O Ministry of Education (MEC) released the teaching of Latin in Literature courses at Brazilian universities around a year and a half ago. It was to be expected that there would be a drop in demand for this language course, which is admittedly difficult to assimilate, as since the 1960s it has also been abolished from secondary education. A survey carried out by Charlene Martins Miotti, however, opens up good prospects for Latin. At Unicamp, in particular, demand for the course has increased in recent years, even by students from other areas. In 1984, the first year taken as a basis for the study, 60 registrations were registered in the Latin I subject at the Institute of Language Studies (IEL). In 2003, this number more than doubled, with 171 interested parties.

Teaching language in Lyrics was released by MEC

The researcher attributes the greater demand, among other factors, to the new teaching methodologies adopted by universities, which are increasingly modernizing in the search for fruitful teaching. “There is an evident concern about facilitating learning and making the language a real working tool, and not just a collector’s item,” she says. The research, financed by Fapesp, included interviews with teachers and students from Literature courses at public universities in São Paulo.

Even though Latin is not mandatory in mandatory curricula, Charlene Miotti believes that most universities maintain the subject as mandatory because they understand the importance of learning the language. “In addition to being a fascinating study, learning Latin offers us the chance to discover a vast literature in its original records. For Philosophy and Literature courses it is essential, as much of the basis of modern thought is in the ancient world,” she notes.

The researcher understands that the scholar, when reading the texts in their original records, gains a critical apparatus of incalculable value. “It is common to find translations made from texts already translated from other languages, that is, translations of translations”, she explains. Access to the originals and translations allows for deeper and much more useful reading.

Charlene Miotti admits that Latin cannot be considered an easily absorbed language, but believes that the degree of complexity is similar to that of other languages. “Latin is a language of cases, that is, the order of words does not matter much for understanding sentences, as is the case in Portuguese. Therefore, it causes strangeness at first contact”, she observes. For her, the student who is willing to learn must give up pre-conceived ideas about the language and, mainly, common ideas about the use of this learning.

The master's thesis “The teaching of Latin in public universities in the State of São Paulo and the English method Reading Latin: a case study”, was supervised by professor Marcos Aurélio Pereira and was recently presented at the Institute of Language Studies. Charlene Miotti will pursue her doctorate in the area of ​​Classical Literature, but this time with the proposal to produce an unprecedented translation of Quintilian, an author from the 3st century, whose main writings deal with grammar and rhetoric. He adds that he will specifically study chapter 6 of book XNUMX of the Oratory Institutions, which deals with humorous stratagems recommended to speakers to persuade the general public.