The Pursuit of Latin Fluency

Table of Contents

• 1 Introduction
• 2 Learning Latin
  • 2.1 Orberg and the Natural Method
  • 2.2 Spaced Repetition
• 3 Conclusion

1 Introduction

Gaining fluency in any language is a tough go for learners of any age, but supposedly it gets harder the older you get.

I'm an older adult learner but I'm going to try and gain fluency in Latin.

What is fluency? I'm defining fluency as the ability to read, write, and converse in Latin fluidly.

Of course, this raises lots of questions, but I don't see that a long and extended discussion is necessary.

Let's just say that if I'm able to browse Nuntii Latini and read fluidly, and if I'm able to gain the ability to write this blog in Latin, I will have achieved my goal.

2 Learning Latin

How do I plan on learning Latin?

2.1 Orberg and the Natural Method

There are lots of books out there that will teach you, or claim to teach you, Latin. Wheelocks, Henle and Jenny's come to mind, but there must be thousands of others.

I want nothing to do with any of them. Here's just one reason why. At this link to a sample pdf of Henle you will see this question on page 9:

How do you tell the difference between the nominative and ablative singular
of the first declension?

Excuse me??

The answer undoubtedly is that you can tell the difference because of the macron over the final -a in the ablative.

I think I'm going to throw up.

Is that how the Romans did it? Of course not. They used context. Just native speakers do all the time in their own, undoubted, ambiguous languages.

No, no, no. My goal is not to learn about lingua latina but rather to learn the lingua latina, ipsa.

I'm sure that Henle, like Wheelock, et cetera, have many admirable qualities. I may want to refer to them, even, at some point. But no, it's not the way to start. And please don't misunderstand. I don't hate grammar. In fact, I'm a grammar guy. I love grammar and I understand it. But I have no desire to study the grammar of Latin, or any language, for years, and not come to fluency. Grammar, certainly not by itself, does not bring the student to fluency.

I'm going to use Lingua Latina per se illustrata: Pars I Familia Romana by Hans Orberg. I've already been using this book for a while now. I'm not a total beginner.

Orberg's approach uses what is called the "natural method," where the student begins with simple sentences.

For example, in Capitulum I, the sentences are very simple and would give little trouble to many English speakers.

Roma in Italia est. Italia in Europa est. Italia et Graecia in Europa sunt.

Here's a sample page.

By the way, you'll notice that I'm leaving out the macrons in the Latin that I write. Here's what William Harris has to say on the subject of macrons.

The Romans knew the longs by knowing how the language sounded, but never wrote them in, nor do modern texts of any author include them with the one exception of high school textbooks. Since students seriously studying Latin will never see a long-marked text after high school, the use of such crutches may well be questioned. It would seem better to learn to deal with regular printed texts,than learn everything in "marked" text, and later wonder where the cribbed marks went. A Dutch doctor named Smets published in l599 a dictionary of regularly used poetic words illustrated with one verse from a good poet of the Augustan period,which establishes the natural length of the vowels. But even so there are questions about length in some words, which the OLD lists at the beginning of each entry. Note that modern Russians must speak with precise pitch accents, but would never think of writing them in their books. If students learn the longs and shorts by hearing Latin spoken by the teacher and speaking it themselves, there will be no problems later on, that is the longand the short of it.

William Harris
Prof. Em. Middlebury College
www.middlebury.edu/~harris

So, following Harris, I see macrons as remedial crutches that should be done away with as soon as possible. Modern Latin, such as at Nuntii Latini doesn't use them either.

Back to Orberg.

Beginning with these simple sentences the reader begins to acquire a vocabulary and a grammar. As he chapters go by, the sentences become more complex.

At the end of each chapter, a discussion of grammar is given, along with exercises.

At the end of the book can be found typical Latin paradigms.

By the way, the entire book is in Latin.

Along with the book, a DVD is available in which Orberg reads the entire book. His pronunciation for the most part is classical, but I have noticed where sometimes his "v" sounds as it does in English. This is fine with me. While I want to follow the classical pronunciation system, I do not want to obsess on it.

2.2 Spaced Repetition

A computerized flashcard system will be helpful.

I first learned about "spaced repetition" from SuperMemo many, many, years ago. Of course, today I wouldn't dream of paying for that product when there is such excellent software freely available.

From alternatives, I've decided on Anki, and I'll be using LaTeX to keep things looking nice (if you're using MS-Windows, you'll want MikTeX). I'll leave you to read elsewhere about the easy setup of Anki and LaTeX.

3 Conclusion

More coming! Come back to soon to hear of my progress.

Valete!!