Fluency in Latin (Fingers Crossed)

Textkit Community Open Board
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I learned Spanish in High School, French in College, Russian on the side and Ancient Greek while I got my Master’s Degree from St. John’s College (a Great Books school in Maryland).

That sounds impressive, right? But, let me tell you a little secret: they are all gone. My Spanish is a ghost, my French is a sliver (being resurrected…more on that below), my Russian is toast and my Ancient Greek has faded into a halls of forgotten knowledge.

BUT!

Now that I have found a stable career and have settled down into the middle of my life, I have finally decided upon spending the rest of my life dedicated to two languages: Latin and French.

Unlike with my previous ventures, I am trying to learn the art of habit. So often, especially most recently with Greek, I went from working out paradigms and basic vocabulary to throwing myself into the deep end of Sophocles. The result, as you might guess, was burn-out. I have often been too eager to jump out of the “wading pool” of a language and right into the “deep end”.

Having learned this lesson, I now spend fifteen minutes every day on Latin and French. While it is slower going, I feel that this new approach is going to work for the long-haul.

I have gone through Wheelock once and am going back over it again, paying special attention to grammar and verb-formation.

My ultimate goal is fluency in both Latin and French. More specifically, I aim to translate all of Virgil’s “Aeneid” and spend a few vacations in France, without the need of a translator. I am also participating in a local French community for adult-learners, which has been a massive help.

It is my hope that this forum will be a place for me to hear how others are gaining their fluency, and how they are enjoying the world of Latin.


Thanks for reading!
Ryan

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Welcome to Textkit, Ryan!

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Yes, welcome to Textkit!

I’m wondering why you want to translate the Aeneid. Hasn’t it already been translated? :smiley: More seriously, Vergil’s Latin is no ordinary Latin, and it’s even more untranslatable than most Latin poetry . And is it fluency in speaking you have in mind, or fluency in reading? They’re two very different animals. Trying to acquire fluency in speaking Latin (and what kind of Latin?) would be a quixotic endeavor in the absence of native speakers and with only written texts to serve as models. Fluency in reading on the other hand is an eminently worthwhile goal and to some extent an attainable one. To attain it, first and foremost you’ll need to read lots of Latin prose.

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Welcome! I went to SJC as an undergrad and have been returning to French (and now Greek) after a bit of a hiatus.

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Hi all, I’m hoping that after a busy period at work, I’ll be able to pop in here again more often.

Agreed with the posts above: it depends on what you mean by fluency. For me, putting aside formal definitions, fluency means when you are so engaged that you don’t realise you’re using/reading another language.

Work at it long enough and it will come, both for Latin and for French. But even when you master this skill, you might not always want to use it—you’ll miss the art and layers of meaning if you keep fluency switched “on” all the time and read at a natural pace, rather than investing more time and slowing down to see e.g. all the careful parallel structure in an exordium of Cicero (which you could never get from a quick read), or taking time with one of the greats of French literature (Victor Hugo is still my favourite for a careful and slow read, whereas I prefer e.g. Bel-Ami by Maupassant for a more naturally paced read; then there are amazing but difficult works like À rebours by Huysmans—no chance of fluency there, but none required—it takes constant effort to work through it, given the way Huysmans writes and always searches for arcane vocabulary, but is more than worth the effort).

Cheers, Chad

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Thank you all for your replies.

I am especially thankful to hear from another graduate of St. John’s College! That place holds a special spot for me.

Per the discussion on fluency. Yes, fluency for its own sake is misleading, as well as hard to define. The commitment I have made for myself is to spend fifteen minutes every day on Latin and French. While that doesn’t sound ambitious, I believe a modest goal like that can generate real momentum once it becomes a lasting habit. I trust that in the next three to four years all of those fifteen minutes will add up to a familiarity with each language.

As to the question of Virgil, I am a fan of epic poetry and formal poetry generally, and have learned from many sources that Virgil’s excellence as a poet is almost impossible to gain through translation. I am hoping that translating Virgil will be a kind of capstone to my work on Latin; certainly not something I am planning on attacking too quickly.

Thank you for your thoughtful posts!