Exercitia Latina I: Exercises for Familia Romana [Latin]

Lingua Latina is composed entirely in Latin. It tells a story, beginning with simple, declarative sentences, and moving up to more complex sentences as you progress. This method allows you to acquire Latin intuitively, without conscious effort. There are no rules to memorize, no tables or charts (except a couple in the appendix, if you are curious). You develop skill with the language by practice, by experiencing actual Latin sentences that say something you can understand. In this way, you develop an intuitive sense of what sounds correct, not by looking up a suffix in a chart. Lingua Latina is the modern, proven method of rapid language acquisition, not the old-fashioned, formal "drill and kill" way of studying a language by memorizing its grammar and rules. I do not believe it is possible to acquire the use of a language by merely studying its formal rules. That's a form of language appreciation, perhaps, or a kind of basic linguistic study, but it does not help you communicate. It is possible to study formal grammar rules for many years and never experience what it is like to think in a new language. The best part about the Hans Orberg method presented in Lingua Latina is that you begin thinking in Latin from the very beginning. As a beginner, one's range of Latin-based thought is, of course, relatively simple (e.g., "Roma est in Italia."). But as you move on, you soon find yourself immersed in the language, and that you do not have to consciously translate each word into English to understand. In fact, that process of word-by-word translation is not only boring and unpleasant, but affirmatively counterproductive. Once I experienced that feeling of thinking entirely in Latin, I was hooked.

Maybe it's me, but I have a hard time learning languages. I learned only one language as a child, rendering me totally and utterly monolinguistic. I've tried learning languages using various methods, but none struck me as particularly effective. So when I found the need to have some familiarity with Latin, I looked at Latin language books and courses, and rejected one after the other as being too similar to previous failed attempts. Lingua Latina, however, is different. I admit, I took a chance on this one without being able to preview or sample it (hint hint, Hans), but I am glad I did! (Note added 10 Mar 2009: there is now a preview available at http://www.lingua-latina.dk/index2.htm). It's Dick and Jane for Latin. Rather than memorize lists of words and their meanings in your native language, Lingua Latina contains only Latin, starts off with very simple sentences, makes you think about each word, and requires you to figure out what each word means by context. Here's a brief example from the very beginning of the book: "Roma in Italia est. Italia in Europa est. Graecia in Europa est. Italia et Graecia in Europa sunt." Since we bootstrap off words in English that should already be known to you, and that are the same or similar in Latin, it is obvious what these sentences mean. And once you get through those, it usually becomes obvious what new words mean, and what contexts to use them in. The cases and declinations of verbs and nouns are not given to you as in other language books: like a punch in the face using a table and a stern admonition to memorize the endings. Lingua Latina lets you thoroughly understand one case or declination before moving on to another. As the knowledge builds, the reading becomes easier and easier. Each chapter consists of a reading, marginal notes (in Latin) and pictures to explain concepts that may not necessarily be clear from the text, a grammatical summary (in Latin), and three types of tests at the end of each chapter: endings, vocabulary, and comprehension. Together these cement the knowledge gained through the reading. There is not a speck of non-Latin in this book except for the copyright page. My only beef with Lingua Latina is that some of the words are not so obvious from context. Because of this, I would recommend either a Latin dictionary, or, better yet, the program "Latin Words" (free from http://users.erols.com/whitaker/words.htm). The program allows you to type in a Latin word including its ending, and gives you back the meaning, plus case, number, gender, and so on. Also, a warning: unless your native language is Latin-derived (as English is), you will probably not get anything out of this book, since your language and Latin are probably alien to each other, and there would not be enough overlap for you to make sense out of the Latin. I'm extremely satisfied with Lingua Latina! Carpe Linguam Latinam!

Oerberg's Lingua Latina is an amazing accomplishment. It will not be received well by everyone, but this is not owing to any deficiency in the text. Unfortunately, we live in a time when the study of Latin has been relegated to the grammarians---who would rather concoct a rule for the language than understand it *as* a language. We also live in a time when Latin in general is only very poorly understood, even by those who are bold enough to teach it. Catch the average university Latinist off guard with any real question about Latin, and you'll learn quickly how bad it really is. As they have been taught, so they are producing: students who can only recite a conjugation paradigm but cannot "ask where the bathroom is". Texts like Wheelock contribute horribly to this problem. Lingua Latina offers something different. It is for those who want to actually learn Latin for what it is, not a tricky puzzle but a language which can be understood. Without exaggeration, when you have finished Lingua Latina you will have read many times more Latin than by finishing Wheelock's. You probably won't be so quick to respond when someone asks you, "so what is a passive periphrastic?" But you also won't be subvocalizing in English when reading simple, real Latin authors. Trust me, as a recovering student-of-Wheelock, this book will help you actually understand *Latin*. So cast off your chains of grammar and start learning the language. Stop learning *about* Latin and start understanding it.

For those studying independently or in a dedicated group, this book aims to make you fluent in Latin, in reading it at least, but also it helps for those wishing to speak it better. It's a complete course in the language and works great as review. I'm not sure I'd recommend it as the _only_ text for complete beginners, especially if those beginners have never studied a second language before, but it would work fine in conjunction with another text such as Wheelock's.

There is one substantial difference between Hans Orberg and many of today's teachers of Latin: Hans Orberg knows the language he teaches. For high school Latin his text is arguably better than anything else, but it demands more than it usually gets: enough teaching hours, and a fully competent instructor, one who is actively aware that a working knowledge of Latin is poles apart from knowing Latin grammar.