|
 |
How did you learn Latin? | ||
Tags: Latin | Learning Strategy | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| vexx Groupie Australia Joined 5246 days ago 81 posts - 82 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Latin | Message 1 of 12 21 August 2010 at 4:13pm | IP Logged |
|
Hi,
I have decided on how i'm going to be learning latin and the approximate time frame, and all that. But i'm curious as to what everyone else did to learn Latin. This will quite helpful not only for me to perhaps change my plan, but for others who find this forum or are curious like me: - Did you learn to Read, Speak or Write? - What programs did you use and what order where they in? - How effective where they? And would you recomend any? - How long did it take to do? How many hours per day was spent? - What level have you achieved by doing the above? Much appreciated, Vexx. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6731 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 12 22 August 2010 at 9:49pm | IP Logged |
|
I first learnt Latin in the late 60s with the good ol' grammar-translation method in its purest form, i.e. translation both ways + grammar with no intention of teaching people to speak or write the language. As soon as I stopped dealing with Latin my purely passive skills crumbled, and soon I could hardly read simple inscriptions. At that point I wasn't too impresed with my Latin courses. It wasn't until I decided to relearn it that I found out that the old courses in fact had given me a very solid, although completely hidden foundation.
I took the decision when I accidentally found my very first Latin text book at the local library: "Mikkelsens lærebog" (in Danish). I got through it in a few weeks because all the old inflections came back to me almost in a flash, and after some initial fumbling I could even read the text examples. I gave the book back to the library after one month and procedeed to other materials, partly genuine texts, and this included a search for suitable dictionaries which also referred to modern ideas and objects. Right now I can write in Latin and also think in the language (although not at a very high level), and I regularly read sources on the internet - including Neolatin sources which are not as difficult to find as you might think. Edited by Iversen on 22 August 2010 at 9:50pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tracker465 Senior Member United States Joined 5380 days ago 355 posts - 496 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 3 of 12 22 August 2010 at 11:00pm | IP Logged |
|
Latin was the first foreing language that I ever learned. I took a class at my high school for three years. Five days a week, for one hour a day, I had Latin class. In addition to this time, the teacher also gave us lots of vocabulary words and assignments to do.
Since Latin is studied more so for reading, we did not worry about speaking the language. The students learned pronounce the words correctly and we would read our answers to the class (or the teacher would read the sentences), but this was the extent of our speaking and listening. Also, the books we used were pretty old, as they were the same ones that my mother used when she studied Latin, at the same high school (with the same teacher), so many years ago. We did learn the grammar though, and as many Latin students, we had to read and translate so many of the great works, such as Caesar's Gallic Wars and the Aneid. At the time I felt that I was not very good at Latin or the grammar, but now since I have been away from it for about ten years, I really wish I had kept up with it. I realize that I knew a lot more than I thought ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Dragonsheep Groupie United States Joined 5298 days ago 46 posts - 63 votes Studies: Tagalog, English* Studies: Japanese, Latin | Message 4 of 12 23 August 2010 at 2:28am | IP Logged |
|
Latin is one of the harder languages to learn due to the lack of materials (although materials wise its easier, than, say, Tagalog.)
For this reason I opted to take it in highschool over Chinese. My first class starts in less than a week. We're using the Cambridge Latin Course for the first year. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lakkhamu Diglot Groupie Turkey Joined 5272 days ago 63 posts - 65 votes Speaks: English, Turkish* Studies: Latin, German, Russian | Message 5 of 12 23 August 2010 at 8:50am | IP Logged |
|
Cambridge Latin Course is optimal if you want to just read (The reason most people learn it). I advise you supllement it with Wheelock's Latin textbook and workbook although they're much more slow paced than CLC, so you might have troubles following up. By the way, buy the North American edition. However, for most people, even beginning Latin is very perplexing; it has quite a grammar and lives up her name as "difficult". If you feel you're going to have troubles with the grammar, begin with "Getting Started With Latin" by William E. Linney. This is a slow paced but steady course for introduction only. Other critically acclaimed sources are Lingua Latina and Reclam (It's German). Hope I helped.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Gina1992 Newbie United States Joined 5234 days ago 2 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English* | Message 6 of 12 24 August 2010 at 8:10am | IP Logged |
|
Are you intending to speak it? An admirable goal, although obviously your conversation partners would be
limited...Unfortunatley (in my mind, at least) the focus in academia is always reading and translating literature. I was more into the linguistic aspect, so I quit. But I would recommend Wheelock's. It's a pretty solid intro to grammar, and although its somewhat corny humor can be obnoxious at times, it's not as intimidating and stuffy as some other courses. Pax! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| vexx Groupie Australia Joined 5246 days ago 81 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Latin | Message 7 of 12 25 August 2010 at 3:18pm | IP Logged |
|
Thanks for these replies !
It's interesting to know how people are learning it. I'm just going to be learning to read, maybe go further later, but at the moment purely reading. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5593 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 8 of 12 25 August 2010 at 3:51pm | IP Logged |
|
Do you know of Evan Milner's vast Latinum online course:
http://latinum.mypodcast.com/ 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
