Foreign Language and the LSAT Forum

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SemperLegal

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Re: Foreign Language and the LSAT

Post by SemperLegal » Tue Apr 29, 2014 8:13 pm

I think, if anything, it will hurt slightly.

The main thing about the LSAT is adopting "in test" rules and logic. There are a thousand pieces of information and vernacular language that LSAC decides is not important. (e.g. Normal people don't think "Many" means "some" and would subscribe a percentage requirement). You have to forget all those external things to do well. You are going to have to undo twice as many of those intuitive features.

Plus, if you are doing a halfway decent job of learning Spanish, you are going to start thinking, at minimum, in Spanish syntax when it comes to adjectives and prepositions. Of you are doing a great job, you should be using Spanish in your head for many things after a few weeks. This adds a lot more time to critical reasoning and will require multiple reading to pick up a nuance.

I would say it would have the same effect as a testing with a slight buzz. Maybe -4.

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alexrodriguez

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Re: Foreign Language and the LSAT

Post by alexrodriguez » Tue Apr 29, 2014 8:15 pm

lol maybe -4

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banjo

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Re: Foreign Language and the LSAT

Post by banjo » Wed Apr 30, 2014 6:51 pm

RobertGolddust wrote: This is sort of an absurd statement. Ecce signum, just because poor logic skills might hurt you on the LSAT doesn't mean the LSAT test for logic. See what I did there.

Anyways, I'm hoping to avoid a debate and instead hear some anecdotal evidence. But, I understand this is a site for potential law students, so it would foolish to hope I could evade a disputasio
RobertGolddust wrote: I learned a bit of Latin in grade school and then took it up as a hobby in college. I can emphatically say, "yes, it helped me read and write better."
Why do you have such a pompous writing style? Is "disputasio" even real Latin?

There is literally one piece of foreign language grammar that helped me on the LSAT. Specifically, I knew that that "unless" is equivalent to "if...not" (like Latin nisi).A unless B can be diagrammed as IF NOT B --> A. In other words, what follows "unless" can be written as a sufficient condition.

That's really it. Most constructions in English grammar should be so intuitive that you don't waste a single second thinking about it on the LSAT.

eta: corrected for finals time fail

RobertGolddust

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Re: Foreign Language and the LSAT

Post by RobertGolddust » Thu May 01, 2014 5:12 pm

Why do you have such a pompous writing style?
I write in a grandiloquent style because I am in reality pompous and arrogant.
Is "disputasio" even real Latin?
yes
"if...not" (like Latin nisi).
If not in latin: Sinon

That's the name of the Greek who convinced the Trojans to bring the hobby horse into troy. If it wasn't for him troy would not have been sacked. Hence, the name Sinon.

RobertGolddust

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Re: Foreign Language and the LSAT

Post by RobertGolddust » Thu May 01, 2014 5:17 pm

By the way, I think a lot of people have a misconception about what grammar is. Essentially, grammar is knowing what words mean and how they can be grouped together, correctly.

I'm not talking about commas and verb agreement, ect

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banjo

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Re: Foreign Language and the LSAT

Post by banjo » Thu May 01, 2014 7:44 pm

RobertGolddust wrote:
Why do you have such a pompous writing style?
I write in a grandiloquent style because I am in reality pompous and arrogant.
Is "disputasio" even real Latin?
yes
"if...not" (like Latin nisi).
If not in latin: Sinon

That's the name of the Greek who convinced the Trojans to bring the hobby horse into troy. If it wasn't for him troy would not have been sacked. Hence, the name Sinon.
Is disputasio some medieval corruption for disputaTio?

Although translated as "unless" nisi is just "si" negated by "ni" ("si" alone is translated as "if"). Nisi is equivalent to "if not" which is equivalent in meaning to unless. The exact same thing happens with ni+hil (not a shred) = nihil = nil.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/tex ... try%3Dnisi

And yeah of course you can also use si...non for "if x, then not y" types of sentences.

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A. Nony Mouse

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Re: Foreign Language and the LSAT

Post by A. Nony Mouse » Thu May 01, 2014 7:47 pm

Yeah, my understanding is that disputatio is correct. I don't think Latin even does "-sio" endings. (But it's been a while since I had to pretend to know it.)

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