So this is outside of my training, but I know a lot of classicists on here: what would you suggest for someone post-college looking to teach themselves the language? My instinct is 'Wheelock, blood, sweat and tears' but I assume there is a better answer.
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I would vote for LLPSI (and steer them toward Luke Ranieri's videos for some extra guidance). Better pedagogy than Wheelock (and G-T) in general and will be more motivating for most autodidacts than slogging through Wheelock's sentences.
Registrations *just* closed, but @catherineproject.bsky.social offers an introductory Latin (and ancient Greek!) tutorial that uses Lingua Latina and Colloquia Personarum, depending on the section. catherineproject.org/general-offe...
I work with them! But the answer is LLPSI
I would also like to know this. I didn't take Latin in school on top of four other languages, and now I kinda wish I had.
My first question would be if the person doing the learning had any significant training in any other non-native languages. (Training, not native multilingualism.) And then my next question would be if any of those languages were at least one of 1) Latin-derived or 2) dead/taught from charts.
There is a truly excellent Latin textbook that was also the worst Latin textbook I have /ever/ taught undergrads from, because it's full of footnotes and dry as bone, but it's the perfect exhaustive tome with lots of answer-included workbook exercises IF someone is ready for that kind of thing.
So if someone has already learned some dead language from charts & written sentences, OR has learned a Romance language as a second language and is moderately familiar with grammatical terms, OR is really comfortable with nested footnotes and grammar terms-- Russell & Keller's LEARN TO READ LATIN.
It's totally primed for someone who's learned two romance languages and taken a semester of linguistics in undergrad and /really/ wants to focus on ancient original texts to have everything they need for learning. For most people? Wheelock's plus various online resources.
And it's not even that I think Wheelock's is the best of more 'normal' textbooks, just that it's so widely used there are a gazillion answer keys, worksheets, tie-in books, etc. to help with it, where a 'better' textbook probably will not have that easily available.
My "best results" recommendation is to pick from among 2-3 modern textbooks with fun stories, engaging characters, and awareness of cultural complexity, plus pay someone to explain & answer questions once a week via Zoom. But that's a lot pricier.
check out the great Lingua Latina per se Illustrata. It's even available free on the internet archive. It's great even for people who don't know other Romance languages. It's like Duolingo on steroids and quite fun to read. (archive.org/details/ling...)
I have a copy, and my students enjoy flipping through it sometimes! I haven't spent enough time with it to be able to recommend it yet.
I’ll echo LLPSI, with this as an addition. indwellinglanguage.com/reading-lati... I’ll also recommend @jeltzz.bsky.social .
thank you very much!
I'm a post-college learner using wheelocks + scribblers, sculptors and scribes + 38 latin stories to accompany wheelocks and I'm loving it
The JACT Reading Latin course was designed for mature learners, and has materials to support independent study. Alternatively, there's Henry Cullen and John Taylor's Latin to GCSE, which a lot of mature learners have recommended. Answer keys are available.
The Open University has a free introductory course. www.open.edu/openlearn/hi...
I only did a little Latin when I was at school (7th-8th grade UK equivalent). I picked up LLPSI over the summer a few years ago (while a non-classics university student) and found the approach of not focusing on the “grammar-translation method” worked well for me, though I only had time for book 1
bsky.app/profile/chem... Mentioned by someone else, but I think they didn't include the link to the free version on the internet archive
German books may help littel, but we had "Ludus Latinus", which focused on reading entire sentences from lesson 1 on. Each lesson had vocab and grammar to learn, starting with ind. pres., a decl. and conj. and becoming more complex over time. I can still read Latin to this day (40 years later).
Read Wheelock as ‘wheel-lock’ and was incredibly concerned as to why a Latin student would need to keep a firearm handy
I can absolutely believe a Latin student in the Early Modern (so probably at least moderately well heeled) would also have one of those.
Well, Latin isn't so much a dead language as an undead language.
Cullen and Taylor's "Latin to GCSE" is very accessible
Wheelock is a good suggestion because it was originally written with people who have to do a lot of self-learning in mind, so it has some features specifically designed for that audience (like a lot of diagnostic exercises with keys). In general, answer keys for Wheelock are easy to get.
Written for returning GIs entering college as adults, no?
Yup.
Wheelock misses some grammar, over-relies on constructed passages, and has weird vocab, but it gets the job done to an acceptable level and gives you enough support that it makes sense without an instructor.
Strictly a dilettante myself but I tracked down a used copy of Lingua Latina, which was recommended to me, and early results are promising. It’s basically immersion, but in book form. hackettpublishing.com/lingua-latin...
Can confirm! In the opening sentences, it seemed to be telling me that "Italy is a part of Europe", but now, two dozen chapters in, its Latin sentences—with subordinate clauses—are explaining that pasturing sheep was more profitable in Italy, because Africa was driving down the cost of grain.
yes, this book series is great for that.