by thesaurus » Thu Apr 01, 2010 7:45 pm
If you fully complete both volumes of Lingua Latina, you'll be far ahead of Wheelock's. Grammatical knowledge will be similar (you'll lack knowledge of technical terms and constructions, you might need to review tables of declensions and conjugations), but your reading ability and vocabulary knowledge will many, many times greater. Whereas classmates, just having finished Wheelock's, will stumble with the most simple of Latin passages, you will understand them at a pass without needing to translate. If you really nailed the material, and worked through the course methodically, you could skip the first two years of Latin and be reading various authors in literature classes. By the end of the second volume you're reading unadapted authors like Cicero. The first volume alone should take you through a first year knowledge, considering that Orberg has an edition of Caesar's Gallic Wars (traditional 2nd year material) intended for those who have finished the first volume of his course. There will of course be odd gaps in knowledge, but these should not present much of a problem. Rather, the problem will be theirs who have only begun reading Latin after learning the grammar.
Si libros utrosque linguae latinae cursus adusque legis scrutarisque, ultra fines libri Wheelock's te invenies. Scientia terminum grammaticorum minus tibi erit, atque forsitan opus sit chartas grammaticas inspicias, sed facudissime Latine leges, plurima verba in mente cohibebis. Cum condiscipuli, cursu Wheelock's mox perlecto, simplices textus Latinos legendo semper claudant, statim mente sententias ipsas sine versionis auxilio concipies. Si libri Linguae Latinae imis in medullis venisque insiderunt, sine dubio duos studiorum annos transire poteris, quo in loco auctores ipsos legere incipies. Fine voluminis secundi Linguae Latinae opera Ciceronis quaedam sine adulteratione legenda sunt. Cum Orberg librum scripsit Caesaris De Bello Gallico, quod solent legere discipuli secundi studiorum anni, ut qui Linguae Latinae volumen primum sunt perfecti id legere possint, certe hoc volumen solum unius anni scientiam tibi dare potest. Ut fit, hic illicque aliquid parvum nescies, sed haec tibi non multum obstent. Immo, obstant multa eis qui modo res grammaticas solvere, haud latine legere didicerunt.
Horae quidem cedunt et dies et menses et anni, nec praeteritum tempus umquam revertitur nec quid sequatur sciri potest. Quod cuique temporis ad vivendum datur, eo debet esse contentus. --Cicero, De Senectute