One of the first questions I ask my students during our first Latin lesson is: "What course book would you rather use?"
The choice is between:
1) Wheelock's: a traditional Latin course based on grammar explanations, declension and conjugation tables, verb paradygms, translation exercises. It describes the language, and I like it because this is how I learned Latin (and how I keep learning languages), so I am familiar with this method;
2) "Familia Romana", the first volume of the "Lingua latina per se illustrata" series. This book is written entirely in Latin. It doesn't explain anything: instead, it shows how Latin works, by using the same structures many times, until you get familiar with it. No explanations, no declensions or conjugations to learn by heart.
Both courses have pros and cons. They just suit different kinds of learners. Which one would you pick? Or, in other words, what kind of learner are you?
(Feel free to suggest other course books or material in English or other languages.)
Hi,
I am currently using both, in fact, I find them complementing each other nicely. I am also using some Wheelock supplementals, like "38 Stories" and "Scribblers, Sculptors, Scribes". Wheelock's is an amazing book, but the progress it gives has to be fortified with more reading. This may be slowing my overall progress, but I feel that I get a more solid background both in reading and grammar. Where the two books get ahead of each other, I simply go faster through the relevant counterpart chapter later.
What I do lack is speaking partner(s).
Best Regards,
Dmitry
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I'm the Lingua Latina per se illustrata type, as i whish to rather talk Latin Later in than to Reader classisal texts. The LLPSI method dir my two Cents will teach faster and rather intuitive language usw.
Weelocks creates precise but slow Readers.
