Customer Reviews

Teach Yourself Latin

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A person interested in learning Latin could do worse than to buy this book. I've yet to see a better book in the Teach Yourself series. It is clear, concise and comprehensive, giving a very solid foundation of classical Latin. Aimed at the independent learner, it contains everything one might need to learn the language to a very sufficient level of proficiency.

The book is divided into thirty-one chapters, each of which introduces several new points of Latin grammar, all with ample illustrative examples and notes, followed by Latin readings, i.e., Latin-to-English translation exercises. A vocabulary is provided in each of the first few chapters, and thereafter, any new words encountered will be found in the glossary at the back of the book. There are also additional revision exercises provided after every third chapter.

As far as the content is concerned, the book gives a very comprehensive coverage of Latin grammar as well as introducing copious vocabulary. It does, however, progress quite rapidly, so each chapter has to be thoroughly mastered before moving on. A key is provided for all the translation and revision exercise, a feature that is very much in its favour, particularly since the exercises tend to be fairly difficult.

Physically, the book is not badly produced. The print, whilst not especially small, is not the sharpest, although by no means unclear. However, the boldface employed is a particularly dense one, which makes it slightly harder to read. Nonetheless, this is not an obstacle to using the book.

All in all, Gavin Bett's 'Teach Yourself Latin' is a great text for learning Latin on your own. It is surprisingly comprehensive and explains the language lucidly whilst provoking thought and interest. I would heartily recommend this book to anyone embarking on the journey that is learning Latin.

"Dense" is the word that comes to mind when I think of this book. The typeset is not the easiest to read, especially the bold print. And the grammar is introduced at a demanding pace. (Which is OK; nobody said that learning had to be easy. You're definitely allowed to take your time, and absorb the material.)

The presentation of grammar follows a fairly traditional path. Each lesson introduces a large number of grammatical points, but there are plenty of examples given. Early lessons have vocabulary lists; the vocabulary for readings in later lessions must be looked up in the glossary in the back. Most critically, the answers to the exercises and translations of the readings are given in the back of the book.

Unless you have a high level of linguistic sophistication, my recommendation would be to start your study of Latin with something a little gentler (like Wheelock). But this is a great resource, and should not be missed. My suggestion would be to work through Wheelock's "Latin" (or at least halfway through), and then tackle this book. It will be a good review of the grammar you know already, you'll learn a LOT more about Latin grammar and syntax, and you'll get a great deal of practice reading some pretty tough Latin (with the translations available to check your understanding).

In summary, you might not want to START with this book, but you will definitely benefit from working through it somewhere along your path.

This text is well structured and presented for anyone wishing to learn Latin. Though it is heavy on grammatical terms, the grammar glossary and frequent reading/translating practice will most definitely correct any deficiencies. The text is organised into 31 units where within each unit, aspects of vocabulary and grammar are presented. Exercises are then given at the end of each unit consisting of short authentic Latin passages. However, beginning in Unit 15, an extra reading exercise follows the regular execises. These extra reading exercises are much longer passages from various Latin authors. In addition, at the end of every three units, there is a summary exercise (these numerous exercises are what I admire most about the structure of the course!). Since Latin is no longer a primary means of world communication (a pity really!), the book is strongly geared to reading and translations (there is a short pronounciation guide at the beginning). However, this text would form a very suitable complement if one would also wish to learn how to speak Latin by purchasing a commercially available Latin language software (I have one from the Transparent language series - LatinNow!). All in all, a great text!

This book teaches the essentials of the Latin language and presupposes no prior knowledge. Yet, due to its heavy reliance on technical grammatical terms, and the fast-paced nature of the course, I would not recommend this book to anyone who had not learnt some other foreign language first (I had learnt German). Whilst a glossary is there to explain technical terms, the high degree of proficiency and 'feeling at home' with these terms that is demanded right from the start is, I would imagine, enough to bewilder those who come to this book without a clue what a "genitive" is (for example). The book has 31 teaching units, with handy revision exercises interspersed. Its real strength is the structure of the course, and expecially each unit. Betts achieves within each unit a balance between the nuts and bolts of Latin grammer, syntax, examples, exercises, and interesting facts about the Romans (Unit 1 has where Latin came from, for example). I particularly li! ked how the book keeps together the grammatical rules with how to use them. Right from the start the reader can put into practice what they have learnt. Though moving quickly, with information never repeated, the reader does not have to memorize a huge amount of vocabulary (c.50 words) before progressing to each new lesson. However, the style of writing I consider unnecessarily difficult. (A taste: "An adjective, when not itself used as a noun (see next subsection), will always be qualifying a noun or pronoun, and must agree with this noun or pronoun in number, gender, and case." p.24). As you can gather, Betts is clear but rather dry. On the whole, I did not mind, but for those people who desire less-technical language and a warmer general manner, I should say there are other courses on the market which cater for this. The presentation is superb, with all latin words in bold type, well set-out appendixes (which one constantly refers to), and an attractive cove! r - all important considerations when buying a book that wi! ll be studied and refered to as much as a 'Teach Yourself' book.

This book is concise, clear and comprehensive. Any one who has a basic amount of lingusitic knowledge will find this book a treasure.

After teaching a section of Latin grammar there are sections dealing exculsively with Latin prose and poems and their corresponding styles. These varying destractions brings the Latin culture alive and in doing so shows you that Latin has a rich history that is well worth looking at through the linguistic looking glass.

Pax vobiscum!

This text was recommended to me for further independent study after two years of high school Latin (using the Ecce Romani series). For that purpose, it is excellent, but it would probably be rather hard going for one truly starting from the beginning. The boldface type (of which there is a great deal) is rather blurred and difficult to read--on occasion one has to guess at a letter; and the binding on my copy began to fall apart by the time I was only a quarter of the way through the book. The reading selections are outstanding. I consider the purchase price money well spent.

When I E-mailed to the publisher to comment on the binding and boldface print quality, they promptly sent me another copy at no charge. In fact, the print IS a bit more readable than in my first copy. I have high hopes for the binding, and it is a pleasure finding a business that goes the extra mile.

I've embarked on a quest to conquer this book a number of times. Each time I make progress, but it seems each chapter after the 18th gets more difficult at an almost exponential rate, I like the way Betts has gone to the lengths he has to make the book comprehensive. I will try the book again, but unfortunately the binding has given way, I may need to buy another one. Perhaps in future editions they may like to look at making sure that the binding doesn't give way too soon. That is about the only negative thing I can say about this book. I wish you luck in your quest to learn this beautiful language.

This is the third or fourth teach yourself book I have purchased and used successfully! The German and Swedish volumes in this series are even better than the Latin, as they include cassettes that really assist in pronunciation. The Latin course is focused on reading and translating rather than producing Latin on your own. I think anyone with patience can use this course to acquire a reading knowledge of Latin.

This book definitely works, but it is not a qucik learn. The Latin language is a hard one, and this book does not make it any easier. If you have patience and the drive to learn the language, this will help you a lot.