Living Latin is Alive and Well: an Overview of Living Latin Opportunities in the USA

Gina M. Soter (University of Michigan)

Opportunities for speaking Latin in the US are on the rise. Ten years ago, it would have difficult for most Americans to find someone with whom to have a Latin conversation. For someone wanting to get started speaking, the Conventiculum Latinum in Lexington offered the only formal opportunity. Today, Cenae Latinae and other Latin-speaking events are regularly held in many cities around the states, Latin-conversation occasions are now a scheduled part of the annual APA, CAMWS and ACL meetings, and one can choose from five different immersion experiences from coast to coast: Conventiculum Bostoniense (Boston, MA), Conventiculum Latinum (Lexington, KY), Conventiculum Vasintoniense (Seattle, WA), Rusticatio California (Petaluma, CA), and Rusticatio Virginiana (Charles Town, WV).

In this paper we want to look closely at the five Latin immersion experiences and the people who frequent them. Unique in character and style, each caters to different sorts of participants and learners. Conventiculum Bostoniense, for example, offers graduate credit in Latin pedagogy and literature and its curriculum is designed accordingly. Conventiculum Latinum boasts the largest number of participants, many of whom have become a faithful following who return year after year to the small group discussion format. As it has grown, the CL constantly has been evolving to serve best its participants. This past year, for example, it added Latin composition to its curriculum. Conventiculum Vasintoniense is activity oriented. Originally conceived as a Latin-speaking hiking opportunity, it has moved to Seattle and every day is planned around excursions to parks, museums and other sites; speaking while doing facilitates the communication process for many of us. Both Rusticationes are “live-in” experiences in which all participants share living space, cook and eat communally. Several sessions each day are run as classes rather than as discussion sessions and participants get a reminder of what it is to be in class again. Whereas most conventicula are explicitly welcoming to those new to Latin speaking, Rusticatio Virginiana is strictly limited to and designed to help beginning speakers.

We seek to provide a candid portrait of what it is like to attend the various conventicula, because we recognize that attending an immersion experience can be a threatening experience and we think that interested members of the audience may want to know exactly what they are getting into. At the same time, we know that all leaders involved in running the conventicula are dedicated to their enterprise and they are constantly adjusting their curricula to best serve their clientele. Frankly, it is fascinating to track the evolutions of the various conventicula.

Though members of this panel have participated in many immersion experiences, both in the US and abroad, we will be using a survey this Fall to poll participants from each conventiculum about their experiences, and it will be the results of this investigation that will comprise the bulk of our portraits. We take the opportunity of this survey also to explore who it is that participates in spoken Latin activities and what it is that they get out of them. In the final part of this paper we will share data about this group. Based on the experiences of this panel we anticipate that our findings will reveal that some opt to disseminate their work in Latin as lingua franca, some choose Latin as the language for creative work, some find that using Latin actively makes them better readers of Latin texts, some find that using Latin actively in the classroom keeps students engaged and yields spectacular results, some just find using Latin fun. Still, we know we are not anticipating all the motivations, and better, we are looking forward to the stories.