Customer Reviews

Teach Yourself Beginner's Latin Audiopackage

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Years ago I enjoyed going through this book. It doesn't place enormous demands on the reader in terms of vocabulary memorization or learning lots of grammar. If I remember correctly, although it takes the reader through the subjunctive mood, it steers clear of subtleties. Mainly, I remember the amusing story line.

This book would be great for a first semester introductory course in Latin, where the teacher's main interest was to present students with an outline of the Latin language, preparatory to a more in-depth treatment in subsequent semesters.

Another good part of the book is the frequent excerpts of classical authors as late as Boethius (perhaps later, I don't remember). The student will not likely be able to translate these on his own but a teacher might use them to illustrate how various points of grammar come into play in real passages. Reading extended portions of these authors in translation would be a good way of introducing a Latin Civ. element into the course.

I don't know anything about the CD that accompanies the book.

Also, caveat emptor: this book teaches very basic Latin grammar and employs a small vocabulary. It does not provide sufficient grounding to allow one to go on and translate Cicero or Livy. For this, a student needs to complete a more comprehensive grammar like Wheelock or Gavin Betts' Teach Yourself Latin.

Finally, because the story takes place in a medieval setting, the class can consider the persistence of Latin into the early modern period as a language that allowed communication across cultures.

How can you make it easier for people to start learning a language?

-- Make the language look as easy as possible. Use a serpentine and not a straight road.
-- Do not try to teach 50 words a lesson, try to make it 10-15.
-- Try to grade grammar by offering very basic texts with a strongly controlled variety of structures. You don't even need to teach the whole chart, teach it line by line.
-- Boost the learner's confidence with an audio material to help get over the intimidating barrier of "how the heck should this sound?" ...

This is the secret of this book, it makes you believe that you can actually learn the language. You won't think that Latin is an ivory tower built of strange vocabulary and an impenetrable mesh of intricate rules.

A work well done.

I purchased this Latin guide as well as several others at the same time. To be honest, I have to agree with the two star reviewer, the text and the CD do not really work that well together. My impression is right out of the packaging. I put it into my CD player, opened the book and expected some walk through. Instead, what I got was the reader reading the English translation AFTER the Latin and in the book the order is reversed, so I had to scramble to figure out where the readers were on the CD in relation to the text. A flurry of page flipping and no audio queues for what was next. Not a good first impression and as the other reviewer noted, it seemed to have a very amateur feel to it, especially when I compare it to other works in Latin that I purchased; I found this one wanting.

Personally I found for a beginners, the Cambridge Latin Course (units 1 -4) to be much more helpful and far better laid out and visually stimulating. They also have a story context that builds on each lesson in a nice historical context, and 15 - 20 word vocabulary lists. ** Update: initially I had thought that the Cambridge series lacked the audio component, however, this isn't the case. They do have a CD for the series.

As Latin courses go, if you feel comfortable hurriedly flipping pages while the CD plays, then for the money I suppose this isn't a "horrible" place to start. Then again, one could always go the Rosetta stone route, however, it doesn't have English translations, so you're thrown into the deep end of the pool, but you pick it up quickly. I was scoring 95 -100% on the CD my first go through. The only other issue is that they only have one CD whereas the other languages in the Rosetta series have 2 - 3.

I'd search around before buying this CD. Also, search AMAZON in the UK. They have a MUCH larger selection of Latin materials than the US.

I enjoyed reading through this book, although I must confess I didn't work many of the exercises. I think the best part of "Teach Yourself Beginner's Latin" was the running story line set in medieval England.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with a story set in ancient Rome--as in "Lingua Latina," or "The Cambridge Latin Course." But setting the story in England makes the point that there has never been a time in the past 2,000 years that Latin was not spoken in Great Britain. The story offers intrigue, murder, a love interest, and some interesting vocabulary picked up along the way. Somehow studying Latin spoken in 12th-century England seemed closer to home than following a story set in Rome time-back-way-back. We still have monks and monasteries around, but not many emperors, slaves, legions, or tribunes.

I also liked hearing Latin from the CD. The author selected an interesting variety of ancient and less-ancient passages for the CD, in addition to reading (in dramatic fashion) most of the story. I feel much better about my pronunciation having heard the readers on this recording.

On the down side, the grammar and syntax explanations are superficial, and I had trouble understanding what the exercises wanted me to do. Self-learners might want to try "Lingua Latina" and its companion "College Guide," or "Latin Via Ovid." Both books are excellent introductions, and probably the two best texts I've found. I thought "Wheelock's Latin" was far too analytical--grammar-intensive--to use without a teacher.

So on the whole, "Teach Yourself Beginner's Latin" was a relief from pure grammar study, and it let me use some of the Latin I was learning from other books. "Great," I thought, "I'm actually reading in Latin." Acquiring Latin does take work, but it's not impossible. It can be fun.

Also, you should check our some of the many resources available online for Latin and classics generally.

Seems like a very amateurish production. I'm still confused as to how to use the materials. The CD is almost worthless (it's filled with stories, but doesn't teach you the basics of pronunciation).

This product is a shame because it appears to be one of the only audio Latin programs available. I'm going to renew my search though.