Salvete omnes!
Cridus nominor, et discipulus linguae anglicae sum, et non modo lingua anglica, sed quoque lingua latina (et graeca, italiana, etc) valde mihi placet. Quare latine disco? Carmina causa discendi. Per unum annum studebam.
My Latin composition doesn’t go much further than that, and I’m sure it’s rife with mistakes, but only recently have I taken Latin composition with a modicum of seriousness. As my Latin hopefully conveys, I study English at university, but I have a great interest in poetry, which leads me to other languages, primarily Latin. I’ve been toying with the language somewhat seriously since last April, and I’ve gotten about 30 chapters into Familia Romana, though recently, due to certain global, uh, events, I’ve been much more interested in taking my Latin to a decent level so that I can read whatever poetry I come across in the language. Right now I’m reading Catullus 101 to translate it for my poetry class, and it’s quite a wonderful piece. Short and lyrical, which, not to compare myself to Catullus, is what I’m best at and what I like the most.
I definitely lean toward the natural method for language acquisition. I don’t think I’ll be able to, nor do I want to, ever write like Renaissance humanists in Latin. Latin is definitely more of a hobby to me, though eventually I’d like to have enough experience in it to speak it and read it with something like ease. I’ve been thinking about learning Italian soon so that I can efficiently use the Italian Athenaze, and more importantly so that I can read Dante.
Valete, it’s good to be here.