Content

• To step
• Tips
• Warnings

You can teach yourself Latin without the help of a teacher, as long as you do your best. All you have to do is find the right textbook, learn the exercises, and practice writing and reading in Latin as much as you can. And while your friends and family probably won't be able to converse with you in Latin, practicing pronunciation will also improve your fluency. If you do your best, you will soon be able to speak Latin as well as the Pope.

To step

1. Make sure you can find a beginner Latin textbook with lots of exercises and the answers. The answers are especially important because you don't have a teacher to check your answers.
   • Wheelock's Latin is a well-known textbook, with the answers in the back. It may be the best choice for self-study as there is a ton of study materials available, as well as online study groups.
   • There are also a number of textbooks with answers available legally and for free (public domain):
     • B.L. D'Ooge, Latin for Beginners + answers
     • J.G. Adler, A Practical Grammar of the Latin Language + Answers (with audio and other resources)
     • C.G. Gepp, Henry's First Latin Book + Answers
     • AH. Monteith, Ahn's Method First Course + answer key, Ahn's Method Second Course + answers.
2. Go through each lesson, check your answers and memorize them. It will take you at least a few months to work through the book, and maybe years. In schools, Wheelock's Latin is used in several consecutive introductory courses spread over several semesters.
3. Know that there are two principles of teaching Latin that differ within their methods. The first method focuses on a disciplined and well-organized study of grammar and vocabulary, and relies heavily on memorization. Wheelock's Latin and most older textbooks such as D "Ooge" Latin for Beginners belong to this category. The second method focuses on reading, relies heavily on the teacher, and puts a little less emphasis on memorization. The Cambridge Latin Course is an example of a textbook that falls into this category, as is the Athenaze series in Greek and Lingua Latina per se Illustrata. This is more comparable to medieval and renaissance didactics.
4. Choose the method that suits you best. The advantages of the first method are that you can progress without a teacher, and there are textbooks available in the public domain that use this method. The downside is the amount of effort required and the more likely you will be discouraged. The second method is useful if you want to start reading quickly, learning only the grammar and vocabulary needed to read selected texts. The help of a teacher is strongly recommended in guiding the student when certain principles of grammar have not yet been covered. Answers are unlikely to be readily available, and textbooks using this method are generally not in the public domain.
5. When you are done with the textbook, find texts that are easy to read. Here are some good choices:
   • Jacob's Latin Reader Part I and Part II.
   • Ritchie's Fabulae Faciles (Easy Stories)
   • Lhomond's De Viris Illustribus (used by generations of school children to learn Latin)
   • The Vulgate Bible Latin
6. Now that you have built up a basic vocabulary and mastered the basics of Latin grammar, the next step is to achieve some level of fluency. This is the most important and most difficult step. You have to make the transition from translating sentences in your head to directly understanding a text. So, in other words, you have to learn to think in Latin. The way to achieve this is to immerse yourself in it. Since Latin is a rather dead language, the best way to achieve this is by reading and understanding large chunks of Latin text. An Assimil Latin course is available that uses immersion or immersion and is suitable for self-study. But this book is no longer available again. Buy a used copy or search online for the book and audio (available in French and Italian only).
   • Schola Latina Universalis (Distance learning with translations into English and Spanish using the Assimil course)
7. Speaking Latin is not that common these days, but you can greatly improve your language skills by speaking it. Speaking a language is the best exercise in language skills.
   • (follow the first link) (chat and forum)
8. As you read, create your own personal Latin dictionary. Add only those words and phrases that are new to you. It can be useful to place separate entries for words with multiple meanings and idiomatic expressions that have their own peculiar meaning.
9. To tempt you to read a lot of Latin without getting bored, try reading some well-known novels in a Latin translation. If you've worked through all of these novels, you're well on your way to becoming fairly fluent in Latin:
   • Insula Thesauraria (Treasure Island); also here and here.
   • Rebilius Crusoe (Robinson Crusoe)
   • Pericla Navarchi Magonis (Les Aventures du Capitaine Magon)
   • Mysterium Arcae Boulé (The Mystery of the Boulé cabinet)
   • Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone)
   • Harrius Potter et Camera Secretorum (Harry Potter and the secret room)
10. You can move on to classical Latin lyrics when you feel confident enough. Some authors are easier to read than others. You can start with Caesars The Bello Gallico and Cicero's Orations.

Tips

• If you are still in the textbook stage, you have a lot to remember: declination, conjugation, vocabulary. There is no fast way. This is where motivation is important.
• Latin is a language with a relatively small vocabulary, which means that a single word can have many meanings. This also means that Latin uses many idiomatic expressions that must be learned, in the same way as the vocabulary. You will come across passages where you understand every single word, but where the general sentence doesn't seem to make sense. That is because you are giving a wrong meaning to a word somewhere, or because you have not yet recognized a sentence and see only the individual words that make up the sentence. For example: the sentence hominem e medio tollere means "kill someone", but to someone unfamiliar with the phrase it may mean "remove the man from the middle".
• Choosing the right dictionary is a matter of what you will read. If you are only interested in Latin, take Elementary Latin Dictionary from Lewis or the Oxford Latin Dictionaryif you can afford it. But if you are also interested in late, medieval, renaissance and neo-Latin, choose the "Latin Dictionary from Lewis and Shorts, but it is expensive. Otherwise you will have to make do with Cassell, which is not very useful, or a pocket dictionary. Unfortunately, there is no clear choice, because there is a lack of a good and cheap dictionary as an alternative to Lewis and Shorts. If you understand French, the Grand Gaffiot quite affordable and generally more useful than any of the aforementioned Latin-English dictionaries.
• Don't underestimate the value of writing in Latin. Even if your goal is to learn to read Latin, you shouldn't ignore exercises that involve translating sentences from Dutch to Latin. Latin sentence construction is an excellent way to learn the rules of syntax.
• Avoid poetry until you get the hang of prose. You would also not advise someone learning English to read Shakespeare if they are still unable to read an English newspaper properly. The same goes for Latin.
• Review the vocabulary often. Take word lists or flash cards with you on the bus, toilet, church, etc., to go through.
• Try not to go too fast. A lesson every few days is sufficient. If you go through the lessons too quickly, you will not have time to memorize everything. On the other hand, go too slow again, otherwise you will not see any progress and start to forget what you have learned. Aim for one class a week, or whatever works for you.
• If your answers to the exercises don't match the answer at the back of the book, then you probably missed something. Review the material and the lesson.

Warnings

• Learn Latin because you want to. Don't try to impress people. You will only come across as pretentious otherwise.