MovieChat Forums > Boys and Girls (2000) Discussion > latin in italy? *very light spoiler*

latin in italy? *very light spoiler*


hi,

did anyone else notice that the girl states she's studying latin for/and wants to go to italy afterwards. well, latin is a "dead" language, not useless but not spoken in any country. in italy they speak italian. i dont know if the writers were mistaken or if its sort of a joke (irony since she's going kinda "unprepared" into the future and it would reveal to what extend her ignorance goes)

what you think?

Catwiesel

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I've always wondered about that too! Does she actually think that knowing Latin will help her in Italy? Good luck with that... And if the writers are so ignorant that this was a mistake then.... ouch.

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"well, latin is a "dead" language, not useless but not spoken in any country."

wrong ...

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Latin, although not a language spoken anymore, is anything BUT dead. In fact, it is the language from which other languages like French, Portuguese, Spanish AND Italian originate. About 60% of the English vocabulary is based on Latin. Latin was spoken by the Romans. Rome is the capital of Italy. Of course it makes sense!!!

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you are correct. i took Latin as have several people that i know. Everyone I know who has done so, has found it incredibly easier traveling through Europe. Not so much in terms of speaking, but with a solid foundation in Latin, you can pretty much work your way through any written passage and come away with a general understanding. Very helpful in terms of reading maps and such. Also, if she's going to Rome, there will plenty of ruins which will still bear Latin inscriptions.

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Latin is a dead language, and in Italy they speak italian, BUT, italian, as portuguese, spanish and other languages como from latin. and if you wanna practice...

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My Latin teacher at school spent some time in Italy - it makes perfect sense to go to the home of the Roman Empire in order to get more of the 'Latin experience'.

- Sara

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"Latin is a dead language, and in Italy they speak italian, BUT, italian, as portuguese, spanish and other languages como from latin. and if you wanna practice..."

Latin is however spoken in one country near Italy, guess which one

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You mean The Vatican, well the official language is Latin but the spoken language isn't Latin, it's Italian.

But of course it makes sense to go to Italy, I can't believe anyone would doubt it in the first place. It's not all about wheter you can practice a language or not you know...

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yeah yeah, italian is the language most similar to latin, who cares...
what's really odd about this movie is that they refer to susan sarandon as having the best tits...

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I guess the actress who played Jennifer would know about the Latin in Italy since she is 1/2 Italian. The Catholics there still use Latin in service...who knows what she'd do with it....

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Yeah I never got that Susan Sarandon thing either. She's like 60 years old, and has completely subpar (at best) tits.

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I took it as she had become interested in the Italian culture while studying Latin.

"If anyone asks, there were fifty of them. And...they were rattlesnakes."

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I think it was a sort of joke that they never followed through on. Someone should have mentioned at some point that they don't speak Latin in Italy, they speak Italian. I think you're right about it reflecting on her ignorance and lack of true direction, but they never really finished the joke.

Tomorrow's just your future yesterday!

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I think it was part of her character. She liked to go with the flow and be free, she wanted to go to Italy because she'd become interested in Italian culture, I would imagine. She didn't have to have a definite goal!
Unlike Ryan- it highlighted the difference between them. He was studying structural engineering, something v. Concrete.

I'm sure the writers know that they speak Italian in Italy!

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