was one of the former passages, in which Caesar addressed the customs of the druids. I know there is more Caesar coming up, and I really hope it will include more about the druids,” Lauren explains.
Lauren has been having a great time exploring the city with visits to the Morgan Library and Museum, the New York Public Library, running along the river, and finding the perfect bagel.
Reaching the halfway point…
Six weeks have now passed and Lauren is more than halfway through her Latin course. After finishing textbook lessons and completing a final exam, the class is now focusing on reading in Latin.
“Now that the final is over, we are focusing more on reading. Each night, we have been assigned a few pages of Cicero’s First Catallinarian, as well as a smaller reading from other authors, including Livy and Petronius. My accuracy is still pretty atrocious, but it is slowly improving. The group sessions are a significant help: after the morning translation quiz, we go over the Cicero assignment in small groups, and then after lunch, we look at the other reading in a large group, before finally listening to a grammar lecture and being done for the day. One day, however, instead of the grammar lecture, we had a guest speaker give a talk about linguistics. It was over my head, but what I did pick up on was very interesting,” Lauren reports.
“Over the weekend following the grammar final, we were told to do no Latin whatsoever. This was very good, because I definitely needed the break. Friday, after the test, I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Getting there was an ordeal, because I had somehow managed not to use the subway prior. It is possible that I took the subway in the wrong direction, and possible also that it was pouring when I got off of the right one. I bought myself a pity croissant, though, so it was all fine. The museum itself was fun, but I was so exhausted I could not really enjoy it. I was also very upset when I ran into a bust of none other than Julius Caesar, as he had written the passage we had to translate on the test, which I was eager to erase from my memory. I glared at him. Much better than seeing him was looking at the ostraca with snippets of epics and other things, and at the armor room. My favorite part was a golden lion’s head helmet with eyes and fangs and even some sort of texture resembling fur,” Lauren adds.
After all her hard work, Lauren has been able to decompress by resting, visiting a farmer’s market, and discovering a Hungarian pastry shop.
“The rest of the weekend, I mostly slept and read. I did make it over to the farmer’s market, though, so I had some yummy food. I also (successfully!) took the subway again to the other side of the city, to check out the dorm I will be moving into when my current one kicks me out. It was by a Hungarian pastry shop, so I was more than happy with it,” Lauren says.
Lauren reports that although she been immersed in learning more and more Latin, the class is now focused on poetry, assigned readings, and listening to lectures.
“Some of the lectures have been given by our teachers, others by guest speakers. Topics have included lexicography, epigraphy, and Latin later than the mostly Classical we have been reading. I was especially fascinated by the talk on epigraphy. In terms of what poetry we are reading, while we have been assigned shorter selections from other authors, the majority comes from Book Four of the Aeneid. I did not dislike the prose readings, but I am really enjoying the Aeneid. On the one hand, I am familiar with it, so while parsing through the language I can enjoy the story a little bit too. On the other, I love the mythological aspect of it, which the prose readings did not really have. It is also the book that encouraged me to learn Latin, so there is something special about returning to it, this time in its original language,” Lauren explains.
“Hopping back to last week when we were still reading prose, I think I have to say that my overall favorite reading so far has been a part of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of Britain. It had dragons! A rumor that we might read about dragons had been floating around for a while, and I had really been hoping that it was true, so I was very happy when the dragons finally made an appearance. The particular dragons were interesting too—there was a red, representing the Welsh, and a white, the Saxons, and the red dragon, having beaten the white in a battle, can still be found on the Welsh flag,” Lauren adds.
When not in class, Lauren has been spending her time visiting the Union Square Greenmarket, the New York Public Library, exploring Central Park, running along the river and trying to escape the New York heat.
As her Latin course comes to completion, Lauren says that she has really enjoyed the experience. “I have learned more than I ever imagined could be fit into a single summer, ” Lauren says.
“All in all, this summer has taught me tons. I have gotten to begin to learn Latin, and to do so in a city much bigger, louder, and more chaotic than any other I have spent time in. I loved being in such a vibrant place and miss it already. Thank you to the GFF for making it happen.” Lauren adds.
Great work, Lauren. We are so proud of you…Carpe diem!
>> Read Lauren Fakhoury’s final report (PDF file, 94 KB).
>> Learn about other students’ experiences in the GFF Scholarship Program.