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Beginning Latin | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| LilleOSC Senior Member United States lille.theoffside.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6683 days ago 545 posts - 546 votes  4 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 65 of 103 09 August 2007 at 7:10pm | IP Logged | ||
I thought you were talking about different mp3s. Thanks for the clarification. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JasonChoi Diglot Senior Member Korea, South Joined 6351 days ago 274 posts - 298 votes Speaks: English*, Korean Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Latin | Message 66 of 103 14 August 2007 at 11:30am | IP Logged | ||
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-Update-
I've started working part time at my current job, which gives me a tremendous amount of time to devote towards my learning. For the past few weeks, I've been trying the listening-reading method, but there is one serious problem: -I have no way to measure my progress- I have to admit, I do not know how to say much of anything in Latin, though I can recognize phrases. When learning anything, I like to get feedback, but since nobody speaks this language, I have to find some way to know exactly what I've learned. In other words, whether the listening-reading method works or not, I am impatient and it doesn't particularly fit my interests right now. -Mixed feelings regarding Listening-Reading method for audiobooks- The benefits of the method, however, is that I can read tremendously faster than before, but as much as I love reading the Bible, I was actually getting a bit bored of the Vulgate. To a degree, it was almost becoming a bit mindless. The same was true for the Tridentine mass texts (I suspect my attitude was the problem). -Another change of strategy- Looking all my available resources, I've decided to put the audiobook method for long texts on hold, and I'm focusing on shorter bilingual texts. This seems to be far more rewarding, since it has more practical content. Basically, this is what I've decided to do everyday: 1) Complete one chapter of Teach Yourself Beginner's Latin 2) Complete one chapter of the Cambridge Latin Course (unit 1) 3) Listen/read one short dialogue of Conversational Latin for Oral Proficiency 4) Listen/read one short dialogue of Nunc Loquamur 5) Listen/read one monologue of Familia Romana 6) Memorize one random Latin phrase -Taking advantage of grammar- Though I do not like doing grammar drills, I've decided to do the exercises in Beginner's Latin. I do it the easy way: I intentionally cheat by looking at the back of the book to fill in all the gaps. I don't want to waste time by trying to analyze it. I once thought that grammar charts are useless, but now I see a use for them: I've decided to read grammar phrases aloud, so as to record correct usages of grammar on my mp3 player. Thus, by referring to the appropriate chart, I can create more phrases by simply substituting words. I would, then, listen to my recorded phrases over and over again to reinforce them in my mind. In a sense, I would create my own dialogue/monologue and I don't have to worry about asking myself, "Did I say this right?" since the sentences are already written properly in the texts with the answers in the back of the book. All I have to do is cheat, substitute and record. :) Also, since they are my creation, I suspect they carry more meaning to me than any textbook dialogue/monologue. While I'm at it, I may consider using Khatzumoto's 10,000 words method. Moreover, I am more interested in learning content that I want to learn. The idea is that I would think about a particular context and ask myself, "How would I ask for 'x' in Latin? Or "What would I say in 'context x' in latin?" Then I'd jump to whatever resource I have which has the answer, to create my own dialogue. This would eventually allow me to measure my progress which is what I'm looking for. -My favorite resource- Without question, my favorite text is Nunc Loquamur because it immediately allows me to use the language really fast, since each dialog is so short. It's probably the most practical text I've bought since it has not only very useful language, but also a bilingual text in the back of the book. Recording the audio content from the software was probably the best thing I did as well (despite some of the pronunciation problems) since this text is exactly the type of thing I want to know right now. The repetition presented on the softward is also extremely useful. Bilingual texts with short audio seems to be the best for me, since it can easily allow me to use the language, but long texts overwhelm me at the moment. I like knowing that I can learn something simple like telling the time in Latin in a matter of minutes. In other words, I can actually produce some practical things after simply listening to it enough times. Moreover, this also gives me some way to measure my progress. (i.e. either I can ask for the time correctly or not). -My second most favorite resource- I particularly like Lingua Latina. I think it would be better with an English translation (since I have the audio cd), but the novelty of it being in Latin is quite remarkable. I'm the type of learner that likes to 'crack the grammar code', and this particular book facilitates that for me. Though it's written entirely in Latin, everything is able to be understood based on context or pictures. It amazes me how simple it is to learn so much without needing a long grammatical explanation or even a teacher. When it's necessary, it's presented in simple Latin as well. Often times, I would have questions in my mind when I'm confused, yet by reading on, the answers are very clear. Question words often become clear when reading the next sentence, since the answer presupposes the question. This method is not only clever, it makes grammar much more enjoyable than some of the ridiculous explanations I've come across. Now that I can measure my progress, I wonder how much more efficiently I will learn. Hopefully, in a week I'll be able to notice a major difference. Edited by JasonChoi on 14 August 2007 at 11:31am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LilleOSC Senior Member United States lille.theoffside.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6683 days ago 545 posts - 546 votes 4 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 67 of 103 14 August 2007 at 6:25pm | IP Logged | ||
What I do to measure my progress is I log the amount of hours and minutes that I spend on my target language. Then I know how far I have left to go to reach fluency. I am not sure exactly around how many hours it takes to learn Latin for English speakers, but I expect it to be higher than the descendants of Latin (French,Italian, Portuguese). Maybe it's around 800 hours. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JasonChoi Diglot Senior Member Korea, South Joined 6351 days ago 274 posts - 298 votes Speaks: English*, Korean Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Latin | Message 68 of 103 24 August 2007 at 11:28am | IP Logged | ||
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After having tried several different methods. I'm beginning to think there has to be a much more enjoyable way to learn a language. For some reason, as I get tired of one method, I would move on to another. Later on, I would move on to yet another afterwards.
I think it's because the idea of studying a language seems to be the problem: Studying always meant 'pain'. For this reason, I'm not too excited about studying this language. However, there's no question that I want to learn it. A friend mentioned to me that learning a language should be enjoyable. It should never a chore. Ultimately, I think my entire attitude needs to change dramatically if I want to excel in this language. For sure, the many approaches I've used have all helped me one way or another. Using multiple beginner's texts have also helped in that I would come across the same phrases. This indicates that I am making progress. However, I'm often bored of learning from any one particular method (i.e. shadowing, listening-reading, independent reading, memorizing phrases/vocabulary, creating mental dialogs, passive listening, simple grammar drills, etc). All of these methods have definitely helped me, but I don't exactly enjoy sticking to any one particular approach. It seems that I am perhaps sabotaging my language learning, or I have some particular attitude problems that need to be fully addressed before I can be satisfied with my progress. To be fair, I won't know if I'll ever be satisfied with my progress. This indicates that there is some affective issue that is in my way. My hunch about 'studying' a language may be the issue, or perhaps there is something much deeper than that. -Another resource- This page has an English translation of the Latin dialogues from Teach Yourself Beginner's Latin. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JasonChoi Diglot Senior Member Korea, South Joined 6351 days ago 274 posts - 298 votes Speaks: English*, Korean Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Latin | Message 69 of 103 28 August 2007 at 7:26am | IP Logged | ||
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I realized I have a problem with learning Latin:
I have no idea when I will officially stop learning Latin. I don't have any cut off point. It's like I'm wandering in a forest without any end point. I have plenty of strategies and tips that I've come across, but all of that is useless if I won't know when I'll be satisfied with this language. Since I have a tendency to want to get things done all at once, I know I will need to develop some kind of reasonable long term plan. Otherwise, it's like I'm trying to make a million dollars all at once, only to be disappointed. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LilleOSC Senior Member United States lille.theoffside.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6683 days ago 545 posts - 546 votes 4 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 70 of 103 28 August 2007 at 8:49am | IP Logged | ||
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You could try setting a goal for your Latin learning and stop there.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| H.Computatralis Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 6296 days ago 130 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Polish*, French, English Studies: German, Spanish, Latin | Message 71 of 103 28 August 2007 at 2:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Wow! I just discovered this thread and I find it encouraging that others are also learning Latin. I started about a month ago, so I'm also still a beginner, but learning new stuff everyday.
My main resource is "Latin for Beginners" by Benjamin L. D'Ooge, available for free at www.textkit.com. It's almost a century old (1909) so it uses a rather dry "traditional" style of teaching, but I don't mind it that much. At least it's fairly complete, unlike some other free books. My main goal is to acquire a good base and then read other material in order fill the gaps. My method revolves mainly around doing one lesson from my textbook every day. I like to use my time efficiently so I'm also doing vocabulary and grammar drills when on the bus or during breaks. I'd really like to get some audio to listen to when walking the dog, but I haven't found anything interesting yet. One interesting resource I found is Fora De Latinitate at latinforum.org, but it seems to be down at the moment. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JasonChoi Diglot Senior Member Korea, South Joined 6351 days ago 274 posts - 298 votes Speaks: English*, Korean Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Latin | Message 72 of 103 29 August 2007 at 8:56am | IP Logged | ||
I personally think that listening to the audio is critical to speaking the language (if that's what you intend to do). It's also easier for me. You may want to get your hands on the audio cds for Cambridge Latin Course, Teach Yourself Beginner's Latin (the audio is included), and Lingva Latina. You may want to look at the other resources that I listed earlier. Just by listening to them over and over (passively), it seems to help me every now and then. Lately, I've been listening to some of the old Latinum Adler podcasts (for the audio content) and I'm starting to absorb the content without really trying, all I do is shadow the content every now and then as I commute. I'm doing it this way because I have not found out my particular learning style as of yet, but right now I like listening and shadowing. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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