Hello all,
I’m a long time lurker.. here’s a bit about myself:
Background: Lifelong interest in history and language. Started studying latin on a bit of a whim ~5 years ago in my junior year of college. Being an engineering student and having already fulfilled my gen ed reqs, I didn’t want to risk taking a 4 hour elective. So started off with a $9 kindle version of Wheelock’s and it kind of snowballed from there. Got really into it, and have continued to make it part of my routine since then. I try to read a bit of latin everyday.
Current state of my abilities: Can read most works with sparing use of a dictionary/English translation (albeit rather slowly). If commentary is available, I rarely feel the need to consult the translation. Places where I trip up are usually when sarcasm or humor are being employed, when the author breaks the 4th wall, or where the density of greek people and place references in a sentence starts to get absurd…
Things I’d like to improve: auditory comprehension - I can get the gist of easily digestible content like ‘quomodo dicitur’ and ‘nuntii latinii’, but fare pretty poorly when listening to some of the classical works that are available on librivox. Also composition - worked through NH and BA composition books a while back but haven’t continued practicing.
Current reading: Virgil’s Georgics along with the Servius/Thilo latin commentary.
Very interested in learning materials for autodidacts like myself and how those materials can be improved and disseminated. Through my experience, I feel like I’ve got a fairly good grasp of what it means to self-teach latin in 2017.