This summer I participated in the Dickinsoniense Conventiculum, which was an immersive spoken Latin experience. The program itself was held at Dickinson College—a small liberal arts college in Carlisle, PA. The Conventiculum was five days long and a true test of the skills I had learned so far at Duke. The program opened with a dinner, which was the last time I spoke English with the participants for the rest of the week. Most of the participants were teachers in high schools near D.C., with me being the only undergraduate student enrolled. The sodales (colleague in latin) were divided into two greges (groups): the tirones (beginners) and the peritiores (experts). The tirones, of which I was a member, focused mostly on basic colloquial Latin, while the peritiores were mostly summarizing and synthesizing Latin poetry and prose. The program was far more draining than I initially expected. While many of the more advanced speakers could express their thoughts much more coherently, the tirones struggled to speak in even simple complete sentences. The isolation felt because of an inability to communicate truly made the tirones motivated to learn the language. Even though it was exhausting to translate constantly and quickly what the peritiores were saying, we all became much more fluent. Furthermore, towards the end of the week, the sentences also appeared to almost have slowed down. No longer were the lectures long strings of seemingly nonsensical jargon, we began to piece together phrases and understand them without much effort. Overall, it was a difficult decision to decide whether or not I would ever go to this program again. I was defessus (exhausted) by the end of it, and yet I cannot deny the obvious results of the program. I believe if I was presented with the opportunity to go again, I would jump at it.
Classical Studies
