Does anyone else feel the need?
Amadeus wrote:Amadeus omnibus sodalibus salutem plurimam dicit,
As you know, I've been reading W.H.S. Jone's "Via Nova" (or The application of the direct method to Latin and Greek) with much delight as it has re-acquainted me with some already forgotten notions of the Direct Method, and has also re-kindled my desire to think, speak and write Latin with the fluidity of any other second language. I owe a debt of gratitude to Adrianus, for making me aware of the book's existence.
With the new information I was able to gather, I'm scrapping the old translation project I posted on the Composition Board (which is now dead anyway), and am proposing new learning methods based on Jone's book:
1. Revival (or creation, in the case of the Greek board) of the Audio thread. For my part, I'll commit to recording one brief passage every week. Oooo, this is scary! But the oral part of (self-) teaching is very important and I have neglected it for too long.
And if we want to help beginners, instead of going for complicated poetry, we could read simple fables and stories with special emphasis on intonation and on the pronunciation of Latin vowels.
2. Make a new thread (or section) for the intermediate students to ask questions about Latin grammar in Latin, and get responses in that same language. This way we avoid the intrusion of translation, which should be left to the advanced students tackling difficult literary works.
Perhaps there is no need to make a new section, but, in that case, the moderators should make it known that these kinds of questions should only be answered in the language in which the question was asked, sub capitis poena!
3. Post images without text that tell a story and challenge textkittens to write it in Latin (or Greek).
4. Make a new section for discussing all things ancient: the life and times of the Greeks and Romans.
5. Create a wiki dictionary of Latin-Latin and Greek-Greek.
These are some of the half-baked ideas I've been going over my head for some time now. Maybe not all can be implemented, but at least one should be feasible. What sayest thou?
Valete!
Gonzalo wrote:I think a Latin-Latin dictionary might be, in fact, the same Latin Wikipedia (http://la.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usor:Gundisalvus_Xerezensis) or Wiktionary.
Let me give an example to illustrate how I envisage a useful learner dictionary, Terti-Roberte Gonzaloque, and why it should be a Latin-Latin dictionary. I had already started work on this, and reading the Jones' book (pp.70-74) reinforces the conviction that it is a good thing (still a daunting task, though).
please correct
but it's fun to attempt (I'm not saying I've succeeded) a clear, simple natural-language verbose definition that broadens one's vocabulary with closely related terms and allows verbs to be introduced in a way that is otherwise hard to illustrate. ("Lingua per se illustrata" is Orberg's nice way of expressing this approach.) If I can't guess what 'beccum' means, the definition of 'beccus' in the dictionary rectifies this. But what if I can't guess 'beccus' from 'beccumque'? The ideal interactive dictionary tags each word with the correct link, of course.
I don't get the point, though, about the work not being feasible if it's been done already(?)
1977
Olms
Tertius Robertus wrote:1977
Olms
it is still under copyright....
and avaible at amazon http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/348706426X
adrianus wrote:You set me up, edonnelly, by suggesting someone email the guy but I forgive you.
edonnelly wrote:adrianus wrote:You set me up, edonnelly, by suggesting someone email the guy but I forgive you.
Sorry. It definitely was down when I tried yesterday, but certainly is up now.
There's some interesting stuff in there.
adrianus wrote:You know I was only kidding about 'setting me up', Eduarde (preferne 'edonnelly'?). I had checked the FTP wasn't working myself before emailing, as you sensibly suggested. And there is interesting stuff indeed on the Montclair site, so much gratitude to you. I'm having a field-day downloading.
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