I recently had a conversation on this forum, because I was tagged in it, about Latin. From that I thought I'd make this thread, just in case it interested anyone. A lot of people like the idea of knowing Latin, but I'm not sure many people know where to begin really - or find themselves struggling because learning something as an adult is hard, learning a second language is harder, and learning a second language on your own is extremely hard. However, there are things along the way that can really help and make it a lot easier, if you know what you are looking for. It's probably no secret I'm a big fan of Latin, my signature is just the first few lines of The Aeneid by Virgil, but I learned it as an adult. I say 'learned', I'm generally of the opinion that you never can have complete mastery over anything in truth. But I can read a pretty decent amount, except the hardest Latin writers (I'm looking at you Cicero and Livy), with some degree of comfort. And I'm British, who don't typically learn a second language. Want to know my secret? It's a book, called Lingua Latina per se Illustrata: Familia Romana by Hans Orberg. It's probably one of the best books I own, even if my copy is now worn and torn in places because of heavy use over a long period of time. If you are interested in Latin and do not have a book, honestly, you owe it to yourself to at least check it out. It takes the form of a novel, about 200 pages long, and is written entirely in Latin. The plot of the story isn't terribly complicated, set over the course of literally just a couple of days - a slave escapes from the villa of a rich Roman, and the novel then looks at how this affects the rest of the family. While it isn't the most complicated plot ever, I think it is still a decent one - it could even be read on its own merit. Honestly, just as a novel I think it's pretty good. But what makes this book so good is this: after each chapter you have a grammar explanation, also entirely in Latin, starting with very simple sentences that almost any speaker of an Indo-European language could probably understand without reaching for a dictionary. The first sentence is 'Roma in Italia est'. And then this is reinforced with 'Italia in Europa est'. All the while, this is reinforcing the word 'est' in your head, while making it as comfortable to actually read and learn as possible. There have been studies on learning, and how people learn, and it has been found that people tend to learn best when they are most relaxed. You have probably, without knowing it, memorized books' worth of song lyrics without even realising it. How do you remember who everyone is in a soap-opera or a TV show like Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad, you just absorbed it because you were enjoying it. This is part of the method the Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata series is aiming for, and because it is entirely in Latin, strictly untranslated, it is encouraging you to 'think' in Latin, to allow yourself to learn Latin as you did your first language - by surrounding yourself with it as much as possible. It works so well because of a combination of this reinforcement and a very clever use of marginal notes. You not only see the accusative a few times in the chapter it is introduced, you also get a little explanation at the side of the page, stressing the use of the accusative, something like 'Iulia Aemiliam vocat' with the 'm' italicized so it stands out, and a little picture of Iulia, the daughter in the family, calling out for her mother who by that point you already know her name is Aemilia. This attempt at mimicking the way your first language is acquired is the 'Natural Method', and it is a very good method for learning a second language. Familia Romana is just the first part of a series though, the series is called Lingua Latina per se Illustrata, and the second main book in the series is Roma Aeterna, which is an anthology of more or less unadopted Classical Latin writing from the easier bits of Livy and Virgil (also adapted to various degrees, Virgil is actually presented without line breaks and rewritten a bit to make it easier) to unadopted Cicero. The standard of Latin in Roma Aeterna is very high, but if you are able to read even the first page or two of Roma Aeterna then you should by that stage have no real issue reading anything written in Latin honestly - if you use a dictionary for any words you do not know. How great is that? That said, there is a bit of a gap between Familia Romana and Roma Aeterna, and there are supplementary volumes in the series to help you along the way. There's collections of selected passages of Caesar, there's a play by Plautus (which is actually really funny, it's like a sitcom or something), the Vulgate Bible and other things. Most of them are just to build up your vocabulary and confidence as you start to near yourself towards an extremely high standard of proficiency with the Latin language. There are also supplementary materials as you read the two main books too. Such as collections of Virgil, Petronius and Cicero when you are reading Roma Aeterna, and there are for the first book, Familia Romana, a collection of other conversations between the characters in Familia Romana, and a collection of Roman and Greek mythological stories. The point with all these supplementary volumes is to allow you to read as much Latin as possible, and for that Latin to be as diverse as possible, so you are not just reading the same chapter over and over again, and getting bored out your mind. There are also other texts that can further compliment your reading. By the time you've read the first 12 chapters (I'd say) of Familia Romana, you are probably in a position to start reading the short Latin novels by Andrew Olimpi. I can personally vouch for the novels by Andrew Olimpi, they are really fun - they are written to look and read like children's books, so if you don't mind feeling a little silly in learning a second language they are an extremely powerful tool. They are also a lot of fun just to read by themselves too. They seem to have been written with his own classes specifically in mind, and they do come with glosses of the words at the back which Familia Romana doesn't, but by the teen chapters point of Familia Romana you will probably (except for literally the rare word) be able to read his book Labyrinthus cover to cover without needing any help whatever. Olimpi's novels range in difficulty though, but by chapter 25 of Familia Romana you should find all of his books very easy and enjoyable. Of the ones I've read (I haven't felt the need to read all of them) I really liked Labryinthus, and Via Periculosa. There is also Pugio Bruti, a murder mystery story that goes into some dark, almost Lynchian areas. The standard of Latin in Pugio Bruti is much higher than any of the Andrew Olimpi novels (not a criticism of Olimpi's novels, at all, mind) and it is maybe another good thing to read between Familia Romana and Roma Aeterna. Of course, this is if you have the money to buy all these books - and not everyone can. Can you learn Latin to a really good standard with only Familia Romana? Absolutely, yes, you can. And if you want a free PDF copy of Familia Romana, send me a PM and I can probably find it. Does anyone have any other suggestions? Or have their own experience with Latin?
My daughter took Latin in high school and loved it. My experience is limited to a class on Latin roots which in retrospect was extremely useful, especially since I went into biological sciences. Spanish is the second language in my family, and that little public school course on Latin roots has helped there, too. My daughter married into a family whose members speak Spanish, some of them exclusively. I picked up a tutor for conversational Spanish to refresh my memory before I go down to visit next month. I love the idea of studying Latin just so I can read The Conquest of Gaul in the original language, but I'm afraid that ain't gonna happen. With my memory, it's all I can do to keep the languages I am more or less familiar with in my head. I did, however, enjoy reading your essay above. Thanks!
You might find learning Latin, if you give it a chance, a lot easier than most to be honest. When I was in Spain, a knowledge of Latin helped a lot honestly. The Spanish word for beer being cerveza is the same as Latin's Cervesia, or sometimes Cervisia. And a lot of the verbs are similar enough. Caesar, too, is a pretty good writer - he had a very unapologetic and unpretentious style. It's good stuff. And thanks for the kind words!
Encouragement is appreciated. I sang in choirs off and on for decades, which means lots of Latin, as does training in science. Memorization of lyrics and scientific nomenclature has come in handy in odd situations. Once when approached in downtown Denver by a persistent panhandler, I finally pointed my finger at him and said in a ferocious voice, "Oh, Fortuna! Velut Luna! Statu variabilis! Cucumis melo var. reticulatus! Ipomoea botatas!" He backed off. Even persistent panhandlers can't handle being hollered at in Orff or being called cantaloupe and sweet potato.
