This may be a lame question (I didnt find it addressed on the last two pages of posts), but from books and classes how are people at actively using Latin, ie speaking, writing.
If for example you met someone from China who can only speak Chinese and Latin, and you can only speak English and Latin would you be able to become close friends (of course improvising on words too new for Latin)? Or do most people simply only wish to read?
I like to write more than read, but I don’t get much opportunity to speak aloud. Actually, there is a post in the Agora from a person who can’t speak English, and we seemed to converse fairly well, albeit with a lack of things to talk about 
Also, I have a friend on MSN who speaks Latin better than English so we usually talk in Latin, unless someone says something confusing to the other person and clarification is needed.
Also, I have a friend on MSN who speak Dutch better than English so we usually talk in Latin, unless someone says something confusing to the other person and clarification is needed.
Sounds familiar!
I try to speak as much Latin as I can. At the end of the academic cycle we also have to write three essais (450 words each) in Latin. Also this year I hae to write many Latin and Greek. It’s always nice to speak Latin, if both persons understand it.
Great to see that other people think the same,
Moerus (Kotelet).
Hi Jesse!
Welcome to Textkit! You have asked a very good question. I think it would be very neat to carry a conversation with someone in Latin, however, I must improve my Latin before I can even join in any discussion in the Agora. If you’re interested in practicing Latin, take a peek in the Agora forum. I think trying to write makes you work harder at learning/understanding a language. Reading is pretty easy since you can get the gist of it and then refine it further. But you have to start a sentence from scratch when you’re writing, and that takes a little more effort.
I have a friend who only speaks French … so I get to improve my French
since it is the only language we can converse in.
(Edited to remove Jesse’s quote. Didn’t mean to include that…)
If some one else can speak Latin I shall speak. Yet if some rem asks me, “whats X in latin” I will not, they do not merit anything. Also I think that Latin is not really a spoken language since most in those times spoke the vulgar.
the vulgar people spoke the vulgar, but i think at least the classical speeches were spoken…
The reason I asked is beings that I’ll be spending a lot of time with the language id like to be productive with it. If people could communicate that would be awesome.
I also thought it would be interesting if say two people meet, the only common language they had was Latin, and they have a child whos first language is then latin.
Although reading the classics in the native tounge is reason enough.
I’m a beginner in Latin-learning. Although it is now impossible for me to communicate with others in Latin, I find it very important to try to speak. According to my expierence, it is easier to remember a word phonetically than visually. I hope one day I could speak Latin with all the friends here. (By the way, can you speak Chinese?)