<p>OK, I wasn't really sure where to put this, but I am a high school sophomore in NY who currently takes advanced spanish, but has no room in her schedule for another language. I would really love to learn some latin, hopefully enough just to ace the regents by senior year (at our school you take the Regents in the third year) . I have "Latin for Dummies" now (I know, but I have to start SOMEWHERE). What should be my next step? Any suggestions on teaching myself a language?</p>
<p>Thank you very much!</p>
<p>Love,
Katia</p>
<p>learn the cases and tenses of verbs first</p>
<p>I'm not familiar with the book you have, but I'd probably reccomend getting a more serious book first. I used the Oxford Latin Course, but there might be one more appropriate for you. If there's a bookstore that would carry a variety introductory Latin textbooks, it might be a good idea to just go and flip through a few. If you can't find anything you like better, the Oxford textbooks are good, and you should be fine with them, but I think they're organized a little confusingly. I also have a copy of Wheelock's Latin that I've never used before, but I was looking through it a little and it might be better suited to self-study. </p>
<p>I'm not sure how much grammar you've had in spanish, but if you're not already, you should get VERY comfortable with it. Nominative, accusative, dative, ablative, vocative, perfect, pluperfect, future perfect, indicative, subjunctive, imperative, participles, and gerunds are all terms that come to mind. You can learn them as you go, but I think it helps to have a good grasp of what they are in English first. It's not wise to try to learn all cases and tenses first, although I'm not sure if that's really what greenbay was suggesting. You should follow whatever order your textbook does.</p>
<p>But I'm not sure if I have any other advice to give. Latin is probably one of the best languages to learn by self-study, since pronunciation isn't a concern. Just make sure you get a lot of practice translating. Spanish should help a lot, since the languages are so closely related. Good luck! If you need any help with anything specific, feel free to PM me. It might take a few days to reply, depending on when I get the message, but I should be able to help.</p>
<p>I would reccommend Wheelocks for a text.</p>
<p>I agree with greenbay that you should learn all of the tenses, cases. declensions, etc to start. Although it may seem overwhelming, after having been taught them gradually over a two year span, I would definitely recommend learning them all at once. It's sort of disconcerting otherwise, because just when you think you know everything, somebody throws the locative at you.</p>
<p>Also, although I didn't teach myself Latin, I did teach myself the scansion of Latin poetry. I found it helpful to correspond via email with several Classics professors at one of the colleges to which I applied. It was just good to hear their reccomendations and to know that I was on the right track with things.</p>
<p>If there is a Latin teacher at your school, you should ask if you can have an independent study with them. So few students are interested in Latin, I'm sure they'd be eager to help.</p>
<p>Learn grammar and syntax first, then worry about vocabulary. (I took a year of Spanish, and it seems that it takes the opposite approach.)</p>
<p>Thank you for your advice- yes, I do plan on getting a textbook, I just found this in the library and it inspired me to start. Being in Spanish three, we have pretty much covered all the tenses/grammar, so I'm pretty comfortable with those. Thank you for your support, and any other tips in learning this would be excellent. I do know a Latin teacher a bit at my school, and I'm sure he'd give me some pointers.</p>
<p>Carpe Diem!</p>