I want to learn Latin

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My father teaches a girl/young lady Latin from the Ecce Romani series. I learned a little from them too wayyy back. They’re quite good, but they don’t teach Church Latin of course. See if your local library has a copy.
 
To graduate from our Catholic High School, I was FORCED TO TAKE LATIN.

The teacher-priest said to us that one reason for learning Latin is that most english words have Latin roots. If you know Latin, he said, words in english whose meanings you do not know, you can easily guess correctly what their meanings are from their Latin roots.

I think we spent about 4 semesters on Latin. PRECIOUS HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF HOURS THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN SPENT ON OTHER SUBJECTS AND ASSIGNMENTS WERE SPENT CONJUGATING AND CONSTRUCTING LATIN SENTENCES ETCETERA ETCETERA. WHAT A BIG LIE!!!

IF THE PURPOSE IS TO LEARN LATIN WORDS AND THOSE LATIN ROOTS, THEN JUST MAKE THE STUDENTS MEMORIZE THE LATIN WORDS AND THEIR MEANINGS IN ENGLISH!!!

There is NO NEED TO WASTE CATHOLIC STUDENTS’ TIMES LEARNING HOW TO CONJUGATE, HOW TO MAKE THE LATIN NOUNS AGREE WITH THE LATIN ADJECTIVES, ETCETERA ETCETERA.

Why??? Just because our parents spend money to send us to Catholic Schools, YOU THINK THAT"S REASON FOR PRIESTS AND NUNS, CATHOLIC CHURCH, THEOLOGIANS AND PHILOSOPHERS TO WASTE OUR TIME AND EDUCATE US TO BE PRIESTS??? WHILE YOU MAKE US WASTE TIME ON ALL THESE SUBJECTS LIKE LATIN, THEOLOGY, PHILOSOPHY, OUR COUNTERPARTS IN OTHER SHOOLS WHO DO NOT HAVE TO TAKE THESE END UP AT A BIG ADVANTAGE OVER US IN THE OTHER SUBJECTS.

Please simplify your theology subjects, philiosophy subjects, so that catholic students will not have to waste so much time on these. Not everyone wants to be a priest or nun or doctor, or lawyer. THE VAST MAJORITY OF US DON"T NEED THESE. AND WITH REGARDS TO LATIN, JUST GET A LATIN-ENGLISH, ENGLISH-LATIN DICTIONARY AND MAKE THE STUDENTS MEMORIZE THEM. THEY WILL LEARN AND REMEMBER MORE LATIN WORDS THAT WAY!!! For example, all those semesters on Latin, how many Latin words do I really remember??? Ten Latin words?? 20 Latin words??? Frankly speaking, I REMEMBER MORE LATIN WORDS FROM THE LATIN PRAYERS AT THOSE LATIN MASSES. A LATIN-ENGLISH-LATIN DICTIONARY WOULD HAVE DONE MORE GOOD. EVEN JUST 10 LATIN WORDS A WEEK WOULD HAVE CAUSED ME TO REMEMBER ABOUT 1,000 LATIN WORDS IN 2 YEARS OR 4 SEMESTERS. AT 52 WEEKS A YEAR!!!
 
No need to shout…did you mean schools, 'IN OTHER SHOOLS ’ hehe
 
Here are some places to look:
This is a homeschool site:
ofed.50webs.com/foreignlanguages.htm This has links to free books on line–you can just download them, print them, etc, as they are in the public domain. (The site owner is very Baptist, so some of her other links are questionable, but these are great).

members.tripod.com/~gunhouse/psalmstxt/home.htm has a parallel Latin/English psalter.

drbo.org/lvb has the complete Vulgate online.

There are lots of other things, I am sure, but these are neat because they are all online, free for you to use.
I hope this helps.
 
To the Eurasian:

What you said is true of high school courses in all languages, not just Latin.

textkit.com/

Textkit, has lots of resources in the forms of books online to use for free.
 
For anyone who may be interested in Latin, and particularly Ecclesiastical Latin:

A collaborative self-study group is preparing to work through John F Collins’s *Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin. *More information about the course can be found at Collins2006 Ecclesiastical Latin Study Group. More information about similar collaborative self-study groups can be found at The LatinStudy List.

This course will only happen if there are sufficient participants (hence the ~2 month lead-time of this announcment). If you think this might be for you, check it out.

tee
 
I echo Euasian’s comments…

My first response is WHY - what on earth for ???

I too was required to pass four years of Latin in HS,… and the common refrain was "Latin killed the Romans and it is gonna kill me ! "
 
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wcknight:
I echo Euasian’s comments…

My first response is WHY - what on earth for ???
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De gustibus non est disputandum.

😛
tee
 
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wcknight:
I echo Euasian’s comments…

My first response is WHY - what on earth for ???

I too was required to pass four years of Latin in HS,… and the common refrain was "Latin killed the Romans and it is gonna kill me ! "
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But it didn’t did it? I mean you are still living. And you survived the Latin. You might even have learned a thing or two that will prove useful at some point in your life.

I took Latin in high school and wish the schools in my area even offered Latin for my kids. Spanish in middle school and French (and Spanish) in high school are the only languages offered in our town and in a lot of other schools. (The local Catholic high school doesn’t even offer Latin!)

I say to Eurasian and to all who complain “Quit your complaining and be thankful that you were taught by educators who cared to give you a good education.” You don’t know how lucky you were.
 
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bdksrk:
Hi everybody,

I am new and my husband made me join. Looking forward to talk to you all and learning from all of you. :tiphat:

I commute to work everyday and am interested in learning Latin. I was wondering if anyone out there may know of good Latin language tapes.

Thanks for your assistance
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You might find this page helpful, for properly Classical Latin (as distinct from that plebeian lower-class chatter that became the basis of Church Latin :D)​

A grammar which is quite outstanding is Kennedy’s “Shorter Latin Primer”. It is arranged in numbered sections - which helps to take a lot of the terror out of it.

Which Latin do you want to learn ? Classical, Ecclesiastical, or the modern stuff 🙂 ?

To hear the news in Latin, this site, which is based in Finland, is very good 🙂 - yleradio1.fi/nuntii/ - yleradio1.fi/nuntii/id50.shtml ##
 
Here are excellent resources:
It is great you want to learn Latin. Read what the Baltimore Catechism says about Latin:
Q. 566. Why does the Church use the Latin language instead of the national language of its children?
A. The Church uses the Latin language instead of the national language of its children:
    • To avoid the danger of changing any part of its teaching in using different languages;
    • That all its rulers may be perfectly united and understood in their communications;
    • To show that the Church is not an institute of any particular nation, but the guide of all nations.
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Write me at vrudrys@hotmail.com and I can teach you by way of SKYPE, starting with laymen’s simple approach, according to your personal goals, and you will enjoy the lessons. Or call VRU at 517 784 7834. PLEASE leave a short message about your call and your phone number available for me to call back CLEARLY. Excelsior! Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam.
 
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