Students from five continents have flocked to the classrooms of the University of the Holy Cross to participate in its Summer School of Classical Languages.

Enrollment in the courses, offered for the fifth time this summer, grows every year. More than 100 students have gathered in Rome this year to attend classes taught by professors from prestigious universities around the world.

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But though classical language courses are nothing new, these offer something unusual: Greek, Latin, and Hebrew are taught as living languages.  That means that the only language spoken in the classroom by both the professor and students is the language being studied. Are these courses only for the chosen few who can already express themselves in Latin, Greek or Hebrew?  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Together with those who have prior knowledge of one of the languages, many students arrive without even knowing the Greek or Hebrew alphabet. 

Thanks to the method used at PUSC, these students are able to begin speaking their chosen language in just a few days.  And in the more advanced levels, entering a classroom and hearing students talk is like being transported back 2,000 years and hearing one of Cicero’s or Demosthenes’ orations, while the beginning students take their first steps as in a Roman elementary school.

“It’s incredible how after studying for years and years with the traditional method, I still couldn’t take a Latin text and understand it without constantly consulting a dictionary!  But after a few days here, I’m beginning to be able not only to understand Latin perfectly, but even to start speaking it,” says Patrick, a student from the U.S.  And in fact it is not uncommon to meet enthusiastic students speaking Latin, Greek, or Hebrew to each other, not only in the classroom, but also during breaks or over lunch.

After twenty centuries, Rome is again the center of classical culture.

Federico Pirrone