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| Multimedia Latin Courses |
By Ray Vetne |
Published
10/23/2006
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Software Reviews
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Multimedia Latin Courses
 Ancient languages like Latin, classical Greek, classical Hebrew and Sanskrit are always harder to learn than living languages because you\'ll often do less listening and talking in the language.
Of the four language skills read, write, listen and talk the last two are often neglected in the study of ancient languages. A lot of people find it unnecessary to learn to listen and speak such a language, and those who would like to learn those skills find it hard to practice them since they don\'t have any \"natives\" to chat with.
But your computer might help you out. There now exist several multimedia language programmes that combine the audible with the written, and can provide you with ample practice of listening and talking Latin and other ancient languages. The computer can read texts aloud for you while you follow along in the written text (on the screen), can give you games and quizes and quick word and grammar reference when you need it.
LatinNow! from Transparent Language has quite a large collection of Latin texts, with full translation and grammatical comments/parsing of every word in the texts. You can listen to the words in the text read word by word or in continous natural speech. You can use your microphone to record your own speecn and compare.
Four texts (called \'titles\') are included in the basic package, but a long range of extra-titles is available, both original ancient classics and modern texts in Latin:
- A trip to Pompeii
- Aelfrics Colloquy & Colloquia Monacensia
- Aeneid, Book 1, 4, 6, 10
- Bible (Vulgata): Book of Esther
- Bible (Vulgata): Book of Jonah
- Bible (Vulgata): Book of Ruth
- Bible (Vulgata): Genesis 1-3
- Bible (Vulgata): Gospel Selections
- Bible (Vulgata): Samson
- Bible (Vulgata): Selected Psalms
- Cambridge Latin Course, vol. 1-4
- Catullus Poems
- Catullus/Horace Selections
- Daedalus et Icarus, Deucalion et Pyrrha
- De Bello Gallico (Julius Cæsar)
- Dream of Scipio
- Juvenals Satire
- Latin for beginners
- Latin phrases
- Narcissus
- Pro A. Licinio Archia Poeta Oration
- Toothless Old Goat & Other Latin Insults
- Vergils Eclogues
- Wheelocks 38 Latin Stories
The pronounciation in many of the titles is unfortunately too heavily American.
Personally I think my study of Latin has become much easier and more fun now that I have sound along with all the texts, and can get the translation and parsing of every word with a click of the mouse.
Even though your goals might be only to be able to read texts in your ancient langauge, the use of hearing effectively aids in the language acquistion. We warmly recommend the software!
Link: LatinNow Review
To strenghten your Latin listening skills let us also remind you of the weekly news-in-Latin broadcast from the Finnish radio station YLE. You can listen to the programme either on radio (short waves) or download them as Real audio files.
Link: www.yleradio1.fi/nuntii/
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Comments
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Comment #1
(Posted by LyricB)
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I have only run across one college locally which still teaches Latin, and the classes didn't take place at a time when I could attend. I would sure love to learn someday though.
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Comment #2
(Posted by tater03)
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This link will be a big hit with a friend of mine that is currently studying to learn the Latin language. He has also had this problem so this should help him a lot with his studying. Thank you.
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Comment #3
(Posted by FourBear)
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This is great news for me, as I've considered learning Latin to help me with my other studies. I just wish that it had more accurate pronunciations, but since Latin is mostly a "written" language nowadays, it's not a major issue for me.
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Comment #4
(Posted by tater03)
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fourbear, do you mind me asking what it is you are studying where Latin will help you in your studies? I find the Latin language interesting but I feel it would be a hard language to learn.
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Comment #5
(Posted by FourBear)
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I don't mind at all, Tater. I study both Anthropology and a bit of biology. Latin helps greatly with taxonomy and the names of species. It also turns up as root words for many biology-related words, and I find that I can guess the meaning of words I'm unfamiliar with by looking at the Latin root.
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Comment #6
(Posted by starlily)
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I've often thought that studying latin would be helpful and interesting. Thanks for the links.
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Comment #7
(Posted by tater03)
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Thanks, I was just trying to figure out what you were studying where Latin would help. Sounds interesting what you are studying. Good luck in your studies Fourbear.
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Comment #8
(Posted by LyricB)
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I agree...tons of words have their roots in Latin and I think that knowing Latin would help tremendously just in daily life!
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Comment #9
(Posted by tater03)
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I don't know why but I just always thought that Latin and German would be the hardest languages to learn. I guess you never know until you try though.
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Comment #10
(Posted by FourBear)
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I always thought that non-Romanized languages like Chinese and Japanese would be the most difficult to learn. As if learning a new language isn't enough, you have to learn a few new alphabets and writing systems.
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Comment #11
(Posted by tater03)
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I have always thought that learning to read and write Chinese and Japanese would be interesting. I find that the writing is very unique looking. I bet it is a hard language to learn.
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Comment #12
(Posted by felice206)
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Thanks for that, i've been looking for a good Latin course for some time now. So far most I've found are quite lacking unfortunately.
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Comment #13
(Posted by mtatum4496)
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The concept of sound along with sight to learn a language really resonates with me, as I am somewhat audial in my learning orientation.
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Comment #14
(Posted by Paula62)
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This is really cool. But I had always understood that a "dead" language, like latin, couldn't realistically be taught in a spoken form since we don't really have a record fo how they were spoken. Still, this is worth looking into.
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Comment #15
(Posted by tater03)
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I am a little confused on the Latin language being a dead language? I understand that it is not a language that is spoken anymore by a lot of people, but you do learn how to ennuciate the words when you are learning it, don't you?
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Comment #16
(Posted by mtatum4496)
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I guess when it comes to Latin, the emphais would be more on reading and writing rather than the spoken word. But someone correct me if I am wrong, but aren't there several languages that were heavily influence by Latin, so much that one can make some educated guesses about proper pronunciation of a number of words?
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Comment #17
(Posted by felice206)
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Yes, most people who learn latin aren't really looking to speak it. The best way to learn English grammar however is through learning Latin. It's the basis for all the romance languages, so learning latin first will also be beneficial if you want to pick up one of the other languages as well.
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Comment #18
(Posted by Paula62)
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My mother took latin in high school (in the '50's), and she's convinced that you do not have an education if you did not learn latin.
But then, my mother also thinks that going out of town for the weekend when you could be home catching up on "organizing" is just outrageous. So I don't know . . . :)
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Comment #19
(Posted by mtatum4496)
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Thank you Felice. I had forgotten the fct that Latin is the foundation for many of the romantic languages.
I wonder if there is anywhere online that one can be tutored in Latin?
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Comment #20
(Posted by mtatum4496)
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LOL Paula62, I can think of one or two weekend trips where I would have been better served if I had stayed home and dug out a corner or two! But on general principles, I would agree with you - you can organize any time, but you can't always go away for a nice weekend.
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Comment #21
(Posted by FourBear)
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mtatum, have you checked Wikipedia for online language tutoring? Its in something called the "Wikiversity" in the School of Language and Literature. Not sure if they have Latin, but they have many other languages offered...including Elvish! Users volunteer their time and knowledge to help others learn a language that they know.
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Comment #22
(Posted by felice206)
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Unfortunately there's not too many places you can find to learn latin - we use memoria press as they have dvds/cds. While pronunciation isn't really that important it can help to get a basis. Though the authors of the program have heavy southern accents which doesn't help unfortunately
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Comment #23
(Posted by papia)
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Now there are many online courses which can help to learn latin such as Rosetta learning progarms
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Comment #24
(Posted by emmy_b)
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definitely agree with Fourbear that Latin has a huge imprint on all our other languages - it also can be very useful for other subjects you are learning (not only anthropology). A friend of mine is learning Latin to help with her studies in medicine and another guy I know did a latin course to help him with his horticulural course!
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Comment #25
(Posted by emmy_b)
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Fourbear - just saw your comment about wikipedia, how fantastic that you can actually learn languages like elvish! Crikey - even esperanto might be on there... :)
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Comment #26
(Posted by tater03)
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Thank you for the information wikipedia. I will have to look into that one. Did not know they offered anything like that. Thanks
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Comment #27
(Posted by felice206)
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Just had to say that wikipedia is an excellent resource. I didn't know about Wikiversity so thanks for the tip ;) I do know that there is also Wikibooks - http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:All_Books which is quite helpful too - not sure how their language side is however
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Comment #28
(Posted by tater03)
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I just recently found wikipedia. I never realized that they offered all this other stuff. Do you find these links on the wikipedia website? I will have to look the next time I am on there.
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Comment #29
(Posted by felice206)
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I'm not sure about wikibooks - I ended up finding it while looking for homeschool curriculum
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Comment #30
(Posted by tater03)
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Found the site for the wikebooks. The actually look pretty interesting. I will have to look at some when I get some spare time. Here's the link for anyone that might be interested.http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page
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Comment #31
(Posted by emmy_b)
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Useful link tater thanks - will have a look myself. It all sounds really interesting!
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Comment #32
(Posted by FourBear)
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Not sure if it's posted, but here is the link to Wikiversity:
http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/School:Language_and_Literature
It should connect you right to the language and literature section.
I would love to learn one of those "fake" languages! Just think how intelligent Tolkien must have been, to create his own working language for his stories!
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Comment #33
(Posted by papia)
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The internet workbook forOzford Latin course is designed to help students practice and review material associated with the Oxford Latin Course (OLC). The OLC emphasizes reading and oral question and answer as the primary ways of learning Latin, but it makes some use of formal grammar
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Comment #34
(Posted by sweet_mayhem)
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although a lot of great works are written in latin, i honestly don't feel the need of learning this language. anyway, i still wish the best of luck to those who are learning latin. :)
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Comment #35
(Posted by papia)
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My friend is learning latin from anotek online.He is enjoying the course very much and having no trouble at all getting the motivation to sit down for his nightly session with the computer. The Latin Stories section looks fantastic.
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Comment #36
(Posted by riskey58)
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I just always thought Latin would be hard to learn. Never realized that you could use your computer to help in learning.
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Comment #37
(Posted by FourBear)
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I really hope that other software that teaches different languages will be reviewed here someday. More helpful resources wouldn't hurt!
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Comment #38
(Posted by trick-r-treat)
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I really don't know why we would need to actually master Latin anymore. I know that our modern language derived from them, but how is it helpful in today's society?
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Comment #39
(Posted by tater03)
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I would agree with you Fourbear that some other reveiws would be great. I have found a lot of interesting ideas on this website.
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Comment #40
(Posted by riskey58)
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I want to thank you four all the information concerning the learning o Latin. I learned a small amount of Latin in school,but not very much. I would like to learn a great deal more.
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Comment #41
(Posted by snowbirdfsf)
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this is very exciting to read. i always loved latin even though it doesn't have a lot of practical use (as far as traveling and such). i'm definately going to check out the news in latin.
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Comment #42
(Posted by tater03)
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I was rereading over the comments and I would have to agree with the other poster above. How does learning Latin relate to today's society. How would you use it? Is it just a passion to just want to learn it? I will agree that it would be a unique language to learn.
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Comment #43
(Posted by riskey58)
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Is latin used very much anymore? When going to church we used it all the time,but now they do not even use it in church as much.
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Comment #44
(Posted by evan millner)
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Anyone wanting to learn Latin by way of listening,and practice their speaking as well, can try the Latin Podcast called LATINUM, which can be found here:
http://latinum.mypodcast.com
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