Should Etymology be a school subject?

I completely fail to see how one can acquire a proper understanding of, skill with and appreciation of, ones native langauge without some exposure to etymology. This need not constitute a major part of the curriculum, but the principles and concepts should be laid out, illustrated by evocative examples.

 

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my answer to the question of the topic is HELL YES!!!! but I'm torn between whether it should be for just Latin and Greek words of for every language.

 

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Oh definitely. My problem with the teaching of German at my school was that I didn't get to learn ENOUGH of it, not that I wish they hadn't bothered. Instead I stuck with just French, which I've carried on to A-level and plan to carry on studying at uni. However, I also want to learn Russian ab initio as part of my course, but I think the very top unis (like Oxford, who rejected my application after interviewing me 3 times - bastards!) aren't prepared to teach me a completely new language if I can only speak English and French.
I've self-taught a bit of German online though, but it's nearly impossible to get very far that way.

 

Here's why I'm torn. I'm Italian so I would want to learning words that came from Italian, I would also want to learn words that came from Latin and Greek and I say sure to learning words that came from asian languages, romance languages and German, but I wouldn't care for learning words that came from languages such as Dutch, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Arabic and Iranian. Maybe they can make Etymology classes and divide them into languages families.

 

That may be true, but you can always tell when someone is trained properly in the structure of a language [even if they are self trained] as compared to someone who merely learns to strings words or phrases together.

 

None of the above.

My answer: no; it's more important to teach children correct spelling and grammar first. Since this isn't the case, it would be best to begin there.

 

well ya I agree too that that should be taught first, but I thought the question was asking if etymology should be taught at all in school. no?

 

I think we too often forget English's Germanic roots when we think of etymology. If we only pursued Greek and Latin roots, we would be missing the core and very soul of Englisc. Jag hoppas att vi aldrig glömmer bort de forna språken.

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I thought the title read 'entomology' at first...

 

There's a lot of bugs in the language.

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My English teacher would often pause to ponder a certain word and would then go on, at length, on the etymology and uses of that word, extending into synonyms and so on.
Especially with puns, quibbles and the like...
Sometimes this would last the entire lesson.

 

Do you think that you benefited from that or not?

 

............................hello?

 

I too think that ethymology must be a part of any language lesson at school.
Especially for ones mothertongue and as an important extra in every new learned language.
Last year I had a discussion with friends on todays society and its problems and the main conclusion was that to make sure that all subject of a society can communicate with eachother in a flexible way people must be schooled toroughly in 2 subjects at school: language (especially vocabulary and its ethymology) and 2. history. The more words somebody knows and the better somebody understands his own language, the better people are abble to precisely express their feelings/concerns etc. ...
Just a thought we had over a bottle of good red wine

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I only learnt about etymology in my Latin classes and do enjoy it, understanding where words came from and how they might have changed over the centuries.

But I think it should be taught as part of an advanced English Language course (or whatever your first language is)... as in my country (UK) we have difficulty enough in teaching children to read and write that etymology would detract from those, I fear.
Basically I can't quite see how it would improve any but more advanced students' understanding.
As a separate course?... no, can't see that it has sufficient weight or purpose.
But I do wish we had done more of it at school.

But then it might be that it is only of use as part of a Classics course... given that Latin and Greek provide so much of our basic language. Although we would then miss out on the influence of the Saxon, Celtic and other languages.

But certainly an introduction could be given as part of a standard / advanced language course.

 

My father worked a humble job with immigrants, most of whom spoke Polish, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. He thought it best to teach us kids what he called the "basics" in those languages: yes, no, please, thank you, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. This is the least a person could learn in a few common languages. For us Americans, it would behoove us to learn these basics (and a bit more, including common phrases and sentences) in French and Spanish, seeing as how we're sandwiched between Canada and Mexico.