Customer Reviews

The First Year of Latin

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I am an adult whose interest in Roman history in general and the life of Julius Caesar in particular led me to want to read Caesar's Commentaries in its original Latin. With this goal in mind I began looking for the best way to learn Latin. I bought the Rosetta Stone program and found it helpful but still lacking. My inability to trill my R's like the Rosetta Stone speakers frustrated me. I bought the first book in the Lingua Latina series and was frustrated by its lack of explanations. I bought an old high school text book and was frustrated by its lack of complete answer keys. I bought Wheelock's text book along with Dale Grote's notes and found the combination very good but was frustrated by the fact that Wheelock's disaproval of Caesar caused Wheelock to avoid using any quotes of Caesar as study material.

And then I found Gunnison's and Harley's "The First Year of Latin". The stated goal of this text is to enable a student to read Caesar's Commentaries in the orignal Latin. But the biggest attraction for me is the existence of a free online Latin class based upon it. As of October 6, 2009, 29 of the 73 lessons in this 100 year-old text book have web lectures dedicated to them where proper prounciation is demonstrated and homework is assigned then translated and explained. More lessons have been promised but have been slow in coming. Just as the i-phone is made more valuable by 3rd party software developers who create powerful applications for it, "The First Year of Latin" is attractive and valuable because its public domain status has allowed a Latin teacher to offer a free online Latin class based upon it.

The text is an open source textbook dating from the early 20th century. This is not a bad thing, but don't expect the graphical and layout niceties of a more modern text. What makes the book worthwhile is the free online Latin lectures associated with it (http://www.linneyslatinclass.com/).

I have all sorts of Latin grammar and theory books and this one is one of the best. It is easy to understand and grasp the ideas right at the start.
What helps one learn is that Mr. Linney - latin online teacher - uses this exact book and goes through it chapter by chapter. For all of those that want to learn Latin and are serious about it, buy this book!

This review is a warning to those of you who intend to use this text with William Linney as the text for "Linney's Latin Class." I finished "Getting Started with Latin" early last year and was delighted with the whole program. I was very happy to discover that William Linney had a more advanced course. I bought this text and began the lessons with Linney's on-line audio to help and correct. By last May I had come to the end of Lesson 28 which is as far as Linney had gone. Now it's November 2010 and he has only completed 5 additional lessons - in 18 months. He has had one excuse after another as to why he hasn't finished the book, but at this rate it will take him 10 years to finish it. He should just confess that he is in over his head at this point and tell his students to find another teacher. I don't think it is a legitimate excuse that the lessons are free. He bills the course as Linney's Latin Class. He should have had enough pride and professionalism to complete what he started.