Learning strategies with Lingua Latina II?

Latin Learning Latin
1

Salvete omnes!

I’m encountering some difficulty when studying with LL2.

I picked up the Lingua Latina series with the intention of learning how to read Latin quickly and fluently. I’ve heard great things (particularly from you all here) and I am completely enamored with Mr. Orberg’s teaching method and philosophy. I came late to the game, so I started with LL1 after having already been through 2 years of college Latin (using Wheelock’s), so it was, I’m proud to say, a breeze. I then came strutting along with my head held high to LL2, thinking it would be equally smooth… and now I’m stumbling away, confidence shaken.

My biggest problem is in the realm of vocabulary. So I would like to ask you all who have made it through LL2 (and also those of you who haven’t) for any tips you might have in acquiring the vocabulary used in this second part of the series. I know I can look up the words I don’t know, but I feel like that is in some way cheating the Reading Method system. Would I be cheating myself if I do this? I need some reassurance and a good ol’ pat on the back.

Thank you all for the help!

2

I think ll2 is not as well written as ll1. It gets too hard too fast in my opinion. You can download a vocab list from Orberg’s site. Also, you can just find other things that are easier to read.

3

My biggest problem is in the realm of vocabulary. So I would like to ask you all who have made it through LL2 (and also those of you who haven’t) for any tips you might have in acquiring the vocabulary used in this second part of the series. I know I can look up the words I don’t know, but I feel like that is in some way cheating the Reading Method system. Would I be cheating myself if I do this?

What do you mean? The vocabulary is either already presented before, being, therefore, already defined, or, being new, is defined at the margin. Do you mean that you can not memorize them? if so, I recommend that you spend more time in each part of the book reading and rereding it seveal times. I, for instance, when I studied the book, divided each chapter several parts, consisting of chunks of, say, 150 to 400 lines, which accounts for two or three sections. Then I would spend a day reading one of the parts, one time to learn the new words in context and the new grammar, the second time for fluency. The next day, then, I would reread the part of the day before, one or two times, and, if no questions appeared, I transcribed by hand 100 - 200 lines of the same part I was reading - how-much-ever I could handle in the day (indeed I wanted to learn, not to tire myself off). Then, the next day, again, I would reread it all over and copy by hand more 100 - 200 lines, and repeated this process in the following days until I finished the chunk being studied. Once I did, and only then, I would take the next part, according to the order I had divided, and repeat this same process. Then, by doing this I would eventually finish each chapter, and by doing this, I did eventually finish the book.

so it was, I’m proud to say, a breeze. I then came strutting along with my head held high to LL2, thinking it would be equally smooth…

No it is not smooth, I’m afraid to say. You are, probably, going to spend more time in each chapter of this volume than you you did for the other; say, some 4 or 5 times more. Not only are the chapters longer in size, but they are greater in difficulty and in variety of information. If you were planning to read the whole thing in 2 or 3 months, make it a year.