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Post by Countess on Aug 21, 2024 20:57:42 GMT
Rogue looks out into her class, taking stock of the size of it. She truly hadn't thought this many students would want to take Latin, but she figures it looks good on any college applications... Not that many, if any, colleges would take mutants, but the thought is nice. She doesn't have the heart to be pessimistic- not in front of the kids, at least. Rogue will indulge in that in private... later. Among other things worth indulging in.
"Greetins and salutations, class, call me Rogue," she begins in her thick southern accent, as if they all don't already know her name. She hasn't gone by Anna in years... only a select few really use that name, and it is sparingly at that. Anna was a different person... and Rogue shed a lot of her long ago.
"Y'all are now beginnin the study of Latin, and y'all'll continue it for two more years. Trust me when I say, y'all want to make a success of this, just as when you take up any of y'alls other classes or hobbies. If yer able to, with work mind you, I believe every last one of yous can come to really love Latin like I do. There is nothin more satisfyin than learnin a language, then being able to take that elsewhere. The greatest books are writtin in this, like Metamorphoses by Ovid, The Aeneid by Virgil, and The Conquest of Gaul Gaius by Julius Caesar. 'Sides, Latin can give you a heck of a lot more than just books to read, but it will teach you how to work systematically and intelligently; it will teach you what language- man's greatest invention- is; it will teach you to speak and write better. In this here class, y'all are gunna develop habits of concentration and correct thinkin, plus a whole heck of a lot more habits that y'all'll come to appreciate only after you have them," Rogue says, pacing through the classroom by every desk. She makes sure to note every last one of them.
"Y'all have probably heard Latin is hard. I am goin to teach you best that I can usin the Roman principle of war: Divide et impera, Divide and Conquer. I will present Latin in a series of easy steps, but mark my words, you will need to study, startin now. This is a process, it will take time, but you will come to enjoy it. Y'alls knowledge of Latin is like building- if you don't lay down a good foundation, it will not support a third story when you get to that point. I have three tips for all y'all to help you through this year," Rogue says, then goes to the white board to write down three bullet points.
"One- Study. You do it every chance you get, and you do it for every lesson. You will fall behind if you don't.
"Two- Review. If you don't review what you already know, then it won't become ingrained knowledge. A good method is to write out a series of questions, many of which I will provide, for each lesson. There will be a period of every class to make these questions, as I am really watin all of y'all to succeed here. Answerin then will typically be your homework. Now- these questions, don't just look at them, or read them, y'all need to recite them, then check them. At some point, there is gunna be too much to review each day, so break it up into pieces. Whenever y'all find you cannot answer one of the questions, mark it, and review it specially.
"Three- Work it Out. While I believe in the magic of friendship and whatnot, do not ask me or anyone else for help unless you are well and truly stuck. You will learn this better if you work it out for yourself. The more you do early on, the easier this will be later on.
"Any questions so far?"
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Post by swapgo on Aug 22, 2024 0:14:32 GMT
He had gotten better at making it early.
When he arrived at Xavier's Schools, most of what Jason did was...sleep, a lot. There was so much of it to caught up on after years of pulling all-nighters watching crummy shows just because laying down wasn't all that inviting. After that was done, he had to readjust to sleeping at a more ammenable schedule, given that he had to share a room with someone else, and not every class had enough turnover for the evening shift. The last thing to hammer down was sitting still in class after arriving 5 minutes in advance. It was not really out of any academic ambition, it solved two problems, the first being that being wide makes navigating through classmates in rush hour a bit of a hindrance, not that he can't do it, but he hasn't really grown out of the nagging dread of being an inconvenience while living with his parents. Second, and most importantly, is that if he doesn't, there's an inmense chance that he gets stuck in some trivial conversation with someone because he heard something cool, and that is quite likely in this academy.
Jason was firmly wedged in his desk, another marvelous solution by the school's staff. While a slightly expanded desk would be sufficient, it would be quite a hazard to Jason's closest left and right classmates, who would have to stare at a row of metallic blades just folding and unfolding out of reach. Instead, his desk is expanded forward for him to lean slightly and let his wings clutch onto, sacrificing about one and two thirds of the vertical space of a regular desk rather than three horizontal ones. As a bonus, it made him feel like he was perpetually riding a cool motorcycle. His throat didn't reproduce the noise well.
Jason didn't move his head a whole lot, instead it was his ears that followed Rogue all around, they also drooped once in a while, betraying him every time he spaced out before perking up again, yeah, the sleep thing. After the thorough introduction, Jason's attention swiveled from side to side to see if there were other takers before him, before very softly, but visibly, raising his left wing. "Yes so uh how do you write that?", Jason asked somewhat non-specifically."I always get where the "U" goes wrong", he attempted to clarify, it was the teacher's name that he was struggling to write down.
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Post by Beriadan on Aug 22, 2024 6:39:09 GMT
For Parsley, learning a language was the same as any other subject. Throughout her life, or at least since her powers had manifested, she had been able to guess most of the answers placed before her. It was luck, and she was the luckiest girl in the room.
Parsley wasn't a studier. She had coasted on good luck since she had arrived at this school, much to the chagrin of the teaching faculty. Being able to guess the right answer nine times out of ten, and the tenth because she didn't want a perfect score... it hadn't made her many friends in that department, that was for sure.
No, Parsley was here for the people. She found the teachers fascinating at this school, especially someone else with a deeply southern accent like her own. Listening to Rogue speak was like being back home, just without all the abuse. She leaned back on her chair, keeping eye contact with the teacher whenever her gaze went in Parsley's direction.
She raised a hand when the questions came, a slight frown on her brow. Parsley was genuinely curious about this class in particular.
"Hey, teach, I got a question for y'all. It's a swell thing to learn a new language and all, don't get me wrong, but... Latin ain't been spoken for a while now, right? I just wanna know why we keep learnin' a language that ain't got no speakers in this here modern day world?"
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Post by DornKoon on Aug 22, 2024 9:17:53 GMT
Niels had always had a knack for languages; he came from a family where two other languages were spoken outside of English. His mother came from Norway and insisted he learn to speak Norwegian because his grandparents knew almost no English. When they tried, it wasn't easy to understand them. His father came from Germany, and so... he also learned German. Going for Latin was maybe unnecessary, but it seemed fun and would look impressive on any college application. Perhaps it was something with languages being more artistic than subjects like science and math... which he did suck at.
He glanced around at the other students but did not raise his hand...
It was not that he did not have questions; it was more that he did not feel comfortable enough in a group to put himself on the spot. He knew Jason and Parsley because he met them in one-on-one meetings, but it was different here. Niels closed his eyes briefly, centring himself as Professor Xavier told him, creating a wall to keep the impressions of outside emotions... well... out.
After that, he opened his eyes again and looked at Jason in the seat next to him.
"It's Rogue, like R O G U E", He said helpfully, not being one to judge; he had his problems, such as equations and multiplications.
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Post by Bixir on Aug 25, 2024 22:05:04 GMT
Latin... Latin. The original romantic language - or, something like that. He had tried learning it a few times. More than tried, he had. For reasons that eluded him, that knowledge eventually fell out of his brain, which only prompted more questions, considering how his abilities were supposed to work. How his brain was supposed to work. It wasn't something he had shared, exactly, though it was, ultimately, why he was here. Maybe, for some reason, this time would be different. If nothing else, (according to Professor Kitty) Michael needed the language credit, and he supposed this would be a better opportunity than other languages that actually got used. The novelty of Latin, being what it was, as well as who was teaching the class.
Michael hadn't interacted with Miss Rogue much, if at all. Sometimes he would see her around the school, and sometimes he would barely see her at all. He didn't pry, or not care what one of the teachers was up to. Michael felt that way about most of the faculty. Like most people around him, they were adrift in his senses, phasing in and out of his cosmic awareness - not too close, not too far. Keeping his head down was what Michael did best. He didn't expect Miss Rogue to be teaching Latin, though. She spoke like... well, his mom's side of the family spoke like that, but that didn't mean she was...
Michael was thankful that (as far as he could tell) Miss Rogue nor any of his classmates could read his mind.
The boy was sitting behind Jason, thankful that his roommate's form would help distract others from paying too much attention to him. Most of his attention had been spent on summarizing what Miss Rogue had said so far. He would need to keep these three lessons in mind, and it showed in his notes - they were clean, concise, and organized. Perfectly, in fact. With that said, Michael very briefly glanced in the direction of Parsley's desk, careful to avoid looking at her face. It was a good question. But, he shouldn't answer it. That was Miss Rogue's job.
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Post by Countess on Aug 28, 2024 22:30:48 GMT
Rogue has always been an open discussion kind of gal. The moment a wing is raised, she says, "I'd like our classes to be a bit more collaborative. Socratic, even. Once we start gettin into the thick of it, in class you'll be able to discuss with one another the topics of the day, give corrections, learn by doing together. So- no need to raise any wings or hands. As long as we aren't interruptin each other, we should do just fine without it," she says. When asked how to spell her name, she grins. "You are not the first to ask, nor shall you be the last," Rogue says, then turns around to spell her name on the board as Niels spells it out loud.
"To answer you Parsley," Rogue says, putting her hand on her hip. "Why is everyone here takin this class? You could have taken any of the other languages I offer, but you chose this one. Why?" she asks, opening it to the class. They will need to get used to thinking in her class- if they keep at this to the next few years, she is expecting debates in Latin. Socratic, indeed.
Once everyone answers, or at least tries to, Rogue adds her own two cents. "Aside from all the things I said before, Latin is still widely used, especially in America. Law and Medical Latin abound, sugah. Latin is also the origin of French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Romanian. Learnin this can lead to all of those being far easier to understand. Vocabulary in this class will make harder English words easier to understand, too. You'll begin to get a good sense of how English works, and you gain skills in analyzing what sentences actually mean. As you continue, your Latin will be good enough for you to have access to over a thousand years of human thought, and y'all'll gain a good understanding of a very different society. Putting yourself outside what the world allotted you can shed so much light on who you are, why things are the way they are, and what got us to this point. Stories told in Latin are about being human. Though we are what we are- we came from them. See? They tell us about philosophy, the most difficult of questions we have on existence...
That is what we'll eventually explore. Latin is a tool to organize your thoughts, your learnin, your everythin. Latin will make you better at everything else, simply because of how much of a structured and logical language it is," Rogue says, getting a little passionate at the end. She takes a breath, leaning back on her desk.
"Thoughts so far?"
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Post by Beriadan on Aug 28, 2024 22:52:08 GMT
Parsley listened to Rogue's passionate speech with her head cocked, nodding after the teacher had finished. She looked across at the others, impressed. It wasn't often she saw this much energy put into a class.
"Well... shucks, that's good enough for me. I mean, I had lessons of all the other languages, an' nothin' really gripped me before. It's easy to guess the right answers when you got the basic idea, so it ain't a challenge. Latin, for me at least, seemed like somethin' new."
Parsley glanced at the others, smiling wide at Niels as she passed across his gaze. Perhaps, after their talk, this was the kind or push she needed to think about what she actually wanted to do with her life. Maybe Latin was the saving grace. Parsley looked up at Rogue with a thumbs up.
"An' you make it sound so excitin', miss Rogue! I'm all ears for what y'all have to teach us. Scientia est potentia, as they probably say."
A lucky guess from Parsley, who had yet to open her textbook, as she grinned at the professor with a look of mischief in her eyes.
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Post by DornKoon on Aug 29, 2024 5:51:25 GMT
Niels had no idea Latin was an essential part of languages; he had heard Latin words used as everyday things, such as tractor, meaning "to pull". In hindsight, it made sense for it to be the case; he'd never reflected on it before Rogue mentioned it. He noticed Parsley looking at him and returned her wide smile with a slightly smaller one. He did not need to use his powers to know she was in a good mood, which was nice.
He was unsure if Parsley knew what she was saying or if she was using her powers to make it likely that what she had just picked at random was correct. It did sound impressive, even if he had no idea what it meant. He could guess something with science.
"I think it sounds fascinating," said Niels, stopping himself from raising his hand... reflexes and all. "I don't know much Latin, but I do know many words we use regularly are Latin, like... I think Agenda comes from Latin... celibate, chivalrous..." The empath paused, glancing around the room at everyone looking at him, which caused the boy to shrink back a little, cheeks turning a light shade of pink. "Or that's what I heard."
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Post by swapgo on Sept 1, 2024 15:37:48 GMT
Jason didn't know why the professor wants her class to be "Suckratic", but alright.
The boy lend his ear to Niels who offered help, giving a nod as he mouthed each letter to himself in shrilling quiet. His script was very non traditional as the scales in his wings swiped his pen in straight lines, resulting in quite stiff letters. At the very least, it was quite legible even from afar, it just took a lot of space, that's just how things are nowadays. Jason let a few of his classmates speak up first as Rogue confronted them as to why pick up this specific class out of all the others, as he felt like his own take would be comparatively embarassing, but well, that's also how things are nowadays. "I just thought I couldn't get it...uh...incorrectly?", Jason tried to explain, tilting his head and tapping his pen against his other wing. "I don't think I can pull of French, or Italian or, well, a language people speak to each other somewhere, I'll, uh, get it wrong even when I'm saying it right, I feel", he tried to elucidate the complex fears of just offending native speakers of a language by not being 100% correct, nobody's gonna be mad that Jason's rasp dictation butchers their mother tongue or anything like that.
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Post by Bixir on Sept 5, 2024 22:54:17 GMT
Michael tried hard not to stare. It was, in and of itself, hard. Miss Rogue was a good teacher. Already. It wasn't like Michael had had her before. This was all new to him. Though, Latin wasn't new. Not necessarily. Despite being told not to raise his hand, Michael did so reflexively before he began to speak. [b"I, uhh, I wanna be a lawyer, or accountant, or... something. Something like that. Latin's all over the place. It's way more interesting than the other languages- for me, anyway." When Michael was finished, shrunk back into his seat, if only a little bit.
Michael's eyes started to wander around the room. Taking in the books on the shelves and the minute details of the room. "I've never... taken a language class before, actually. What do we do? Is it just memorizing words?"
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Post by Countess on Sept 5, 2024 23:58:26 GMT
"Ipsa scientia potestas est! Knowledge itself is power, as said by Sir Francis Bacon," Rogue gently corrects. She is going to push Parsley in this class, whether she likes it or not. No multiple choices, no easy guesses, but hard work. She needs it, to find something she needs to apply herself to. It doesn't take luck to read- it takes dedication and practice. Rogue will help her get there. Who knows- it might even help her with her lucky powers. She figures reasoning is a part of it, even if it is just a little.
"No need to be shy here, Neils, and that goes for all y'all. We are going to get real close in this class, if only if y'all unite to mutiny against me for unfair and cruel treatment," she says, laughing. This is not going to be a class they can coast in, not in the least. "They say the best way to learn a language is with a native speaker.... sadly, I ain't got no Ouija board," Rogue jokes, snickering a little.
"The start of this is going to involve memorization. Today's lesson, however, is merely an introduction. Class- this is-" Rogue starts, motioning to a poster on her wall. It is a picture of a roman soldier. She had planned on calling him Remy... her heart twists at the thought. "-is Leonidas. Let me tell you about him."
Rogue moves to the board, writing three sentences.
"He is stationed in Gaul."
"His commander in chief is Caesar."
"Caesar once praised him for his bravery in fighting against the Gauls."
"Now. if you look over these three sentences, y'all'll see that the italicized words all mean the same man. However, they are all spelled in different ways. He, His, Him. Why is this? Because in each sentence, they have different work to do, and the spelling is changed to show what work they do. In the first sentence, he is the subject, the person we are talkin about. He is the nominative case, so it has the spellin to show it is the subject.
"In the second sentence, his modifies commander in chief, tellin us to whom the commander in chief belongs to. His answered the question, "Whose?" This is the possessive case, because it expresses the possessor, or the person to whom somethin belongs.
"In the third, Him is the object of the verb praised. The action is done to him, this is the objective case of the object. Different jobs, different spellins," Rogue says. "If we were all teachin someone English, and wanted to give them help in choosin the right spellin, we might do this...." she continues, then writes on the board again. She has three columns, and in each one she writes basically what she just said.
Case Form Use
Nominative He As Subject
Possessive His To Express the Possessor
Objective Him As Object
"This is called Declension of He. We have Declined the word He, that is, we have made a simple, orderly way all the ways we can say he and their jobs in a sentence. Look closely- y'all'll see that one part of the forms all have the same thing- the Stem of H. This always remains the same. The last part of the word, -e, -is, -im, are what changes to fit the job.
"If we were talkin about multiple people, we would say They, Their, Them, yeah? The Stem here is Th, and when we Decline it....
Case Form Use
Nominative They As Subject
Possessive Their To Express the Possessor
Objective Them As Object
"Now, we have a way to teach our friend. This is how I will be teaching y'all Latin. Case, Form, Use. All Declines. Now, our first word we will be Declinin is Terra. Any questions so far?"
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Post by Beriadan on Sept 6, 2024 20:55:18 GMT
Parsley gave a little pout. Not so lucky after all, it seemed. She folded her arms, listening to Rogue speaking in familiar accents, and suddenly felt a sense of... warmth wash over her. Interest. She was interested. This class wasn't as easy as the others. Parsley sat up a bit. She had to listen. Learn. Her luck may help, but...
Parsley looked at the others, a frown on her face. It was looking to be a challenge, after all. She turned back to Rogue, resting her chin in her hands, elbows on the table, a concentration on her face. She had no questions, surprisingly. For once, the girl was silent, enraptured by Rogue and her lesson.
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Post by DornKoon on Sept 7, 2024 8:35:50 GMT
Niels nodded slightly when Rogue told him he did not need to be shy, which was... easier said than done. He started taking notes, but as Rogue mentioned, the best way to learn was from a native speaker; he paused to look at her. "I can do that." He blurted out before thinking, clearing his throat, but trying to keep her words in mind... it was fine. "I mean, I've got no Ouiji board, but I can speak with ghosts."
He glanced around the room, worried he might be seen as crazy. Parsley and Jason knew because he had told them about it, but other than that, he had told very few about that part of his powers... just Professor Xavier and Miss Frost. "I'm sorry if I ruined the joke; it's just that we have a local ghost of a nun in the forest that only seems to speak Latin... and I don't know what she's saying, just that she's... upset." Part of him wanted to learn Latin to communicate with the dead nun and help her somehow. "But that has nothing to do with this; sorry, forget I said anything..."
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Post by swapgo on Sept 7, 2024 18:24:14 GMT
It takes a lot to turn Jason's head as opposed to simply grab his ears, unfortunately, Niels brought up the cool thing, there goes any ounce of attention Rogue was getting from the bat.
The large desk rocked slightly as the boy twitched in anticipation for more, oh please let Niels talk about it, let him talk about it. He'd surely be the second distraction to the class that the professor would have to address before continuing, after which he would dejectedly stare back at his notes. He kept diligent pace with Rogue's dictation, though when there was a bout with nothing but the sound of chalk and the odd classtime gossip, he would have to raise his head to actually read what was being put down. Also wasn't Leonidas Greek? Are Romans also Greeks? He actually didn't get to study that part, or maybe he did and it was just boring so he doesn't remember. Declension? What is that? Is that like declining? Going down, refusing? Jason shook his head for a moment and focused more tightly on writing everything down. He would have to read it all coherently later, which meant there were no questions to ask.
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Post by Bixir on Sept 13, 2024 5:41:01 GMT
All of that made sense to Michael. Well, most of it. He had carefully transcribed everything that Miss Rogue had said (in his own words!), then double-, triple-checked his efforts to ensure that not only had he not missed anything, but also that what he had written made sense within his own mind. Though, there was one detail that was bothering him.
He raised his hand, waiting to be called on... until he spoke anyway. "Umm, Miss Rogue? Why is his name Leonidas? Are we learning Greek too?"
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