I want to learn Latin!

Pre-College Issues High School Life
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<p>Because of other classes, I cannot take two languages next year, but i really want to learn latin because Romans are cool and it would be nice to have another language on a college app. Right now I am going into Spanish 4 if that helps.</p>

<p>The lowdown- bought Ecce Romani 1 and 2 combined for like 3 dollars and plan to really use it, pay attention, etc. Found a website that has lots of activities and lessons to go along with the books. </p>

<p>The goal- I want to learn enough Latin to get a 90+ on the Latin Regents (NYS) in June- the are really easy but I will have to learn Latin 1,2, and 3 by June. Hopefully I can have Latin 1 done by Sept, and the other two a semester each if I go SUPER fast. in Sept. I will have a teacher probably to help me.</p>

<p>The questions- Do you think Ecce Romani is good enough to teach me all the basics of Latin? How hard is it? Have any of you taught yourself a language before? I am really good already at Roman history/mythology so the culture part is pretty good. Any tips on learning/suggestions for a better mode of learning, I would like to know. I tink I posted before on this, but this was before I ordered the textbook and started really getting "into" it.</p>

<p>Thank you!
Love,
Katia</p>

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<p>Hi, my name's Brynna. I'm not planning on learning Latin, ever.</p>

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<p>^lol how helpful hahaha. Same here ( not learning latin I meant)</p>

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<p>why don't you just take Spanish only?</p>

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<p>^I'd have to agree. I think acollege would rather see you speak one language well than 2 languages in...well...not as well..... I'd say use the time you would've spent studying latin to practice your spanish. Write some spanish short stories or poems, perhaps you could send these in with your app. The adcoms would surely be impressed to see you writing poetry/stories/etc in a foreign language.</p>

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<p>My name is Joel...I speak Spanish.</p>

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<p>Sorry I asked- I think Latin is cool. I would like to perhaps improve SAT scores. There are lots of reasons to take Latin. </p>

<p>But thanks for the Spanish suggestions- I may do something like that. </p>

<p>I don't want to come across as some overachieving idot, but I would like to take the time to master something on my own. </p>

<p>Now I feel really stupid for making this thread and for even wanting to learn this at all.</p>

<p>And someone made a French self-study thread and people responded with interesting comments so I thought I would try posting.</p>

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<p>Latin's better than French.</p>

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<p>Latin isn't going to help you on the SATs any more than Spanish would, to be honest. </p>

<p>What is wrong with taking Spanish? So you can't take the Regents for it?</p>

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<p>katia11 don't be sorry for posting, if latin is your passion by all means go ahead and study it. Regarding the sat comment. I myslef am a native spanish speaker ( so I'm biased, shoot me hehe) and I've used my spanish on the critical reading portion a lot ( and it has really helped me, I've consistently scored pretty high).</p>

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<p>I speak spanish, but I suck at CR. I'm only good w/ crunching numbers...dang...I'm going to be just another nerdy engineer...noooooooo</p>

<p>Anyway...Latin will help you on the CR sentence completions...itll be easier to figure out what each word means.</p>

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<p>I think root words and word parts are more helpful</p>

<p>the picky Latin grammatics are unnecessary.</p>

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<p>Hey, I just started Latin too! I'm taking an online course in it, but it's mostly self-study. I suggest you just go through the book as fast as you can - find ways to quiz yourself. Go back and review what you learned after awhile to make sure it has really sunk in. Find ways to utilize Latin in real life (harder than a living language, but still possible... maybe you can practice translating college mottos or something ;) )</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>I started teaching myself latin using ecce romani, but I didn't make it very far.</p>

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<p>VeganActress, why not? Did you lose interest?</p>

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<p>I took Latin as a freshman, using the Ecce Romani books. My teacher was horrible, she really was the worst teacher I've had in high school, and I still managed to do really well on the National Latin Exam. The books are interesting, and I think easier to absorb than dense Latin textbooks. I did well with them- I'd recommend translating each chapter as practice. Tedious, yes, but worth it. By the way, I was taking Spanish too at the time (I'm still taking Spanish, but had to stop Latin in order to fufill other stupid requirements). Being as far as you are in Spanish will help, especially with verb conjugations. I sure miss Marcus, and Sextus and Flavia and Cornelia... haha have fun.</p>

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<p>Ecce Romani are HORRIBLE BOOKS to learn Latin from. Use Wheelocks or whatever they are called! (Where'd you buy them for $3?!?! I need them for the summer to study lol) </p>

<p>Even Oxford University dropped Ecce Romani because they are horrible!!!</p>

<p>I'm taking Latin at my high school w/ Ecce Romani books so I know, and I still don't understand Latin. It's a tough language but it can be done with will and power. </p>

<p>How about you teach me some Spanish and I teach you some latin??? Or study Latin Together???</p>

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<p>Ecce Romani is a terrible book. Use Wheelock's - I used this book for two years in high school and its great. They use the same book for the into Latin courses here at UCLA (now granted they go through it in about 10 weeks instead of two years, but hey). </p>

<p>Latin is a great language to learn. The vocab and such is pretty easy. What can be difficult is the poetry because the poets just threw out Latin's already messed up syntax (there is no word order in Latin - you have to figure out sentences by the declension of the words). I had the pleasure of taking two AP Latin exams, and my teacher was great. I became very good at sight reading Latin poetry, which is no easy feat. Sometimes the subject was on one line, and the verb was on about 12 lines away (no joke). But it is great stuff to read. </p>

<p>Valete! Latinam est gaudium et utilis</p>

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<p>I got it used on Amazon. I really don't see why people insist on buying new books- I got my summer reading list (4 books) for about 3.00</p>

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<p>Our Latin books are Cambridge; I bought one from 1/2 Price Book Store for like 5 dollars.</p>