I want to learn Latin!

<p>I've heard bad things about Ecce Romani books. I'm studying from Wheelock, and it's pretty useful and straightforward. There are lots of exercises and opportunities to practice.</p>

<p>My study of Latin has helped my SAT scores, mostly with vocabulary I wouldn't have otherwise known if they hadn't been on Latin English derivative lists. Grammar is a little tricky to get through, and probably won't help you on the SAT. I find translating Latin a very fun process - it's like putting a puzzle together piece by piece to get the whole picture.</p>

<p>but should languages be puzzles? don't get me wrong...puzzles are fun, but i don't think it should be that difficult</p>

<p>I'd be interested in how you do after self-studying! Good luck!</p>

<p>i would say to definitely try and take it</p>

<p>next year ill be in spanish 4 and latin 2, and i definitely like latin much better.</p>

<p>it is harder than spanish</p>

<p>and i disagree with the comment that says spanish helps you more. there arent many words that are similiar in spanish and english that arent similiar in latin and english</p>

<p>ok that was confusing, but bc french comes from latin, and french and german made english, it just makes sence that latin would help more.
and it does.</p>

<p>The reason I compared translating to Latin to completing a puzzle is because of (someone before me mentioned this) the word syntax. There is basically no set word order in Latin. I find it a happy challenge. Yes, difficult sometimes, but enjoyable. Besides, it's a dead language, so it's not like I was expecting to be able to sight read right away.</p>

<p>I got the whole Ecce Romani set for around $1, at a local library sale. they were all there in great shape. I made it through about the frst ten chapters almost three times, but then I would just start getting confused when they suddenly brought in the heavy grammar stuff, and I got tired of memorizing the words. I don't think Ecce Romani is that bad, but it could be a lot better. I also found a free online site that had additional supplementary material.</p>

<p>We only have Latin in high school and I took it all four years. I think the thing I loved most about it was the class experience though. My teacher was awesome/insane and by Latin 4 the class dwindled down to 7 people. The language itself is pretty cool since you don't need to worry about word order, or how to pronounce things. It does help with vocab and stuff, last year in 11th grade we had vocab in english class and all of the vocab was usually based off of our latin words. I say you should give it a shot, it's always nice to be able to randomly translate things that your spanish taking friends can't :-P</p>