Customer Reviews

Jenney's First Year Latin

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have taught beginning Latin from several texts--Ecce Romani, the Oxford Latin Course, the 1990 edition of Jenney's Latin featured here, as well as the older (1979 and earlier) editions of Jenney's Latin. I can say with all confidence and experience that the newer edition (1990) fails in many areas of instruction. In an attempt to modernize itself, the Jenney series lost much of what made earlier editions great, namely its clarity and focused, appropriately challenging readings.

In this 1990 edition, the readings have been changed and often lengthened--no doubt in an attempt to guise itself as a quasi-reading method text. Unfortunately, the new readings rarely adequately enforce the grammar taught in the unit, and offer instead syntactical oddities that only baffle and frustrate even the most earnest students. The book does a good job of including photos of real antiquities, but does so often without context and in excessive detail. As thrilling as it must be for for the average high school freshman to learn the difference between statumen, rudus, and pavimentum (p. 251), it might interest him/her more to spend more time on the cultural/historical context of Roman roads (i.e., their *application*). Such details about the roads' layers would be unknown to many non-specialist Ph.Ds. We wish to emphasize LEARNING, but we want also to emphasize the thematic application of knowledge--not merely the acquisition of facts without context.

Indeed, students might LEARN Latin better if presented with a concise, yet still challenging, version of the Aeneas story (as in earlier editions), gaining confidence as they reinforce their abilities to READ Latin and are introduced to cultural topics.

Again, I have used earlier editions (1979 and previous) of the Jenney text and found them to be much more enjoyable for both teacher and student. They are no less challenging, but leave off much of the junk that many who praise the 1990 edition frequently decry in other textbooks. I would wholeheartedly recommend looking at these versions if you are considering changing texts. Consider also Ecce Romani and Oxford Latin, which are not without fault, but whose approach is consistent with their philosophy.

Publishers know that the market for Latin texts comprises Latin teachers who see shrinking enrollments and are afraid of being "downsized." In desperation to keep students, Classics departments often struggle to candy-coat Latin, making it more fun and less daunting for students. Now, I like fun as much as the next classics geek, but many teachers forget that students should have fun WHILE learning, not INSTEAD of learning. Accordingly, many modern Latin texts are simplistic, cartoon-enhanced bait designed to keep enrollment up. They are education's junk food: perhaps enjoyable, but with few lasting benefits. Jenny's is different: it does not shy away from teaching Latin in thorough detail. The lessons, cumulative, give tons of practice. The back of the book has excellent resources for forms, grammar, vocabulary and even useful Latin dicta. In addition, Jenny's has informative, interesting readings on history and culture. Gorgeous color photographs of Roman art, architecture and everyday items adorn the pages and spur imaginative discussions. This enables students to learn not only the verbs and endings but the fascinating context that made the Roman Republic and Empire what they were. My students have always enjoyed learning from this book, despite the fact that (or because?) it challenges them. I've taught Latin for ten years, for seven of which I've used this book. I myself learned from an earlier version of it in 6th grade. Earlier versions (from over ten years ago) had a vocabulary and focus much more geared towards military readings than the present incarnation, which has a better-rounded vocabulary as useful for Horace's love poems as for Caesar's Gallic War. I recommend this book strongly for serious students and instructors.

There is a growing problem in the schools of our country. It is a problem which greatly concerns me, and unfortunately, one that I do not see being rectified in the foreseeable future (especially without the re-popularization of Jenney's First Year Latin). Fifty years ago this problem did not exist and was in fact inconceivable, but today it is commonplace. The problem of which I speak is the learning of Latin grammar in today's schools through inferior Latin grammar books (no need to name names, but let's just say that we have a certain British school to blame).

In the old days, Latin was taught in the proper manner. It involved a careful leaning process involving three easy steps: 1) Learn and master the grammar; 2) Read stories in order to become familiar with translation; and 3) Plunge into the exciting, actual texts of authors such as the legendary Virgil or the lovesick Catullus. In this way of learning, by the time the student gets to step three, he or she will have little trouble adjusting to ancient texts.

In recent years, for whatever the reason, student enthusiasm for Latin has waned. Because of this lack of interest, some grammar book writers have devised a new way in which to teach Latin grammar: a learn-as-you-go process. In this style, students do not even learn the basics of grammar, but start off right away "learning" to translate. These translation-first-oriented classes are thought to be stimulating to the students, making them more likely to continue to take Latin.

Allow me now to tell you the state of the new generation of Latin students sine Jenney. I can say confidently that the future is not looking bright. Students have lost the ability and (because of certain books) the need to tell the difference between a declension or conjugation, let alone the 1st principle part of an easy verb such as "voco". This, however, is just the beginning of the widespread lack of knowledge. Despite only learning to translate, many of the students' vocabularies are below average at best. Without the basics, it is easy to understand why they have no idea whatsoever about such constructions as indirect statements or purpose clauses. I fear that the sequence of tenses may soon vanish from the minds of all classicists. As a result of not knowing grammar, many students stop trying to translate the Latin and instead memorize the English translation - an act as immoral as cheating.

Jenney does not try to deceive (and distract) you with pretty illustrations or funny names. Jenney goes straight at you with declensions and conjugations (the building blocks of the successful mastering of Latin). The sentences (not unintelligent stories) are challenging and prepare you for the most complex Latin prose from Caesar to Cicero. Jenney's First Year Latin book contains all the fundamental and necessary constructions including indirect questions, indirect commands, fear clauses, and those ever elusive gerunds and gerundive (a few minutes with Jenney can solve just about any problem).

As one who is passionate about the Latin language, I would strongly suggest to all Classic teachers or eager learners of Latin to revert back to the traditional grammar intensive method of teaching by purchasing Jenney's First Year Latin. Even if fewer students flock to Latin, allow those that do the chance to learn and enjoy the language in the way in which it was meant. Please, on behalf of the almost unknown and quickly disappearing 5th declension, do not allow this new age education to persist. In the name of the past contrary to fact conditional sentence, buy this book. Latin may be dead, but let us at least keep its memory alive by not defiling its legacy with inadequate attention to the fundamentals. Jenney is the light and let's help it burn. To quote Catullus 1 lines 9-10, "quod, o patrona virgo, / plus uno maneat perenne saeclo."

I am using this book in my first year of latin in college. I confess that I can't compare this book to any others as I haven't read any others; nevertheless, the exercises are very hard and use concepts in one chapter that aren't discussed until later chapters.

The Jenney text is a good book if you are not a first time teacher of Latin. I have used it for the past two years, and the errors in the answer key are enough to drive me and my more conscientious students to defenestrate the thing. We do, however, like the arrangement of the text and the features such as the cultural items at teh beginning of each lesson and the phrases to use. We do not like the way it gets so hard so fast!! We could not finish more than 25 lessons with any degree of comfort level with our mastery of it. If I did not have other texts for reference, I would not feel confident in the accuracy of some of the grammatical information in the text. Many of the explanations of specific grammar points are vague-- especially several of the ablative constructions. They tend to all start to sound the same after lesson 20. Just some food for thought.

I used Jenney's revision of Smith and Thompson in high school. This newer version has different readings, an introduction to Virgil. I think it is the most organized approach. It cuts to the chase as it were. If we wanted to speak Latin, I would use a different approach, but we want to read. This seems to be the quickest route. I don't understand why it is so expensive.

Choosing a Latin text is not easy; Jenney's series of 4 volumes solves a lot of problems. First, the book uses no "gimmicks" in the presentation of grammar, a la the Cambridge/Oxford series. The first volume, along with a the excellent survey at the beginning of the second, provides a solid foundation in grammar, syntax and vocabulary. The reading of Caesar is not very popular in all quarters, and it is debatable whether or not Caesar is even suitable for beginning students, but generations of more competent Latinists than today used him as a corpus vile for grammar acquisition. The traditional sequence of continuing with Cicero and then crowning one's study with the poets is well organized.

I first used this book in the 7th grade in my Latin class. It was my second year learning Latin, but with this book I learned many things so quickly! Sometimes I wish the book had gone more in depth, but the review excercises in the book are wonderful!

I have used this textbook when I was taking the first two courses of Latin in my undergraduate career in college. I can fairly say that this textbook has greatly regaled me with my Latin studies with how the book has been structured with five sections. The five sections are as follows: Forms (the way words are spelled), Syntax (how words are used in sentences), Vocabulary (a list of vocabulary), Practice (exercises to put what you learned to a good use), and last but not least, Reading (where you have the chance to translate a short passage/story). This structure enables the reader/student to easily build on what they have learned. The Reading section is where reader/student can understand much of the Latin language of how to read/interpret and how to write in Latin. Latin is a heavy inflected language with 5 declensions and 4 conjugations. There are a lot of endings to internalize in your memory but fortunately, the book makes it a lot easier to understand the inflections by giving a lot of examples and how it is displayed in tables along with fonts and whatnot. If you have purchased a workbook along with this book such as this one First Year Latin Workbook, you will get the most out of Latin by being able to have access to a wide variety of exercises. I have read the new popular kind of Latin textbooks such as Wheelock's Latin Wheelock's Latin (Wheelock's Latin), but I don't like their format/structure as it is not as appealing as the Jenney's First Year Latin textbook with the fact that I am a visual learner. So with the reasons stated above, that's why I think you should purchase the book if you want to be able to enjoy learning Latin and be serious about it as well.

Although this book is perfectly OK for me to use, it is not in what I would call "very good" condition. More writing in and on it than I thought there would be and the cover is pretty beat up.