Is the Lingua Latina edition of Commentarii de Bello Gallico good after Wheelock?
I went to the Loeb Classical Library version just after Wheelock. Despite having worked through many grammar exercises, I still had to use the LCL English translation frequently.
If I had to do it again, I’d work harder on grammar while reading the LCL Caesar, because I need a lot of grammar review, repeat self-teaching, and so on. By that I mean, frequently parse difficult sentences, and review the grammatical principles whose inadequate grasp caused me to fail to grasp the sentence.
After several years of study I still have to consult grammar. I still trip on things like the -is endings for accusative plural of the present participles.
Very interesting. I’ve worked through two grammars. I have one college ruled note book filled with parsed sentences. I am here so that I can have my thinking challenged and my pride bruised in order that I might obtain a way of thinking. There is an object of intellect which is urgent to cause my willingness to persist. I introduced to textkit with a paragraph of latin gibberish. Now I have the most rudimentary exercise set, provided by Hans Ordberg, with which I begin from scratch.
It will probably be difficult to read after any grammar book.
In general you need to find things that are easy to read and read a ton of it (don’t be afraid to re-read!). Starting with Lingua Latina wouldn’t be the worst place if you’ve already done Wheelock.
For more understanding about how to learn a language (which is through receiving understandable messages in that language) see: http://indwellinglanguage.com/limen-a-latin-teaching-portal/
Besides the theory - scroll down to “developing your own latin” and especially the appendix on “extensive reading.”
Thanks so much. I’m getting started in Greek, and with Latin being my first foreign language, I honestly can’t tell anyone how much easier a reading based approach would have been in the future, grammar books get you where you need to go, but if you want to read classical literature with ease, you might not. You might find yourself translating, but I guess it’s different for everyone.