Reading Latin: Grammar, Vocabulary and Exercises
£17.99
A Labour of Love - After developing a fascination for the Romans and the writings of Caesar, Cicero, Tacitus et al., and being unfortunately bereft of any knowledge of Latin, I finally decided to attempt to learn the language and chose this book together with its companion volumes.I agree with what a number of other commentators have said in that the course can be dry, dull and (at times) quite tedious. However, it more than makes up for these minor faults by its comprehensive treatment of the subject and its refusal to insult the intelligence of the reader by spoon-feeding every single concept to them. From the outset you are required to translate long excerpts from original Latin, the successful completion of which cannot fail but to give the reader a sense of immense satisfaction!It is true that some of the authors explanations of difficult grammatical rules may seem somewhat sparse, but, even though I am learning independently, I have only once been forced to resort to online Latin fora for help, all you need to know to reach a level of fluency is in these books and can be understood provided you are willing to spend the time and effort to learn it.There is one problem worth mentioning though. The Independent Study Guide to this text (which I consider to be absolutely necessary) omits answers for the optional exercises and reading tests. This means that you can never be entirely certain that your answers to these exercises are correct without consulting somebody else, which I feel somewhat defeats the point of having such a guide.
The Latin language deserves better. - A poor introduction to the beauty and precision of the Latin language. The book is difficult to navigate through, and its layout and typography are cramped and dated. The student becomes bogged down in obscure minutiae, before the basics have been covered. A more logical sequence is required.I cannot recommend this as a text for an independant learner. If this is a set text for tertiary study, use the exercises and translations, but purchase one of the better Latin grammars to clarify the explanations.
Great for teaching yourself Latin - Having decided to teach myself Latin, I decided to have a bash with the Reading Latin course. The course is made up of three books: the Reading Latin text book, this Grammar, Vocabulary and Exercises book, and the Independent Study Guide, which has answers to the exercises and translations of the passages.The format of the course is straightforward. First, you have a go at translating a passage from the text book. Then you learn some vocabulary and grammar. And then you finish off with exercises and some fun bits which relate Latin to English and which provide bits of real classical and medieval Latin to have a go at. Then you do it all again on the next passage.The format certainly worked. Translating the texts was encouraging from the start and made it all seem a bit less academic. The exercises provided enough drill to help remember the new words and grammar. The reading exercises at the end of each section gave a good sense of progress.Within this format, the course is split into five chapters with an extra chapter covering Latin poetry. The texts for the first three chapters are adapted from Roman comedies. If you ve ever seen Up Pompeii you ll know the kind of material - greedy old men with feckless sons and wayward daughters and their wily slaves getting the better of all of them. Most amusing, and very motivating to be able to see the humour in the Latin.The texts for chapters four and five are adapted from material written in Cicero s time, some of it written by Cicero himself. Lots of stuff about pirates, conspirators and the deeds of a corrupt governor. Again, very motivating to be able to sense Cicero s outrage from reading the Latin.As always when learning a language, you ll need to put the time in. You ll need about five hours for each section, and there are about thirty sections in the main five chapters. So if you were really keen and didn t have a day job (a student cramming for a course?) you could probably go through the lot in twenty days. Giving it an hour or so a day got me through the first four chapters in three months.Anyway, if you want to teach yourself Latin, I can recommend Reading Latin. Buy all three books including the Independent Study Guide, start from the beginning, do all the exercises and soon enough you ll be reading Latin yourself.
Not the best out there - I m currently doing the Open University course in Classical Studies (after teaching myself Latin for a year) and this is one of the set books. Out of the package, this is THE WORST. The vocab is good, as are the exercises, but as for grammar and helping you learn it, forget it!! You trundling away nicely and then you come across a verb you don t recognise or it starts talking about the vocative which you haven t actually learnt at that point. Having taught myself Latin, I m not finding uni level particularly difficult but if you re going to do Latin, either for uni or personal development, I suggest that you seek a better grammar book. It ll make it so much easier.
Detailed but poorly written - I obtained this book as I am doing the Open University A297 Latin course. Initially I was quite impressed by the detail in the book, and certainly if you have the time this will teach you Latin to a very high standard.However a number of points go against it. The book does not contain the answers to the exercises it sets, and unless you enrole on A297 you will not be able to get them. More importantly it is very badly written in places, which is inexcuseable in a book that is supposed to teaching you read and understand another language. My advice buy a different Latin text book.