How to Read and Speak Latin fluently 

he speaks with such a sense of urgency i think if i don't go out and learn latin right now everyone's gonna die

So I recently developed an interest in learning Latin. So I grabbed a friend who also wanted to learn Latin and we read the first page of Oesbergs Familia Romana and with no prior knowledge of Latin we read through the first page. (after of course reading through the minimal amount of wheelock's so as to know how to pronounce the words.) And we managed to figure out the first page within 40 minutes and here we are celebrating. Then we realise that there are 300 more pages😭

After watching this video I have become 100% fluent in Latin. I jumped in my time machine and became a Roman prince for a couple years. Thanks

I’m trying to learn Latin, but I can’t remember most of the words

OMGosh! I hit the gold mine with this video, thank you!

this guy sounds like he's yelling at you

I did 4 years of Latin in high school, and this video has made me dive back into it.

Awesome and encouraging advice! Thank you so much for making this video.

Your advices are very helpful, thank you!

Right away, Greek and now Latin posts from you. Super! Thank you.

I noticed you were gone from youtube for a while but man am I glad you are back. thank you for all the useful information

Thanks a lot for these precious pointers, friend!

Thank you so much for the advice on how to learn La'in. I feel like I can finally make some good progress on la'in. La'in really is great! (In all seriousness this video was very helpful, thanks)

Thank you, this was extremely helpful.

I have been trying to find this channel for a long time.

I bought and read your book! Great job and very helpful, I really enjoyed it.

I stumbled across this video whilst searching for a way to satisfy my need to learn a language that I intended to learn in school. My problem is not the teacher, it's the time. We have 3 lessons of Latin per week, making for a grand total of 160 minutes at best. In my humble view, that is not nearly enough time to learn a Language as complex as Latin. I have written down the name of each of the books you mentioned and I shall start to check them out at once. Thank you for this video.

this is such a great guide, thank you.

Missed your videos so much, great work!

This applies to other languages as well, I as a non English speaker have learned English mostly by listening and reading. I'm learning German now the same way, and I'm well on my way to reaching B2 level. After completing that, I'm thinking of learning latin

Super helpful, great video.

This comment section is so weird and pretentious. He's not speaking Latin in the video, so there's no need for him to pronounce every single Latin word like Cicero. In fact, that probably would have been insufferable. If I told you that I ate "yoğurt" on the "patio" every morning with "café" and "crème" while reading the works of 孔夫子, I hope you would slap me in the face.

I appreciate the ideas that you shared. As a "dead" language it is more difficult to learn if for the fact that is more difficult to find sources of passive knowledge, though through youtube as a crowdsourcing video hosting service and Latin teachers, speakers, and hobbyists have become more readily available. It is still far and away considering that most standardized spoken languages in the greater developed countries, you can use radio stations, vlogs, and music where such resources are exceptionally scarce in Latin. Still, I do not personally know anybody who can actually comprehend spoken Latin so I've resorted to saying it out loud hoping that I might catch at least some oral mistakes and then, if it is not understood, I translate.

Good to see you've returned! Looking forward to your future videos :)

Thank you 🙏🏻, i actually started learning Spanish by reading a simply Spanish book for youths. With Latin I went to get bilbo in Latin. It’s quite easy understandable Latin but many words to learn first. This book Is brilliant in the way it builds up the level of grammar over time.

Thanks for the great content, looking forward to the German resources video.

This is a marvelous point of view, and it is entirely credible. I'm into Chapter XV of Lingua Latina now, and I find it much more interesting than the Cambridge Latin Course, which is not bad --- just not as good. Lingua Latina does become pretty dense for a beginner, so I've been doing regular repeats of earlier chapters. It's enjoyable, and I feel like I am making progress. Thanks!

BTW have you been living in Arguelles's house? You seem to be doing an impression of him sometimes 00:49 to 01:20 especially

Lingua Latina and Assimil are the only two methods I've tried. Both are excellent and will lead the learner to reach a considerably advanced level...provided that the learner does the entire courses and on a consistent (nearly-daily) basis. The latter method (Assimil) is even more thorough than Familia Romana grammar-wise, but requires even more stamina to get through. It's worth it, though, and at the end one will have acquired the internal logic of the language almost intuitively. To reinforce the grammar, Wheelock's Latin is supposed to be excellent.

"La ' - in" What happened to the letter "T?"

Thanks for learning

Great video! Thank you! I have studied Latin on and off with the Lingua Latina series and have always read aloud. I believe that this is very helpful in the beginning stages of learning, especially if you have no good audio recordings. Do you agree? At what point would you stop reading aloud and focus on silent reading at a faster pace?

This video was what I requested in your other video. I'm studying arabic and have a bilingual book of Averroes, decisive treatise & epistle dedicatory. And I really want to thank you for your tips on how to use an billingual book.

100% agree with you.

i have no interest in language, but this video is motivating me so much to work harder at my norwegian studying

Though Familia Romana is really good for beginners to get reading Latin as early as possible, I find it ill prepares one for Roma Aeterna, where the complexity suddenly ramps up. It only works so well in the beginning because the constructions are so simple.

I don't see the links that are said to be located in the description. Am I missing something?

LOVE THIS!

Um, since learning ancient languages, like Latin and Ancient Greeks, usually involved a huge amount of grammar-translation. Did you ever encounter a moment, you understand the language when it's written down, but you can even grasp what's it when it's spoken by someone or an audiobook. Did you have any suggestions on breaking through it？(it sorta freaks me out when I had to put down the text which deeply annoyed me)

For those learning, Clozemaster is not terrible, in that it forces you to learn complete sentences, is definitely a quantity over quality approach. It is however only one vestibulum into the language.

Do these books come with a cd or something to correct myself. I’m Spanish speaker so it would be easy but the sounds are diff between ecclesiastical and classical

Here is the link to the course he ranted and raved about so much. It’s a playlist of videos read by somebody who has clearly dedicated an enormous amount of time and effort into mastering restored classical pronunciation such as that postulated to have been used by actual Roman speakers of Latin. Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata: ru-vid.com/group/PLU1WuLg45SiyrXahjvFahDuA060P487pV

Thank you for a marvellous video. As an early-intermediate audodidact that has used both Wheelock and lingua latina, I can attest to the superiority of the latter. You mention several times that you would link to both books and sources in the description, but i can't seem to find them? I also noticed a lack of citation in one of you other videos. I'm not doubting your knowledge or your integrity, but for a layman like myself with an interest in lingustical matters, it would be very interesting to continue exploring. In any case, gratias ago.

Thanks for this. You mention in your book that it is best to gather beginners courses with bi-lingual translations and audio. Lingua Latina does not have a translation. Will that prove to be a big obstacle when using the materials as a near absolute beginner?

EXCELLENT VIDEO!

excellent video ! do you think classical or ecclesiastical latin is "better" ? judging from your video about greek I would assume ecclesiastical latin ?

Why do keep pronouncing the word Latin with a glottal stop in the middle?

I’ve been reading Familia Romana for about 2 weeks now. I’m using it as if it’s a textbook and I’m trying to memorize stuff as I go along, which is taking some time as I tend to forget minor details. Should I do that, or just read without any attempt at memorization? Will I learn Latin just from reading these books as if they’re Written in English? Or does taking notes and studying these notes and memorizing stuff speed up the process?

Is there an equivalent but for german also? I can't really seem to find any

Can "Lingua Latina per se Illustrata" be used by absolute beginners to effectively learn Latin? Or do I need a bit of a background in Latin to use it well? Thanks!

LLPSI is not currently on Audible -- will there be an Audible version any time soon?

Will you also make a video for Ancient Greek, or was your video of Modern vs Ancient Greek suggesting that one should just start with Modern Greek and work backwards?

I watched this video then I passed my major art exam.... thankyou my friend Xx

For those in need of latin audio and speaking practice, it's hard to beat Evan Millner's Latinum. Worth every penny.

Thank you.

I wish I could know who this Deka Glossai is. His videos have helped me a lot. I don't know who he is, what his name is, and the link is broken to find his book on Amazon. Whowever you are Deka Glossai, well done!

So, there is no Greek version of this type of fluency learning method? I am also interested in ancient Greek. I studied Latin in college. I took the 101-104, then 110 (Virgil : Aeneid) and then Comparative Lantin and Greek grammar. And, even though I am through with the 2nd chapter of the first book, the ease of my reading and fluency is very noticeable. Thanks for the video.

Could anyone recommend me the best books you know to learn ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and the Akkadian language? I really need it. Congratulations for your channel, deka glossai, the most useful I found about ancient languages!

You mention putting the links to the mentioned resources in the description, but what links there are, are to Greek and Sanskrit. I would love to follow up on what you started here.

I liked this video better at 1.25x speed. Your diction is so clear it can readily be sped up without loss of information, which is great. Also I'm glad to see you back.

I’m currently learning Latin in school and I recommend it to everyone

Could you reference your source that shows that quantity of text is more useful than complexity of text for learning a new language? I am only finding the opposite.

I'm only interested in learning Latin to improve my English; would it be better to start with Italian first? Doing this for Greek (I speak French fluently & a little Spanish)?

Is it possible to get the books at a library

I can read latin, bow before me you peasants jk

This video kicks ass!

I am impressed by the books Claude Pavour has produced, especially the accelerated readers. Quid opinaris? And what do you think of the Ossa Mera of Fr. Foster?

I took 4 years of Latin in school and it never clicked too well with me. Later in life I learned Italian and then started hearing "eccesiastical Latin" spoken by the Pope and I was amazed how much I understood. If you pronounce Latin with the Italian pronunciation rules, it becomes MUCH easier to understand, plus it "sounds" more like a living language and thus becomes more engaging.

I'd also want to add that listening and reading are the most important skills for language learning in general.

Wonderful intro to Latin study.

I'm glad you're back, but where are your old videos?

this is amazing, i won't be learning Latin for a while i am interested in it. Im learning German now, im mostly missing vocab, i can understand a great deal, but my lack of a rich vocabulary is holding me back. Do you have any recommendations of books like these for German?

Have you considered Adler's Latin Grammar and Evan Der Millner's audio course based on it called Latinum? I think they're great. Thanks for the great video!

I was happy to find this video and particularly the suggestion on reading and re-reading until you can read at the speed of English. I've been studying Latin and Greek for years and was about to give up because, as he says, it takes me an hour or more of painstaking decoding to "read" a single page. I had tried Orberg a while back, but I struggled through Familia Romana finding the early chapters easy but the later ones hard. Re-reading each chapter repeatedly made FR much easier, and I completed it with great confidence in this method. However, both Orberg's and Deka Glossai's method fell apart pretty quickly once I got to Roma Aeterna. I'm up to chapter 43, and each chapter has been painful. I'm now back to an hour, even two, per page. The problem is, the inductive/natural method works well for simple Latin, like what you find in FR, but for the extremely complex and convoluted language of an author like Livy, you cannot inductively understand which words go where and you end up back in the same situation. Deka Glossai has a Ph.D. from, I believe, Columbia, so he's obviously a brilliant guy, and you have to take that into account when he says he can read text like that in RA fluently. For the rest of us, who just want to read Latin, the most we can hope to achieve is a reading fluency of very simple Latin like that in Beeson or the Vulgate. I'm done with Orberg, his method was good for FR but totally fails in RA.

Quid opinaris de libro "conversational Latin for oral proficiency", quem, nisi fallor, in tuis primis pelliculis commemoravisti? Estne is liber satis auxilio? Quoniam mox empturus sum Roma Aeterna paene perlecta.

Great video! I have very little experience with Latin. Would you recommend diving straight into Lingua Latina or doing some prep work before hand? I came across a method online that recommends memorizing most of the grammatical forms of words first, then going into Lingua Latina. I'm eager to start! Thanks for answering my question.

Where are the old videos where you got to see him in his cable-knit sweaters. I miss those....

I can’t find the “in usum Delphini.”

Here in the Netherlands when you study Latin in Secondary School you do sit down for an hour and try to translate a text, probably from a classic author like Cicero.

Ended up searching for relgious reasons and the roman Catholics speak latin at times figured it be wise to learn in case and it seemed cool

For me the best Latin reader is the multivolume ARABUM PROVERBIA, which allows me to further my knowledge of both Latin and Arabic at the same time. Two classical languages sharing a single space. But of course, I am an orientalist at heart. Recently I have also been studying Persian through the medium of Latin language texts. Latin ceases to be the object of study per se, but rather the means, an open window to other linguistic systems.

What's your recommended order for the LLPSI readers after RA?

Yes, you are 100% correct, learning a new language you must contain that language never think in others when speaking or reading it. Tho never forget the languages you do know, and especially not your native tongue as your brain is programmed in it and forgetting it will make it so you can never fully understand yourself. Tho Im leaning russian and not lating, I just wanted someone to explain to me the rules of classical latik writing so I dont butcher the pronounciations.

Great viedeo, but where are the links in the description? :O

Where are the links?

So are these two books for beginners?

Totally agree with you! Lingua Latina is a work of genius! I wish they would make the same thing for Greek and Sanskrit! Maybe that is a project for you, Deka Glossai!

Fantastic video. Can you suggest a good textbook for Modern Greek at B2 level ?

By the way, I'm curious to ask if you have a PhD in Classics or are in the related field of study. My goal is to get into Yale or Harvard for my post-graduate studies. So far, on my transcripts I have all As in Greek, Latin, Russian, and German. My goal is to add on Hebrew and French before graduating and applying to graduate school. Do you have any advice from the academic fields or are you completely self taught and hold no degree?

You are so intelligent.

me, a classically educated nerd: *sees my curriculum on screen* me: me: oh? my teachers were right?

Plana Terra, how is it pronounced ?

I read the cambridge latin in my latin class. I have no idea what in doing.

book links?

I probably have some hundreds of pages read, but Vergil is still hard.

Excellent advice for Latinists

so were are the links

Almost 50 years ago when I took Latin.we learned it as a spoken language. The same way you did any.language. I had 4 years of classical.Greek and 1 year of Biblical Hebrew. It was for word study of the Bible However in Greek we read the Illiad and Odyssey. That is several hundred pages each.

Nice

Hi Deka, I love your videos and they have influenced me more than a little in my studies. I'm about to finish FR for the seventh reading, I have read the Cambridge series 1-5 (5 times), I'm about to finish the Oxford series for the fifth time and I'm going to start the Reading Latin course and work through that 5 times. It would seem like overkill if it weren't for the very real and important data driven research behind comprehensible input. My question is this- do you think I should go onto Roma Aeterna after the Reading Latin course, or should I read some of the readers in the Orberg series. I know about the reputation of RA and I don't won't to set myself up for a fall. Anyway, I hope you can help me out here and thanks for the wonderful videos.