When Latin Comes In Handy

One of my majors in college was Classics, the study of Latin and Greek. Yup, one of the Humanities, on that side of campus, with the girls who never shaved their legs and the thin, sensitive guys who never took a bath. For the record, I am not thin and I do bathe regularly. My other two majors were History and English, a triple-threat of 'too smart for his own good' and 'do you want fries with that.'
   The business majors and chemistry majors and even the communications majors used to ask me what use Classics was, how was knowing Latin and Greek going to help me in my later career? The point was, I would explain, to learn how to learn by challenging yourself. Basing your life around constant improvement couldn't be a bad idea, right? Besides, with all the declensions and conjugations filling my head I felt like a smarty-pants compared to them. Especially the communications majors.
   Then, two years out of college I got a job teaching Latin on a distance learning network. That's right, I taught Latin on TV. So take that, corrupt and incompetent business majors, I actually got a job that involved Latin and Greek, bringing the majesty of language to eager young minds. Well, mostly eager. Plus, I got paid, and that's the bottom line, at least according to those trolls.
   Knowing Latin and Greek has also helped me understand English better. When you understand certain commonalities in the way languages are constructed and used, you can then master your native language, make it stand up and take notice. Make it dance.
   But even better, I rarely have to look up new words. I use my big brain and Latin and Greek to get the meaning in context. Take this word, for instance:
      Conurbation
   I ran across this word while looking into the upcoming 2010 US Census. Though I'd never seen nor heard this word before I didn't even have to look it up, because I know Latin.
   And, no, I'm not going to define it for you or link to it. Look it up, you lazy bastards.