Ancient and medieval history? Wow. I never thought there'd come a day when you'd be able to do that in JC.

And now, if you will excuse my gushing: I happen to be interested in ancient history as well (classics as a whole, actually); is there any chance that you could organize a little informal get-together / colloquium for us classics buffs? I know it's pretty impertinent of me to ask this, especially since I didn't study in RJ; but if you could spare some time to perhaps discuss classical matters over coffee or email, I'd really appreciate it. NS has made me realize that the one thing I miss most about school -- more so than the freedom -- is the cut and thrust of passionate debate; and your blog more than anything else never fails to remind me of that keen loss.

(P.S.: Do tell me too if you know any Latin teacher here; the teacher that I started learning from is too busy now to teach Latin.)

Grateful for your blog,
Yongming

 

Actually, when I was in JC, there was a History paper (Paper 14) on ancient and medieval history. Sadly, it got scrapped pretty soon after I left school. Then they took away Modern European History as well. The idiots. My employers.

As for your request: I'm actually more of a medievalist than a classicist, so I don't think I'd be very useful heading a colloquium on the classics (I mean, I haven't read Herodotus or Thucydides!). I also, alas, don't have much time on my hands for most of the year; I know others teachers who manage to juggle other activities and their teaching load, but I haven't figured out how to do this yet.

That said, if you do have any questions, I'd be happy to give them my best shot I'm particularly good at recommending books which I haven't read :) You can reach me at kchienw at gmail.

I ran into a Singaporean at a party some time ago who was studying the classics in Glasgow and who planned on offering Latin tuition, but I don't remember his name. If you can't find a tutor, you could try learning the language yourself: Wheelock's Latin is the standard textbook (although my Latin professor relied on the Cambridge Latin series instead).