Which Latin Text is your Primary Learning Tool?

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Which Latin Reader or Grammar is your Primary Learning Tool?

Lingua Latina, Orberg
10
30%
Cambridge Latin Course
2
6%
Wheelock's Latin
10
30%
Oxford Latin Course
2
6%
Latin for Beginners, D'Ooge
6
18%
New Latin Grammar, Allen & Greenough
2
6%
A Latin Grammar, Bennett
0
No votes
Reading Latin, Jones & Sidwell
1
3%
Aeneas to Augustus: A Begnning Latin Reader For College Students
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 33

mfranks
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Which Latin Text is your Primary Learning Tool?

Post by mfranks »

Since not many people seem to be interested in creating a new LL Forum, I am curious what Text Books visitors to this site are using as their primary Text for leaning Latin.
I have combined both Readers and Grammars. You could always vote twice if you use both equally.

Cheers,

Mark

PS: I had "Other" as a choice... but I must have hit a limit or a glitch... If a moderarter could edit this to get "other" back into the Poll, I would appreciate it.

bellum paxque
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Post by bellum paxque »

A combination of multiple sources - the Vulgate, Lingua Latina, Wheelock's, and - an option you didn't post - Moreland & Fleischer's Latin, an Intensive Course. If I had to single one of those out, it'd be M&F's. I probably spent the most time with that one, and completed the exercises the most thoroughly of them all.

I'll be curious to see the results of the poll.

David

Carola
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Post by Carola »

At the moment I am very into D'Ooge, being part of the study group, but I would have to say the most useful books are all the study note booklets we were given at University of New England (the Australian one!) when I was studying. They were very complete, clear and easy to read.

My biggest problem with D'Ooge is the ghastly translation exercises - they give the impression the Romans did nothing but fight. Maybe they were meant to grip the interest of 12 year old boys? Apart from that the textbook moves along in a reasonable way. Perhaps it should be rewritten with a wider selection of topics for translation, as the current ones don't give an accurate picture of the depth of Latin literature. At university we moved onto poetry fairly early, even if some of the tricky bits had to be explained. This gave us all a sense of getting into "real" Latin.

GlottalGreekGeek
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Post by GlottalGreekGeek »

I don't think you can vote mutiple times on a poll.

Anyway, since I'm not studying Latin at all, I'd happily volunteer my vote for anybody who desperately wants to vote twice.

edonnelly
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Post by edonnelly »

I'd be curious to hear from the person using Allen & Greenough -- that seems like a tough way to do it unless you're already pretty good at Latin and just trying to pick up bits and pieces.

I hadn't heard of the Aeneas to Augustus book. Has anyone tried it (even if it's not your primary text)?
The lists:
G'Oogle and the Internet Pharrchive - 1100 or so free Latin and Greek books.
DownLOEBables - Free books from the Loeb Classical Library

Ulpianus
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Post by Ulpianus »

I haven't voted, because the poll suggests that it is interested to find out what is currently being used, and it's 20 years since I last "used" a textbook.

But when I did learn (at school) we used the Cambridge Latin Course until we were 16, and thereafter just a selection of texts with notes, which ranged from the quite-old to the absolutely amazingly old (and not necessarily any the worse for that). For grammar we used Kennedy.

Personally, I wouldn't recommend the Cambridge Latin Course to any independent learner. It's not that it's a bad course (though like them all it has its faults), but it really needs a teacher's input.

CharlesH
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Post by CharlesH »

Primary: Lingua Latina (plus Latine Disco and Colloquia Personarum)

Secondary: Wheelock's Latin

Charles

Amaranta
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Post by Amaranta »

For class I have Learn To Read Latin, Keller and Russell. I also fiddle about with D'Ooge. Carola, I think D'Ooge was meant as an introduction to reading Caesar, so that's why all the emphasis on war. Although I think translation exercises in general are ghastly albeit necessary to some degree. Mine are all either war, philosophy, or Cicero and his undying hatred of Catiline. :roll: I much prefer the glossed readings of "real" Latin in the textbook.

Ulpianus
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Post by Ulpianus »

It doesn't seem such a bad plan to prepare people to read Caesar. I think he makes a good "first" author, because the syntax is quite simple and the vocabulary relatively small. And the history is really important.

mariek
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Post by mariek »

edonnelly wrote:I hadn't heard of the Aeneas to Augustus book. Has anyone tried it (even if it's not your primary text)?
I haven't tried it yet since I'm not up to that level yet (sigh). I saw this book a few years back and thought I had to get it when I'm ready. Unfortunately it is hard to find, and I have never seen it at any bookstore since then. :( I can however show you an excerpt from an old 1967/1971 version of the book, if you're interested, if you want to get a feel for it.

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