If you are motivated enough to learn an extinct language such as Latin in a few months, it is probably because you are very keen on extending your knowledge of the Roman culture. The history of the Roman civilisation, its kings and emperors, is as complex as it is interesting. The legacy passed upon our modern societies and languages, still spark some heavy debates among scholars, almost 2000 years after the end of the Western Roman Empire. While Latin is no longer taught in most of Britain's state schools, it remained a subject in some grammar schools (more selective) and was still taught by a couple dozen university across the country. But due to budget restrictions, some schools have decided to stop offering such classing. That includes Richmond School, in North Yorkshire, that had come to the decision of stopping English classes for the first time in 600 years. Amongst the roughly 700,000 pupils taking their GSCEs every year in England, Wales and Northen Ireland, about 10,000 of them will take one in Latin. Also, roughly 1,500 students decide to take Latin for as one of their A-levels, making this subject more popular than Irish or Critical thinking. Find Latin courses that might interest you here. 
Why Study Latin at School?
Here are the four main reasons you should study latin:
- Better your knowledge of many European countries' culture, history and language.
- Improve in English.
- Improve your overall results in school.
- Improve your chance of getting in your dream university.
Around the beginning of the 2nd century AD, the Roman Empire ruled all of Eastern Europe. Land that is now Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Wales and England were all under Roman rule and Latin was the official language of the Roman Empire. Around the year 43AD, Roman that had conquered Britania founded the city of Londinium, our current London. After the collapse of the Empire, Latin remained the main language for at least one institution, the Church. Masses were still said in Latin even though the common people would not understand it. Here is a Latin online course that might interest you. 
The History of Latin
Unlike many of the other land that had been conquered by the Romans, the British Isles stopped using Latin as their first language after the collapse of the Roman Empire. While in France or Spain many dialects died in favour of Latin, in England; Old English took over as the lingua franca (common language) entirely around the 6th century BC. Many linguists and historians explain this by the fact that Britania was the most northern province of the Empire and that even at its best, the Empire never had as much influence on it as it may have had over Galia (Gaul, current France) or Hispania (current Spain). When the Western Roman Empire collapsed, the Empire's institution and prestige were wiped out across England. But despite that, Latin remained a hugely important part of the English language. The first records of written Latin language date back from the 7th century BC and were discovered in Rome. The oldest script that survived was on a golden brooch called the brooch of Palestrina. The history of the Latin language is at least 2500 years old but can be summarised in a few key dates.
- 700BC - 100BC: archaic Latin used in the Latium (central part of Italy)
- 100BC - 14AD: the Golden age of classical Latin
- 14AD - 130AD: the expansion of the Roman Empire and of Latin
- 3rd - 6th century AD: late Latin
- 6th - 15th century AD: Medieval Latin
- 15th - 16th century AD: Renaissance Latin
- Up to today: New-Latin
Why Did The Latin Language Die?
Rome was gone. Britain was left to fend for itself. And the invasions began. The History of Great Britain is one of many successive invasion. First the Anglo-Saxons in from the 5th century, then the Vikings from the 8th century and eventually the Norman (technically French) in 1066. Each of the new invaders would bring with them a new language. The Anglo-Saxon brought different Germanic dialects that unified as we call Old English. The Vikings brought Old Norse and words like husband, steak, reindeer or even run, are all originating from it. Finally, William the Conqueror accessed the throne of England in 1066 after the battle of Hastings. This marked the beginning of Norman (an old version of French) being spoked at the Royal court of England for 300 years. Today, there are no native Latin speakers left, which means that Latin is officially an extinct language. While the Roman Empire collapse is one of the reasons Latin faded, the Church was one of the main if not the only institution that kept the Latin language going for so long. During the Middle Ages and with the unification of the Kingdom of England by Æthelstan, English as a language was used to bring together all subjects of the Kingdom, creating a national identity.
What Languages Come From Latin?
If you are learning by yourself you may not notice the close relation that Latin has with other European languages and even less with English. So why bother to learn a 2500 years old language? Simply because Latin is the common language that most European idioms share. When the Roman Empire controlled most of Europe, speaking Latin was the only way to be part of everyday society, to interact with other citizen or with the Empire's administration. With such an influence it is not surprising that Latin has made its way to most if not every language is spoken in Europe today. There are two main categories of Latin-born languages all falling under the category of romance languages:
- The Oriental Romance Languages: including Italian (the official language of the Italian Republic) and at least 34 four living dialects originating from Vulgar Latin but also Romanian.
- The Occidental Romance Languages: including French, Spanish, Portuguese, and hundreds of local dialects, some of them the official language of their region such as Catalan, being the native language of roughly 10% of the Spanish population.
So learning Latin might be the best thing to do if you're looking to learn any European language. Same alphabet, a lot of vocabulary in common and a shared history should be all the more reasons for you to learn Latin!
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