Hey, do you have any recomendations on starting learning latin? Like, bibliography or where should i begin?
First, find a textbook that is popularly used by Latin courses (Wheelock’s is a personal favorite). Start going through the chapters and exercises in the book at a steady pace, maybe a chapter a week, and don’t let yourself ignore it or leave it for too long. When you’re teaching yourself, it can be easy to go easy on yourself, but it won’t help you learn as thoroughly. If you have anything you’re having problems with in the book, look it up online, or perhaps look up apps for helping to learn Latin vocab and forms - There is one [Grammaticus] made specifically to pair with the most recent edition of Wheelock’s Latin textbook.
When you’ve learned much of the basics and want to test out your skills, I’d try out a student’s edition of a simpler Latin text, probably something like Livy’s History of Rome, since it has easily divided sections and fairly simple grammar and vocab.
Once you’re past that point, the world is your oyster! Experiment, search for more things to translate, and always test yourself on the basics. Remember, it doesn’t matter if you can translate a text a word at a time with a dictionary. What you want to get to, ideally, is translation without a dictionary, grammatically accurately and with a confidence in your understanding of the material as it is (unless you’re going over a very specific passage, as of something with vocab related solely to sailing or potions which you may not have seen before, then dictionaries are totally okay).
Does anyone else have any advice for beginners? thoodleoo, I know you’re fond of teaching Latin, so you may have some better advice there.
well, first place to start is a good textbook. i personally learned from Cambridge Latin Course, which you can get a subscription online to for a decent price that gives you access to all their main series textbooks for a year. Cambridge has the added benefit of having a plot to keep you entertained while you’re learning, but it also has a tendency to kind of throw grammatical concepts at you in the vocab without explaining them until later. it’s also very slow in teaching things chapter-wise since it’s aimed at a younger audience. still, it got me where i needed to be for the most part. Wheelock’s is probably the most comprehensive textbook i’ve come across, but it’s also a little dry in my opinion. the SPQR app is also fantastic. it’s got Latin texts, a couple of textbooks, flashcard programs, a dictionary, and a lot of other neat stuff, plus it’s not too expensive.
if you’re going to self-teach, the biggest problem you’re going to have is probably motivation. i’d suggest making a schedule for yourself to follow- say, that you’ll read a story and do a grammar section or two per week or something, just so that you don’t overwhelm yourself but also don’t let yourself fall behind.
other than that, everything i would’ve suggested has pretty much been said. after you finish your textbook/s, probably just start off with simplified versions of texts, and then you can move onto harder, unaltered texts. also, don’t forget that you can come to a large number of tumblr Latinists for help if you get stuck! we’re all pretty friendly and willing to help.
