Customer Reviews

Lingua Latina: Pars I: Familia Romana (Pt. 1)

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Of the ten to fifteen series of Latin Primers I've looked at and taught from, this is the best. The next best is probably Oxford or Cambridge. The problem with Henle and Wheelock is that although one can thoroughly understand grammar, one does not acquire the idiom. I mean idiom as Cardinal Newman in Elementary Education (in Idea of University) describes it. Oerberg best gives you a knack for "how the Latin sentence is thought" or put together (not merely idiomatic expression). It is harder to teach, but much more enjoyable. My students love learning. It also has rave reviews from teachers at the publishers' forum for Oerberg. There is also a brand new companion book that is supplement to the grammar.

It is a "natural" approach. Everything is in Latin. My students learn to recite the Latin in 2 months of 6th grade, and learn about 4 times the vocabulary without ever using a dictionary (and I only give them a few difficult words, in particular some prepositions and conjunctions).

It is difficult on your own I imagine, but there are additional resources. It's by far the best approach, the closest to actually acquiring the language by immersion. Suitable for adults and used in colleges. (Oerberg has a very subtle and also not so subtle humor, making it suitable for all ages.)I studied Latin formally for ten years and never acquired a knack for the idiom. Teaching from Oerberg has actually improved my Latin. It is, I think, an answer to Dorothy Sayers who said her biggest complaint was that after 20 years of study, she never really acquired Latin -- she started when seven.

Vive, Hans! He's done a great service for Latin pedagogy. It's really a brilliant little work as are the best Latin text books -- the difference is, this works. Latin is the toughest elementary "subject" there is -- I've taught almost all of them including AP Calc. It's also the most beneficial. I'm grateful to the Oerberg for having made it a little easier.

FINALLY, if I haven't yet convinced you, I suggest that you get it as a supplemental reader. Just read it in the Latin and try not to translate. Read and reread until you master the first book. It will help all future Latin reading. (BTW the second book is helpful too, and Hans is attempting to make an intro. to the Aeneid.)

My name is Matthew (the name above is my Mom's name), and I am a 16-year old homeschooled highschool student. I just recently started studying this curriculum, and am thrilled! Last year (my freshman year) I struggled through Henle Latin, a terrible curriculum, and had almost given up hope that Latin could ever be rewarding and enjoyable. Then a friend recommended Lingua Latina to my Mom, and we bought it immediately. The moment I opened the book, I knew it was perfect. Instead of bombarding students with conjugation after conjugation, declension after declension, word after word, and rule after rule, all Lingua Latina requires is that students read the fun and interesting stories that are so well presented in this book. Although this sounds too good to be true, it works! Through the use of detailed pictures and clever diagrams, the meaning of each sentence is made clear. Even if students are fuzzy about the translation of a word or phrase, Orberg repeats it plenty of times, so by the end of the chapter nothing is left unclear. The characters: Julius, his wife Aemilia, and their three children - Marcus, Quintus, and Julia (along with a multitude of servants!) The episodes in their lives are often witty and humorous, making the learning of new words and sentence structure easy and enjoyable. Lingua Latina has proved to me that the Latin Lanuage need not be boring and discouraging! I would highly recommend this curriculum!

I am doing my MFA in English at UC Irvine, where I'm also taking a Latin reading course. Reading courses usually amount to, more or less, a student standing in place while an instructor tries to throw a grammar at the student's head, hoping for a direct hit. The student is then handed some passages to translate, along with a healthy pat on the back and some words of encouragement: "Figure it out! It's really hard, isn't it? Learning Latin can sure suck! Have a great weekend!"

Okay, there's a little more academic structure than that and some courses are undoubtedly better than others. But the traditional approach to learning Latin has been, seemingly to me, a rough road. This book comes to the rescue. It's amazing. The only English in the entire book appears to be on the publisher's page and the back cover. The rest is all Latin -- you pick it up and start reading. You don't even have to pick it up. You could prop it up against something and start reading that way.

The experience isn't quite magic. You need to pay careful attention to what is happening in each and every paragraph. Concepts in this book come at you fast, and while they are reinforced, it helps to pick them up clearly the first time around. For example, some distinctions of case are very subtle, as with the genitive which is, at times, indicated by a mere long vowel mark. Because Latin is inflected, it can be very compact. But if you're astute and not in a big rush, learning is accelerated by this text's approach.

I am in love with this book. It's a revelation and a lot of fun. But I don't recommend it to anyone who prefers their learning to be painful, frustrating, or unpleasant. I also don't recommend it to anyone who believes that the acquisition of a language should exclusively be a slow, classroom process punctuated by nights of stressful cramming for the next morning's test. For those people, definitely go with Wheelock and enjoy the pain.

But if you want to work toward reading Virgil and Cicero in the most pleasant way available today, this book is the way to go. I also recommend the supplementary materials, especially the grammar, the student's guide (which is very useful), and the Exercitia Latina (which really works concepts well).

I'm teaching my 10 and 8 year-olds Latin at home, and have tried several approaches, including Rosetta Stone, Minimus, traditional Latin books, etc. I am not a Latin teacher - I had two years of Latin in High School, 30 years ago. I am not a professional - I'm just a regular guy.

Lingua Latina works best for me, by far, with the following warning:

My kids found the concepts of shifting word order, declensions, and conjugations, too much to be overcome with the immersion style of learning. They struggled mightily with Rosetta Stone and Minumus, but they just were not getting the organized framework that they needed to take off. Had I started with Lingua Latina, they would have had the same problems.

What worked for them, was an intro book, "Getting Started with Latin", by William Linney. We worked through it slowly for 6 months, 15 minutes a day. They learned the basic grammatical concepts of Latin. THEN we started Lingua Latina, and they are thriving, and loving it.

Your mileage will vary, especially if you have a strong Latin background. I recommend Lingua as the SECOND book that you buy, with "Getting Started with Latin" as the first.

I would also buy the Lingua Latina College Companion book as well, so you don't waste time trying to figure out what some of the more cryptic margin notes mean.

Finally, buy the Exercitia workbook. I think that it is an essential piece of the puzzle.

Summary - if you are serious about teaching your kid Latin, and don't have the best background, get the following: "Getting Started with Latin" (Linney), Lingua Latina Familia Romana, Lingua Latina College Companion, Lingua Latina Exercitia Latina I, and the CD recording of the 1st ten Lingua Latina lessons. This combination will give you the structure and material that you need.

This is a list of important resources for self-learners, through Pars I-Familia Romana; followed by critical remarks concerning the later chapters of the book, and the passage into Pars II-Roma Aeterna:

(Since reviewers are prohibited from giving more than 10 product links per review, I shall note only the ISBN numbers for some of the volumes mentioned; all are available on Amazon.)

1. This has been mentioned in other reviews--the exercise book for Vol I: ISBN1585102121. Numerous 'fill-in-the-blank'-type exercises, that have been very well designed; they really help consolidate the material introduced in each chapter.

2. The answer key to all the end-of-chapter drills (the Pensa), and exercise books, for *both* Vol.1 Familia Romana, and Vol.2 Roma Aeterna: ISBN1585100749. Indispensable for self-learners.

3. Audiobook/CD-ROMs: Ørberg himself has recorded the first 31 chapters of Pars I (There are 35 in total), which recordings have been released by Focus Publishing in two different formats: The first ten chapters are available as an audio cd (Lingua Latina: Latine Audio (Audio CD ONLY) Chapters 1-10 only from "Familia Romana" (Latin Edition) (Pt. 1)); which I believe is enough to get a sense of what the language is supposed to sound like. The remaining 21 chapters are available, as mp3 files, only in cd-rom editions of the series, of which there are several releases.

The release for Mac OS X, (Lingua Latina: (MAC OS X) CD-Rom of Familia Romana, Roma Aeterna, Excertia Latina I & II & Grammatica Latina (Latin Edition)) contains all recordings, exercise books for both parts of the text, and both parts of the text itself. In the PC edition, the same material has been spread out to 4 CD-ROMS (the different editions are priced accordingly). For the text of Pars I, the interactive Pensa, and the sound recordings, see: Lingua Latina: (PC/CD-ROM) Pars I: Familia Romana-Interactive CD Rom (Latin Edition). Exercise book for Pars I: Lingua Latina CD: Exercitia Latina I (Latin Edition). For Roma Aeterna: Lingva Latina: Interactive Latin Course, Pars II: Roma Aeterna (PC) (Lingua Latina) (Latin Edition); and Lingua Latina: Exercitia Latina II (PC/CD-ROM) (Latin Edition) (No. 2).

Now, it is *essential* to the study of Latin, to have a correct sense of how the language is pronounced. While this may sound like a truism, what is at stake in pronouncing Latin correctly is more than clarity or elegance; often the proper declension of a word is conveyed through the duration of vowels--and in a completely inflected language like Latin, word order is of *no* help in determining the meaning of an unintelligibly declined word. Thus, the audio component of Lingua Latina is very highly recommended.

(Having said that, I should add the following: The accents of Latin are not at all as difficult as those of Greek: There are no 'tonic' accents, no 'rough and smooth breathings', and the like; there are, as in English, stressed and unstressed syllables, but there are also long and short vowels--the long vowels in *all* cases, are indicated by Ørberg, via 'macrons'. For the *beginning student*, these are of fundamental importance; without the appropriate macrons, it is all too easy to conflate conjugations. Academic editions, on the other hand, such as the OCT, as well as the Loeb Library, do not go through the trouble of notating macrons for their Latin publications (while Greek enjoys that privilege to the full)--the 'slightly advanced' student surely wouldn't mix up grammatical functions across similar looking marks on paper, but, again, in the beginning, macrons and pronunciation are *vital*. One may also note that Ørberg's pronunciation does not *fully* confirm to the guidelines set by the standard work on the subject, Sidney Allen's Vox Latina (ISBN9780521379366); most notably, he ignores the nasalized 'final m'. I cannot help but think, however, that this was entirely intentional, and that Ørberg wanted to eliminate a fine, but to the beginner's ear, unessential and potentially confusing feature in the interests of simplicity.)

4. Additional Reading Material: Ørberg has edited several readers for the benefit of students who have finished Familia Romana (links provided below); as an accompaniment to chapters 1-24 of this first part, however, he has also written a short reader, the Colloquia Personarum (Lingua Latina: Colloquia Personarum). Carefully graded extra reading material, such as the Colloquia Personarum, proves to be an invaluable resource for self-learners; I wish Ørberg had written more volumes like these, with his standard marginal notes and meticulously notated macrons.

To be read right after Familia Romana--abridged/annotated editions of Caesar and Plautus: ISBN1585102326 (Caesar); ISBN8799701677 (Plautus); the 'Sermones Romani', a collection of heavily edited excerpts from major Latin authors ISBN8790696077.

5. A handy little booklet that contains grammar charts: ISBN1585102237

6. This one is not by Ørberg; the Barrons' book of 501 Latin Verbs--ISBN0764137425. Latin verbs are a little tough, and the different root forms of verbs (through the last third of Familia Romana) are about the only thing Ørberg wants to have the student 'memorize'--but see below for more on verbs.

7. And these are highly informative and readable sources on the history of Latin, for enthusiasts who do not have expert knowledge in linguistics: Latin Alive Latin Alive: The Survival of Latin in English and the Romance Languages; for speakers of French, Spanish, or Italian, a book that consists of sound charts, tracking how Latin mutated into these 'Romance Languages': From Latin to Romance in Sound Charts; for a very broad historical survey: A Natural History of Latin.

There are also excellent, authoritative online resources for more advanced students; the *immensely* rich Perseus library at Tufts University foremost--which, by the way, is an open source project, and also offers xml versions of their bewilderingly large collection of primary and secondary literature in Latin and Greek, as well as free software, stylesheets, etc., that translate those documents into readable html. (Manipulating xml requires professional web-authoring skills, though--I have failed in my attempts to import the texts into the Kindle; let me know if you have figured out how to translate Perseus xml into Kindle-friendly html!) The Philologic project at the University of Chicago also includes an implementation of the Perseus library, which is offered in a simpler interface. Both websites feature very user-friendly editions of the famous Lewis & Short dictionary; as well as morphological tools, word frequency statistics (with detailed citation lists), and so on. German speakers may want to check out 'Lateinseiten.de' as well, especially their 'Konjugator' applet. (Just 'google' for these websites.)

Now, some general remarks on Familia Romana: This book has to be seen, 'to be believed'--please bear this in mind, if the reviews on this webpage have left you somewhat skeptical. It provides by no means a 'magical' method that teaches Latin with little effort on the part of the student; to the contrary, it is quite challenging, and as far as the grammatical foundations of the language are concerned, extremely thorough. Despite what some other reviewers have suggested, neither does the book have the least pretension, as to teaching Latin the way children pick up their first language; *that's not what is meant by 'natural method'*. In fact, the closest analogue to Ørberg's method that I can think of, is the method known to music students as 'species counterpoint'--this, roughly speaking, is a time-honored method of learning how to write music in two or more 'independent' voices, starting with very limited materials--consonances of equal duration--and gradually introducing new resources, i.e. more rhythmic diversity, different kinds of dissonance and their resolution, and so on. This particular method does not take the student from such graded exercises, all the way to the art of writing fugues or elaborate chorale preludes, of course; but it's an excellent way to learn to 'think contrapuntally', while *writing* very, very small pieces of *music*, however 'striated' the results may sound. See the following book, for instance, for examples of student exercises, on this method, of some of the greatest masters: ISBN 048628316X; you may also want to check out the famous 'Gradus ad Parnassum' by Johann Joseph Fux: ISBN0393002772, and perhaps the most thorough implementation of the method, by Arnold Schönberg: ISBN 0571092756.

Back to Ørberg: Every single word of the 'story' in this book has been picked with an amazingly precise sense of where the student is coming from, and in which direction, and in what manner, he or she needs to be guided. (See below for more on this.) There is a perfect balance of repetition and new material. Both tasks are accomplished, furthermore, through a rich variety of forms--that is, Ørberg never repeats older material for the sake of repetition, but keeps using already drilled grammatical concepts in progressively interesting, varied, challenging contexts; and when he introduces a new concept, he makes sure the student sees examples that are varied enough, so that the 'idea' at work behind them may be grasped.

The 'story', by the way, even in the earliest chapters, is never boring, silly, or childish; and there's a good bit of humor, to keep the student's interest, and make the experience all the more enjoyable. Beginners may rest assured that the somewhat disjointed 'tableaux' of the earlier chapters set up in fact the dramatic background, against which it becomes possible for the later chapters to elaborate. The book, in short, respects the student's intelligence.

One ought also to keep in mind, that 'Lingua Latina per se Illustrata' is a course of 61 chapters, of which Familia Romana covers the first 35--'thorough' as it may be, concerning the grammatical foundations of the language, there is an important sense in which it does not stand all on its own--let me explain: Just a quick scan through the pages of each volume would suggest that the first volume lays the foundations of the grammar, and that the second volume proceeds to adapted readings from the classics; and it is true that the first volume treats the entire case system, the entire system of conjugations, several of the subtleties of Latin syntax, the imaginative uses to which whole phrases in the ablative can be put, and so on; while the second volume has rather the appearance of an anthology of graded readings. Whence the 'incompleteness'?

Now, it is important to note that the ingenuity of Ørberg's 'total immersion' method lies in its pitch-perfect sense of which features of the language have to become salient, and which must recede into the background at every step of the course--and, it is by limiting verb conjugations to the 3rd person singular/plural (active and passive) that Familia Romana is able to work the 'wonders' that it's able to work, in inculcating the case system through the first third or so of the book. It is simply amazing how Ørberg teaches the student to *think in terms of a fully inflected language*, from *within* that very system of inflections (as a side note: I think that my German has benefited considerably from my work in Latin [and Greek 'looks', at least, to be far less mysterious]). It makes perfect sense, furthermore, to rapidly immerse the student in the entire case system right from the start--after all, 'all' the cases are used 'all' the time, often in a single sentence.

Yet, the trade-off here is that the complicated sytem of conjugations is held off, until fairly advanced in the book; this is not a problem for the comprehension of the simple 'core' of tenses and moods that are, likewise, used 'all the time', beyond the 3rd person--however, when all of the perfect forms, the subjunctive, and so on, enter the picture one after the other the student begins to feel more and more detached; chapters begin to look more and more like exercises in memorizing arcane conjugations that seem (deceptively, of course) to be reserved for special occasions; the last third of the book is a lot less 'exciting' than the first third.

Everything takes on a new light, however, in chapter 34 of Familia Romana, and the first of the separate 'readers': We're back to using all resources all at the same time, and the strained focus on this or that 'fancy conjugation' leaves its place to the 'excitement' of being able to think in Latin, once again. Needless to say, at this point, the conjugation system, in its *totality*, makes a lot more sense. (Vol. I ends with unadapted excerpts from Catullus!)

So, Familia Romana is 'incomplete' only in the sense that towards the end, the 'immersion' appears to lose its grip--but that's only because it will become all the richer, and stable, once we're back into using everything all at the same time, through chapters 34-61, and the readers.

A final note, concerning vocabulary: Here, too, Ørberg inculcates some of the *most relevant* core vocabulary for students of the classics--from seafaring (and its dangers), to dinner parties, to matters pertaining to the military and the Gauls and the Germans, to agricultural matters, and so on. Besides, some of the later chapters contain dialogues of early Christians, and Ørberg was able even to sneak in there some *lightly* adapted excerpts from the Vulgate (the characters in the book could not have known the Vulgate, of course--but historical accuracy has to yield in this case to Ørberg's ingenious teaching methods).

All in all: This is a superb achievement. Ørberg is a genius of pedagogy.

(Update: There is a new, colored paperback edition of the same book: see ISBN978-1585104208)

Orberg has given us a priceless gift that will have a prominent place in the annals of language learning for many years to come. Revised and perfected over the course of several decades, I expect this series was what began convincing language scholars that immersion, or as Orberg calls it, the natural method, is the logical and most intuitive way to learn a language.

This book should be in the personal library of every language student in the western world. It has been refined to the point of grammatical precision. I have never seen anything like it.

The book is also entertaining--no small feat for a Latin text. After learning simple geography about the Roman empire in the first chapter, you immediately become acquainted with an endearing second-century family. Soon you are hooked and learning Latin naturally as the story unfolds.

This book uses a deductive way of teaching the material where you learn things in bits and pieces. I have always found this approach annoying and basically ineffective for adults. Still, this book is indispensable.

I went through Wheelock's book which is a masterpiece of inductive teaching; paradigms, tables, drills, etc... However, once I had learned the grammar thoroughly, I still I could not read a sentence in a natural way, ie read it and pick up the meaning as I read. Parsing a sentence is not an enjoyable way to read, and the idea of reading so for quite a while until the parsing process became automatic did not appeal to me.

Enter this book. Knowing already my grammar, I was able to increase my reading skill gradually as to make the reading experience feel natural. Now, I understand what I read as I read it without parsing. Parsing has its place but not at such a conscious level as other methods preach.

I think that this book is indispensable, but should not be a first book. Once you have developed one set of skills (grammar) then with this book you can concentrate on developing your reading skills in an incremental and fun way.

In several parts, this book is quite hilarious.

I have read carefully all the reviews supplied for Lingua Latina and think that anyone wondering whether to purchase this book needs more information before making an important decision about how to study Latin. As mentioned in other reviews, Lingua Latina is presented entirely in Latin. In the margins of each page next to the unfolding story of a Roman family are a variety of instructive pictures and study aids -- in Latin. The student must have a notebook at hand and record carefully all the material included in the margins. It is not possible to proceed without mastery of this supporting material.

Additionally, supplemental material must be purchased by the student. First is a good Latin dictionary that gives the principle parts of all the verbs in Lingua Latina. The student must learn how to derive present, imperfect, future, perfect, and other tenses from the principle parts. This will not be easy; there are literally hundreds of permutations and combinations that must be mastered or the student will only be guessing at the meaning of the story as it advances in the text. Nouns, pronouns, and adjectives decline; that is, their endings change depending on the way they are used in the story. The declensions must be learned or again, the reader can only guess at the meaning of the text. A dictionary will give the genitive for each noun, for example, so that the reader can know which declension the noun belongs to and can identify the various cases used in the story.

Orberg sells a variety of supportive materials which teach the grammar essential to an understanding of the Latin language. The Latin student must study these materials carefully and even then they will not be enough to solve all the problems the student faces in trying to understand the text. Orberg's materials are presented "in shorthand"; that is, only the minimum instruction is given the student. Anyone truly interested in learning to read Latin, not as a crossword puzzle, but as naturally as reading this review in English, will seek help from the variety of grammar texts available, none of which gets highest marks from critics.

These comments are only a start, but the reader now has the idea that it will not be possible to pick up Lingua Latina and proceed without making a serious commitment to the study of the language. Personally, I don't think it is possible to learn Latin in a piecemeal fashion. Study now and then won't work. A commitment must be made for daily practice for at least a couple of years. Part of that daily study will be the memorization of the various conjugations of verbs and the declension of nouns and pronouns. Only when these have been completely mastered will the student be able to read Latin without translation, as Orberg proposes.

A friend of mine who was a teacher of Latin told me that he never progressed beyond the "crossword puzzle" approach to the language; that is, translating line by line for accuracy and understanding. He is in good company. No less a scholar than Dorothy Sayers of Lord Peter Whimsey fame said that she always found herself translating, not reading naturally. Orberg intends to change all that with his creative approach to Latin. For the serious student willing to pay the price in time and effort to master the language, his approach is a good one and recommended with the reservations noted in this review.

This is a fun start to reading Latin, and should be taught along with the regular grammar lessons required at school. After reading this book I found that both my confidence and enthusiasm have increased in the subject of Latin. I highly recommend this book along with whatever regular Latin instruction one may be required to do.

This book teaches in the way a native speaker would learn the language. The book starts off with simple concepts and gradually introduces more complex grammar and additional nouns. There is not a single word of English in the entire book nor is any translation required. Knowledge of English or a Romance language is not required but it helps.

There are many supporting materials but they are not required unless you want to verify your answers to the exercises or need vocal recordings to understand exactly how the language is spoken. I purchased the related Exercitia Latina I and the Teacher's Materials but stopped using them because I was spending too much effort on the grammar rather than language acquisition. There is also a student manual but I found it unnecessary because the book explains itself. If you read the chapters again and again, you should comprehend about 95-99% of the material.

New forms of grammar are introduced in a fictional story and then the grammar is explained after the reader sees the grammar in action. After five chapters, I already comprehend grammatical concepts such as declensions because of the presentation method in this book.

The books strong points are the breadth of the vocabulary and grammar that are offered. A drawback for self taught learners is the dedication and effort needed to read, comprehend, and complete the lessons. Audio is available on a separate CD with a single narrator, the author Hans Orberg, reading the text of the book with classic Latin pronunciation. A sample from the CD is available at Focus publishing on the Lingua Latina FAQ page. You can also hear fluent Latin speakers in free podcasts from Radiophonica Vaticana, Radio Bremen Nuntii, or YLE Radio 1 but they are much more difficult to understand.

I recommend you buy this book because the teaching method is effective, carefully constructed, and much easier than the traditional approach. The book has also become a linguistic classic that is mentioned in Latin forums all over the web.