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Amo, Amas, Amat… and All That: How to Become a Latin Lover
While I love all things ancient and Roman, and can have a go at translating easy bits of Latin, I can’t claim to be able to write it at all. I can hear you exclaiming, “But you have a Latin motto on your blog! What’s that all about then?” “Simples!” (as Alexandr Meerkat would say – sorry!) – Mottos just sound better in Latin. I did have a go at writing it myself with the aid of a quite scholarly grown-up teach yourself Latin book Learn Latin
Then my other half gave me this book for Christmas. It combines all the Latin grammar an amateur needs, with added bits about all things Latin and Roman. These include discussions on the famous Monty Python sketch in Life of Brian
I also found out that the author despises the Cambridge Latin course – which was a rather touchy-feely way of teaching Latin introduced into schools in the 1970s (and still going). Of course that’s how I learned my Latin! About a third of the O-Level marks were for earned for spouting about ancient Roman life – which was fab. Unfortunately, you didn’t have to learn conjugations and declensions off by heart as in the trad approach, so while you could always translate the stems - you didn’t always get the sense of the syntax/grammar properly. I still managed to get an ‘A’, but possibly because we had previously translated the ‘unseen’ Pliny passage in the exam for prep the month before, and I really did know my set text Virgil off by heart …
If you want to brush up your grammar and learn how to use Latin in everyday English, this book will be really useful in a fun way; as a Latin primer though, it’s far too much fun (but good for revision)! (7/10)
Caecilius est in horto bibit et Metella est in atrio sede.
Sum total of my latin I’m afraid – and yes it was the Cambridge Latin course. Zara used it too in yrs 7 to 9 so it’s still going strong.
They teach it at my school too. Still it’s better than no Latin at all. I’ve found that even having just a smattering is immensely helpful generally.
The Cambridge Latin course – is that the one with Caecilius and Grumio and that lot? Because if so that’s definitely the way I learnt my Latin too, and I think I did okay with memorizing declensions and things!
That’s the one! It’s still taught today. We had two Latin schemes of work at my school – two Latin teachers, one taught the trad way, the other (Miss Simpson whom all the Dads adored) taught the CL. She did teach us verb tables etc, but those who went on to A-Level (not me) which was still trad really struggled at first.
I did Latin to ‘O’ Level at school – so long ago I have no idea which course it was. I suspect it was the traditional one – my school could have defined “tradtional”! I never thought it would come in useful until I worked in a Record Office (archives that is.
I still find it useful – for working out the meaning of words. It surprises me that I can remember any of it. Anyway this book is going on my wishlist
I agree, it is useful – something I first realised when I first went to visit the Bayeux Tapestry and could translate most of the story along the top. Sometimes, I wish I’d done Greek O-level as well.