MEIN SCHLECHTER JUNGE, DIE LATEINSCHE SPRACHE WIRD DICH DOCH ERSCHLöPFEN! SCHWEIN!
~E
Salve pjj1020!
I am a teenager learning Latin without any teacher. Yes, Latin is slightly easier at this stage principally because:
alphabet
tenses similar to English
moods (i.e. indicative, subjunctive, imperative) near to English
Later on however the differences do seem to even out; Greek accidence and nuance appears to be a major struggle in the end, whereas Latin’s syntax is a problem.
Before you start, know your English grammar.
Find out the meanings of these words:
noun
pronoun
verb
adjective
adverb
preposition
accidence
syntax
inflection
declension
conjugation
tense
mood
person
number
gender
case
subject
object
predicate
And this is in the first day.
Do this now!
Right, what you’ll need to focus on in your first fortnight/month.
Accidence is THE biggest thing at the beginning. Know all your declensions in this fortnight. Know your cases and their basic function. Get to grips with present, imperfect and future tenses in the indicative. Learn bits of vocabulary, but do not let it overshadow accidence. But in turn avoid learning out of context - read those simple Latin sentences, glance at the loci antiqui.
Keep practising these with different nonus and verbs right through past the month; small bites frequently are more useful than large bites occasionally.
Most importantly, inculcate your declensions and conjugations.
Actually, I think Greek verb tenses are as close, if not closer, to English, than Latin. But I’ve only glanced at Latin grammar.
I actually find the Greek subjunctive and optative combined easier than the French subjunctive (I have no idea how hard the Latin subjunctive is), but this is probably because Greek uses the subjunctive much more often, and thus one gets more practice.
And quite frankly, the alphabet is not an issue. Half of it is identical to the Latin alphabet anyway. The place where, it seems to me, that Latin is seriously easier than Greek is vocabulary. Which is important, because vocabulary is one of the greatest b***** of learning a language. But oh well.
Don’t get discouraged because of your age. You can pick up an beginner’s Latin textbook to get started. If you don’t want to learn the Latin language anymore, you can always start learning Spanish. I started to learn Latin at school when I was 13. It’s much easier to learn with a teacher. But you’re lucky that you have the textkit community as your cyberteacher.
And I thought Episcopus was bad. Damn, now that’s a serious insult.
I know. I am evil. 
Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t mean it as an insult. Spanish is a beautiful language, especially when it’s pronounced by Shakira.
HAHAHAHAH!!!
E CANT LEARN ENGLISH HAHAHAH!
-P
My return 
E CANT?
English is not my native language. Please correct me if I said something wrong.
No, the English was fine. It’s been a running joke especially in American schools that if Latin was too hard, then take Spanish! Spanish classes in High School are notoriously dumbed down.
I profess my ignorance.
Actually, the alphabet is not that hard - I learnt that sometime between 9 and 11.
French subjunctive seems quite easy; compulsory some parts, forbidden others, and variable according to mood/register elsewhere.
I think D’Ooge’s book is perfectly suited for learning one lesson every day, or every two days.
I started learning German and English in kindergarten, and was around thirteen when I began with Hebrew. The sooner you start the better.
I recommend you Latin, it’s MUCH easier than Greek.
And as for you, Episcope, stop taking meth!
Spanish classes in High School are notoriously dumbed down.
Ai! esta es porque non entiendo espanish bene!
-Jon
Don’t be mean people. Its meant to be easier to learn languages the younger you are anyway - just because someone is smarter than you at 13 doesn’t make them the enemy!
And yes I think you should do Latin first because… well … I love latin but also because I am a Latin major and I just started Greek and now it seems so easy. Oh also the vocab for latin is much easier to relate to english so easier to remember.
GOODLUCK!!!
Hmmm, now that I think about it, since it’s easier to learn languages when you’re young, it makes sense to learn the harder language first while you’re younger, and to learn the easier language when you’re older (and less capable of learning languages).
However, if Greek literature/culture has no appeal at all to you, Latin is probably the language to learn, since it’s definitely the more useful langauge if you’re not paticularly interested in literature. Unless you’re trying to learn old/archaic languges, in which case, Greek is the elder … but in that case maybe you should go stright to Sanskrit or Hittite. Decisions, decisions …
There are some things in this thread I don’t much like the tone of. It is almost disgusting, I think, to find anyone on this forum giving what amounts to discouragement to someone who wants to learn Latin or Greek.
Nobody could possibly say that 13 is too young to learn Latin. 100 years ago they would have said it was very old to start Latin: 9 or 10 would be better. Maybe even earlier. Greek a little later than that, but certainly before 13.
If there’s an issue at all it’s not with learning at 13, but with learning on one’s own at 13. Learning a language on one’s own is hard enough anyway. As one gets older and goes through the educational system, one tends to get more accustomed to learning on one’s own and therefore somewhat better at it, though it is still hard. On the other hand, a 13 year-old has time, and energy, and enthusiasm (if it hasn’t been washed away by snide comments from older people) which may be lacking later. And it’s SO MUCH easier to commit things to memory when you are young. So there’s a bunch of advantages too.
But that doesn’t mean it makes sense to learn the hardest language first. Because then you are going to hit the _dis_advantages hard. Learning accents and the Greek verbal system on your own, trying to work out tense and aspect, all without a teacher: that is hard! One can see how even the most enthusiastic person might get stuck with that. Many do.
It makes sense to ask: which is easier. And the answer (I think there’s pretty much consensus about that) is that Latin is easier, especially at first. That is a pretty good reason to choose Latin if you are in pjj’s position. It’s not as if Latin is easy or pointless. (Nor, for that matter, is Spanish!)
But whatever we do, we should not make snide comments, and pour cold water on the whole endeavour. I really think we should all concentrate on helping pjj to do what s/he has decided to do, which is to have a stab at learning some Latin and see how it goes. One thing is sure: no-one’s going to learn no Latin, nor Greek neither, who never tries.
I believe Episcopus is engaged in some sort of ham-fisted reverse psychology. He started young himself.
I believe Episcopus is engaged in some sort of ham-fisted reverse psychology. He started young himself.
So did Tolkien. and how many languages did he end up learning/creating? I forgot, but I know it was some ungodly number.
-Jon
I was 16 when I began learning Latin. I do not consider this young, because a few months ago the third (out of 5) classicist I have met it my life, told me that he began Latin at 8 years old, half my age at the beginning.
And I maintain, this little lady will not be able to learn Latin. Where is he now? VTGANGEN that’s where!
~E
This stuffy reprimandation is directed solely at our Bishop.
That is illogical and unfounded. Just becuase s/he lives in a modern age and is 13, you automatically ASSUME dogmatically that s/he will not be able to learn Latin.
Oh, and:
Die Suche nach “vtgangen” lieferte keine Treffer
Überprüfen Sie ggfs. die eingestellten Optionen (links). Unbekannte Wörter können Sie im Forum erfragen.
evening M., many thanks again for your stuffy reprimandation, which has been noted. multos quoque ad te gratioribus, mee M., for your revolutionary and unprecedented conclusion that utgangen is indeed not a german word; it is, as you should know, the irregular pp. of gÃ¥ (gick, gÃ¥tt, gangen/-t-/-na), that’s gehen to you, the former however bearing the auxiliary ha[va] (Dan. have) - naturally haben to you, as opposed to the verb ‘to be’ with those lexical verbs of motion in the perfect system, naturally sein (vara, vaere) to you (beware however of confusing this verb of gigantic gravity with the possessive adjective sein,-e,-). thanks again,
~E