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Beginning Latin | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| JasonChoi Diglot Senior Member Korea, South Joined 6351 days ago 274 posts - 298 votes  Speaks: English*, Korean Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Latin | Message 97 of 103 21 February 2008 at 11:34am | IP Logged |
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It's been a while since I've update.
Over the past week or so, I've been shadowing chapters 4, 5, and 6 of Lingua Latina. I'm a bit doubtful that it is doing anything, but I've been doing this consistently for multiple short periods of time throughout each day. To be precise: I would do chapter 4 two times in one sitting (roughly 15 minutes of shadowing). Then I'd go off and do something else. Later in the day, I would do it again. As mentioned earlier, I have an easier time shadowing while listening to orchestral music. Additionally, I also pace around my room (as I read along with the audio) so as to be more attentive. My copy of the College Companion recently came in, and I wish I had it sooner! This text really explains a lot that I've been missing out on. In short, it's a great supplement as it lets me go through Lingua Latina far more comfortably. The translated vocabulary words are a real time-saver (especially when I forget words), and the grammatical explanations make Latin much easier for me to grasp. I've decided to start making flash cards of sentences from Lingua Latina which either are or had been difficult for me to understand. Thankfully, much of the difficult sentences are in the College Companion. :) 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 98 of 103 28 February 2008 at 8:23am | IP Logged |
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A week has passed since my last update.
Over the past few days, I've been thinking about Heinrich Schliemann's method of learning languages, which seemed to primarily involve memorization. So I decided to try it out myself using Lingua Latina. Since I had written about it on this page, I figured it wasn't necessary to repeat it here. For some odd reason, not only do I enjoy this method, I'm constantly eager to memorize more! I don't think I've ever been so excited about learning languages. 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 99 of 103 29 February 2008 at 6:48am | IP Logged |
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I've memorized the first 5 paragraphs (roughly 200 words) of Lingua Latina. At this rate, I'll have memorized all of chapter 1 by the end of next week. This certainly requires diligence and patience, but I'm enjoying the progress so far :)
Basically, at this rate, I think this means I'll have finished most of Familia Romana (part 1 of Lingua Latina) by the end of this year. Hopefully, I'll be picking up the pace as I progress. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| wstevena Newbie United States Joined 6471 days ago 9 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Latin, Ancient Greek, French | Message 100 of 103 21 May 2008 at 12:32pm | IP Logged |
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As a fellow learner of Latin, I have been following this thread with interest. I hope you can give us an update one of these days.
As for my situation, I recently finished my second reading of Lingua Latina Liber I, which I mostly did while commuting on the Metro. Liber II is more complex and requires a higher degree of concentration than Familia Romana. Amazon.com had a steep price reduction on the Lingua Latina Liber I CDROM, which provides the audio through Chapter 31, so I bought it with the goal of attempting the L-R approach. So far I have only listened to Chapter 1 once. 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 101 of 103 21 May 2008 at 1:04pm | IP Logged |
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Unfortunately, I haven't touched Latin since March. Too many things have come up, so time is not freely available to me as it was before. More importantly, I realize I had too many emotional issues that were blocking my desire to learn languages in general. I have since resolved some major emotional blocks (i.e. unconscious fears and other negative emotions related to learning), and I'm focusing my attention on brushing up my Korean for now.
However, every now and then I spend time passively listening to Lingua Latina (I have also purchased the cd-rom which is quite nice). I am particularly convinced that frequent passive listening can be beneficial (after having first understood everything). Since my Latin is currently on hiatus, I plan to resume my studies in the fall. At the same time, I plan to enroll with SCHOLA LATINA UNIVERSALIS. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| wstevena Newbie United States Joined 6471 days ago 9 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Latin, Ancient Greek, French | Message 102 of 103 21 May 2008 at 3:36pm | IP Logged |
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I have wanted to take that course taught by Avitus, and I do have Assimil's Latin Sans Peine. However, I don't have the recordings because they were about 3 times the cost of the book, and when I bought the book they were only available on cassette.
Last summer I attended a one-week immersion experience in which only Latin was allowed to be used. This helped my motivation, and by just using the language a little in a real situation my comprehension was helped a lot. Before that immersion, I was stuck about mid-way through Lingua Latina. Afterwards, I powered right through (in about 4 months). Another thing I did was to use the self-test exercises in Wheelock's Latin in reverse. I translated the answers given in English into Latin, then I checked my work with the original Latin expression that was there to be translated into English. This helped me quite a lot, and I ought to do it again, as I notice I am starting to forget some declensions I once had down cold. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sulpicius Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6019 days ago 89 posts - 91 votes Speaks: English*, Latin Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 103 of 103 25 May 2008 at 7:33am | IP Logged |
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Hi,
I would personally advice using "Learn to Read Latin," by Keller and Russell. http://www.amazon.com/Learn-Read-Latin-Textbook-Workbook/dp/ 0300103549/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211717646&sr =8-1 This helped me to achieve my goal of being able to read the actual authentic texts, not the hashed versions of "translating as reading while skipping half the words to find the corresponding adjective." I don't think that speaking is practical, considering the fact that Latin is highly synthetic. The word order it, literally, diverse as can be, and speaking isn't necessarily worth the energy, in my opinion. Reading is the ultimate goal, and it's wonderful. I would also recommend Wheelock with reservation, but NOT the reader he has. It's amazing how he expects us to read Cicero's orations against Varro, or Livy, without running vocabularies, or for that matter how it's expected that we comprehend it as it was meant to be comprehended. In terms of learning Latin and ignoring the classics, I find this to be a very poor idea. That's like learning French and deciding to read nothing that was written by French natives, but to instead read only books written by Englishman who know French for example. Add to this the fact that modern day Latin is highly regarded by academics as "superficial," and not "genuine," and I would have to seriously recommend that the Classics be the end goal (meta summa). A grammar textbook is absolutely necessary in my opinion. A lot of the "modern" day Latin textbooks, such as Oxford or Cambridge (so I have heard) teach students things like "fork." You are never going to read "fork" in Gallic Wars (Caesar). Nor will you come across such words in De Officiis (Cicero) for example. The ultimate goal should be to read Latin. No one will be able to read the Catilinarian orations if they don't have a formal rote method of learning in terms of the more complex grammatical structures. Certain things such as impersonal verbs completely throw the already complex synthetic nature of a sentence out the window when a case such as the genitive can be the cause of the impersonal feeling. Again, I would recommend a grammar text to explain such complex structures. The aforementioned series uses classical pronunciation. In terms of Ecclesiastical, yes, that Collins book is absolutely outstanding, I have it myself, but haven't gotten into it yet. I'm looking towards classical vocabulary first, since the vocabulary is quite different. In terms of Renassiance Latin, yes, it is very different, but workable. Medieval Latin doesn't have rules. Gregory of Tours' Latin is "atrocious" (this is the word of an author of an anthology. I would definitely learn classical first though, since it is more difficult and the syntax of the Ecclesiastical pales in comparison in terms of difficulty. I hope this helps you. Edited by Sulpicius on 25 May 2008 at 12:12pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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