– Marco Carvalho
Latin, Ancient Greek and the History of the Roman Empire. The University of Saint Joseph is once again investing heavily in the domain of classical education, by launching three new courses in the beginning of November. The classes conducted by Roberto Ceolin will run until the end of January, are open to everyone that shows an interest and will take place at the facilities of Saint Joseph Seminary. The courses are eligible to be paid by the Government, under the Continuing Education Development Scheme set by the Education Bureau.
The course on the “History of Rome and its Empires” is set to begin on the 1st day of November. The initiative, which runs until the 31st of January 2020, has a total duration of 20 hours and a cost of 1,350 patacas. The registration cost can be integrally covered by government subsidies. Classes are held on Fridays from 7 pm to 9 pm and are open to the general public without any prerequisites, neither in terms of knowledge nor in terms of academic formation.
On November 11th, Saint Joseph’s Seminary will host the first class of the second of the three courses – Latin Elementary Level 1 – that Professor Ceolin will impart. The course, which will be held twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays, has a total duration of 30 hours, a cost of 2,000 patacas and it will run until the 22nd of January.
The following day, on November 12th, Ceolin will start teaching an introductory course to Ancient Greek. Until the 23 January 2020, those who are interested in ancient Greece will be able to acquire elementary knowledge in the language that underpinned the cultural affirmation of classical Hellenic society. Classes are held weekly twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and – as with the remaining courses – tuition fees may be paid by the Education Bureau under the Continuing Education Development Plan.
Promoted by the University of Saint Joseph and taught at the facilities of USJ’s Faculty of Religious Studies, the courses ministered in the past by Roberto Ceolin have attracted students from many different quarters of Macau’s society. Religion, the professor explained to O Clarim, is not always the reason why his students return to the school benches: “Most of my students have no religious motivation whatsoever. In the first courses I taught I had many students from the University of Macau, who are studying law or enrolled in language-related degrees. I changed my methodology about two years ago and I teach both Latin and Ancient Greek as if they were living languages,” Ceolin says. “When I began teaching the Latin courses, I had fourteen or fifteen students. But as time goes by, some of those students gave up. Some of them didn’t knew very well what Latin is. They didn’t know that learning Latin is not exactly the same thing as learning English. It is too hard for some of them and, inevitably, they give up,” the academic regrets.
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