Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Latin [Paperback]

Natalie Harwood (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0028639227 | ISBN-13: 978-0028639222 | Publication Date: June 23, 2000 | Edition: 1

Latin is often perceived as an intimidating language to learn, but millions of students and adults need some background, whether for high school, law, music or medical school. The "Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Latin on Your Own" provides a comprehensive guide for beginners in vocabulary and grammar construction.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Latin is often perceived as an intimidating language to learn, but millions of students and adults need some background, whether for high school, law, music or medical school. The "Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Latin on Your Own" provides a comprehensive guide for beginners in vocabulary and grammar construction.

About the Author

Natalie Harwood has a Masters degree in secondary curriculum and has taught Latin, English, and French for 40 years. She has also published academically on teaching Latin, lectured, and watched students learn and grow with a challenging and rewarding language. She currently teaches high school Latin in Oxford, Ohio.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Alpha; 1 edition (June 23, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0028639227
• ISBN-13: 978-0028639222
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,632,244 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

84 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book for the Very Beginning Student, August 30, 2000

By 

T. B. Vick "T.B.V." - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Latin (Paperback)

I am a first year, first semester student of the Latin language and I ordered this book from Amazon a few days ago to help me gain a better understanding of what I am being taught in class. I must confess that this book has been a wonderful and helpful tool. One of the beginning difficulties of any language is pronunciation, and this book totes an "idiot proof guideline" for pronunciation and usage. Moreover, the book helps you develop a strong vocabulary with "vocabulary builders." However, what I am slowly realizing is that understanding Latin grammar/context, etc. involves learning, memorizing and understanding the endings of words (i.e. verb, noun, adjective endings). This book helps the reader to grasp these endings and gives tips on remembering them and using them (this has been very helpful). The last thing I have found helpful in this book is its simplistic way of helping me through the grammar (which is easy to get bogged down in). If you are just starting out in Latin, or you simply want to brush up on your existing knowledge of Latin, then this is definitely the book for you.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Even complete idiots can find a better book, August 28, 2004

By 

Kristin Van Tilborg (Tucson, Arizona) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Latin (Paperback)

If you're a beginner trying to learn Latin on your own, the Complete Idiot's Guide is not the best way to do it. It reminds me of a bad high school language class where you have to memorize lists of words, but never learn to put together an actual sentence. This book attempts to make Latin easy on you by presenting only the bare minimum of grammar, but as another reviewer pointed out, grammar is all-important in Latin for figuring out who does what to who in a sentence. This book earns the second star only because it's clearly written, funny, and includes interesting tidbits such as the differences between medieval and classical Latin. While it is (barely) possible to learn Latin from this book, there are much better textbooks out there.

Lots of people here have recommended Wheelock. With all due respect to them, I practically fell asleep reading it in the bookstore. It is obviously rigorous, but it's also dry as dust. I recommend instead "Latin via Ovid," which I bought after much research. Not only am I actually successfully teaching myself Latin, I get to read great mythology stories! Slightly easier are the books aimed at the high school level such as the Oxford and Cambridge textbooks and Ecce Romani. Try one of these books instead of the Complete Idiot's Guide.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent, non-threatening starting point, October 30, 2001

By 

Dan Amrich (California) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Latin (Paperback)

Yes, Wheelock's is the standard text for this topic--but for anyone who's interested in learning Latin on their own without the assistance of a college professor, it's less than appealing. That's where Harwood comes in, full of energy and humor and yes, hard work. There is still study involved in learning Latin--there are exercises and you will need to practice, like any other foreign language--but this book does make the subject more enjoyable than many of the other texts out there, with a logical structure (Harwood's years of teaching experience and lesson plans led to a killer outline) and lots of relevant examples. There is no comparable book, really--nobody else manages to take a light tone yet still convey all that is still relevant about the infamous "dead" language. It's more alive here than you'll find in any other instructional book!