31–40 of 71 posts
It reached the HN frontpage a few years ago and I've kept working on it since then. It now contains close to 100 pages (~500 words) and everything has been proofread by a native speaker.
The reason, I think, for the difference is that, while there’s a robust tradition of using Latin in modern settings and a modernized vocabulary (see the many references given here: http://blogicarian.blogspot.com/2019/03/argumentum-ad-ignora...), the same is not true for Greek, which is a pity.
If you still have some resolutions to make for 2023 let this post be a sign to pick learning Greek! The book that’s most recommended to start with is Athenaze. Also, you can use the great and friendly community at Textkit (https://www.textkit.com/greek-latin-forum/) it also has texts of many good resource books. And there’s also the Perseus Digital Library with the goal of making all Greek material available: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/
For reference: this book is obviously a (praiseworthy) ambition to have a Greek counterpart to the Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata[1] by Hans Ørberg. Ørberg's way of teaching Latin is, in my view, excellent because it is based on a natural view of learning a language: show something, say what its name is, use its name in simple sentences, work up from there. Each time introducing new words surrounded by already-known…
> Hard to understand what 'πόλις' means per se, but not if I take you up a mountain and point at [3] while saying "πόλις". This works in theory, I guess, but in practice it's just absolutely awful. the Rosetta Stone courses work like this and I spent about 6 months maybe? working through the Korean class. I was only able to form my own sentences because I also bought some grammar books that taught me about particles…
Good feedback is important, and if there's no teacher, you can correct yourself (to a certain extent) if the text book also explains the rules.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also worth pointing out that LLPSI is essentially Hans Ørberg's life's work. It's been adjusted and fine-tuned for decades, and it really shows. While at a surface level it looks fairly simple, it is no small task to repeat the process with another language.
Giuseppi Peano tried to get people to learn an "unconjugated latin" by writing mathematics in it. eg https://archive.org/details/formulairedemat04peangoog/page/n... (mini rationale https://archive.org/details/formulairedemat04peangoog/page/n... ) Maybe set theory wasn't the best way of introducing a conlang, but I have to take my hat off for the weird flex.
I have recreated the UI of a fashion Ecommerce site such that the user is so familiar with the button labels ('buy', 'add to cart', 'recommended items') that they can easily guess their meanings.
I teach HTML using simple Japanese. I make use of the fact that " " uses English words but is not English. That allows me to say things such as 'to change the background colour to yellow you can add this tag' without using English. It's definitely cheating but I have found that cheating is actually good practice when it comes to help people guess the meaning of words in a foreign language .
I am making one for Japanese here : https://drdru.github.io/stories/intro.html . It makes use of emoji and pixel art to illustrate simple stories. The only thing required of the reader is knowledge of Hiragana and Katakana. It reached the HN frontpage a few years ago and I've kept working on it since then. It now contains close to 100 pages (~500 words) and everything has been proofread by a native speaker.
This is clearly riffing on Ørberg's Lingua Latīna per sē illūstrāta , which is a great introductory book to teaching yourself Latin. There are no explanations of anything; you have to deduce the meaning of the Latin phrases using the contextual clues given to you in the form of pictures and maps. And it works well.
Duolingo also has a Latin course: * https://www.duolingo.com/course/la/en/Learn-Latin Haven't tried it myself.
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> Hard to understand what 'πόλις' means per se, but not if I take you up a mountain and point at [3] while saying "πόλις". This works in theory, I guess, but in practice it's just absolutely awful. the Rosetta Stone courses work like this and I spent about 6 months maybe? working through the Korean class. I was only able to form my own sentences because I also bought some grammar books that taught me about particles…
Complete immersion has good results, but this is pseudo-immersion at best. There are schools that teach following similar methods as Lingua ... per se illustrata, and while people do get the basics, I haven't heard from anybody that reached fluency through it. Language is pretty complex, and if you start out with the wrong idea about certain aspects, without feedback, you're likely to repeat the error for the rest of…
Here's what I read in order:
LLPSI with Colloquia Personarum, Pugio Bruti (waste of time btw) and Fabulae Syrae. After that I read Epitome Historiae Sacrae, the Vulgate, Fabulae Faciles, Ad Alpes, Julius Caesar's Invasion of Britain and half of LLPSI 2. Currently I'm reading The Gallic War. I also started studying German at the start of this year using the book "German for Reading" by Karl Sandberg which is taking up 1 hour per day of my time so I can't spend 2 hours on Latin per day which is what I was doing from 2020 to early 2022. I wouldn't say I'm fluent at all, but on a good day I can comfortably read Caesar (with a dictionary).
My goal since the start (January 2020) has been to read Ovid's Metamorphoses, which hasn't worked out yet, but it's a work in progress.
* Big shoutout to LatinTutorial/Benjamin:
For reference: this book is obviously a (praiseworthy) ambition to have a Greek counterpart to the Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata[1] by Hans Ørberg. Ørberg's way of teaching Latin is, in my view, excellent because it is based on a natural view of learning a language: show something, say what its name is, use its name in simple sentences, work up from there. Each time introducing new words surrounded by already-known…
> Hard to understand what 'πόλις' means per se, but not if I take you up a mountain and point at [3] while saying "πόλις". This works in theory, I guess, but in practice it's just absolutely awful. the Rosetta Stone courses work like this and I spent about 6 months maybe? working through the Korean class. I was only able to form my own sentences because I also bought some grammar books that taught me about particles…
i encourage those interested to seek out Athenaze (in italian) instead. i commend the effort put into this though
Currently slowly trying to go through it.
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My vote would be for Sanskrit, though I'm very pleased a Greek version exists.
It exists, and it's very good. https://en.amarahasa.com/