Conversational Latin for Oral Proficiency: Phrase Book and Dictionary

You hear it time and time again, "why are you taking Latin? That's a dead language!" And though Latin is the language of the Classics, conjuring up images of ancient poets and orators, John Traupman's book proves that Latin is indeed still living. Unlike most texts, the chapters in "Conversational Latin" are not arranged in order of difficulty. Rather, they are organized by topic, and within each chapter the sample conversations progress in difficulty. This makes it easier for students, because they can look up topics quickly, rather than trying to remember how hard that conversation was. This also makes it easier for teachers, who can draw from this book wherever a topic coincides with something covered in class.The vocabulary used in this book is not difficult, including some new words that are not usually covered in textbooks. However, these new words are strangely familiar. . .e.g. "sescentas gratias"--"thanks a million," or "Patientia, patientia. Tempus omnia sanat"--"Patience, patience. Time heals everything." Every word has all the accents so that students can pronounce them correctly. With topics from telling time to gossip about a new girlfriend, "Conversational Latin" is a great addition to any classroom, enriching the study of Latin through speaking and listening interesting conversations.

for all those of you tired of endlessly having to translate sentences like "famous consuls, don't use all your wealth to fill the forum with statues of impious men" -- and of not ever learning how to say "yes" and "no" [!!] -- this book is it. it shows how latin would actually have been spoken [or at least as best as the author can reconstruct].there are sections on every conceivable aspect of daily life: greetings, basic colloquial expressions, food, clothing, animals, the weather, the calendar, family, emotions, etc. etc. there also a number of useful sections that i would have loved to have seen in my latin textbooks -- general vocabulary ["get", "put", "must", etc.], numbers, colors, proverbs, and of course the infamous "how to say yes and no" [btw those of you amazed that a language can deal without such words might find it interesting that modern brazilian portuguese works almost exactly the same way].in my experiences learning languages it has become abundantly clear to me that you cannot really learn a language unless you are forced to speak it. this is the only way to make your language knowledge become active -- otherwise it will always remain passive, and no matter how much you read, you will never really be comfortable with the language. this is, unfortunately, exactly the state that most latin teaching is in; a book like "conversational latin" is exactly what's needed to rectify the situation.

This book fully recognizes the importance of the oral in the learning of any spoken language. Even the reading of Latin needs to draw from the oral, something utterly neglected in the past. That explains what teachers of the deaf have been telling me about the struggles of their deaf students in learning to read English. Students of a language must hear the language at normal conversational speed and with the correct inflection for them to gain a sense of it as a language. Their learning of it is sealed only when they themselves speak it that way. Imitation of fluent usage-- and that includes sign language-- is the only way to learn any language, and that includes Latin. So what if nobody is speaking Latin routinely anymore? That does not mean Latin is a "dead" language; it's merely dormant. It comes to life again when someone speaks it and makes it sound conversational. The best reason for studying Latin is that you consider it to be a beautiful language-- and it is-- and you love it. To get a "You are there" sense of ancient Rome, students need to speak the language as it deals with topics from Roman life. I went through high school Latin back in the 1960s, learning it only as a written and translated language, and not very well I'm sure. I didn't get a sense of Latin as a language that was routinely spoken for everyday things. Professor Traupmann's lively dialogs capture what Latin would be like as a living language. In one dialog two sisters, Olivia and Victoria, are bickering; and in another Annetta pretends to seek advice from her sister Christina but is actually hitting her up for a loan, which Christina figures out. There are a great many other interesting and lively dialogs in this book, all begging for re-enactment. Traupmann combines scholarship and a sense of Latin as a living language in his book. I intend to get the audiocassettes that go with this book.

There aren't a lot of books on the market on conversational Latin, but even if there were I can't imagine them being any better than this one. They really mean it when they say proficiency. Searching elsewhere is useless. You've found what you need right here.

This book is one of the greatest purchases I have ever made! It provides what is sorely needed in the Latin language - a comprehensive conversational guide. Other foreign languages have no shortage of such books, but for some reason people think that no one needs to speak Latin. Even if you have no interest of speaking with Caeser, using this book will vastly help your comprension and understanding of Latin. Amo Latinam linguam!