J. Boo’s Reviews > The Road to Latin: A First-Year Latin Book > Status Update
J. Boo
is on page 43 of 544
Unusually, "Road" embraces 1st declension nouns. For newbies, these are nearly all feminine. Most latin books introduce the masc./neuter second declension quickly, but here Ch. IV has a girl carrying a little flower-filled basket to statues of goddesses, and Ch. V sends the women to a cute shop. Glancing ahead, we don't buckle on our swords until Ch. XII, and the Britons won't attack a Roman fort until Ch. XIV.
— Oct 05, 2022 10:13PM
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J.’s Previous Updates
J. Boo
is on page 112 of 544
Still plugging away at this, now on chapter XV. Spring baseball & softball will be starting soon, which should increase the speed at which I'm going through the material. Makes the games and practices a lot more tolerable.
— Feb 21, 2023 02:14PM
J. Boo
is on page 123 of 544
Almost finished chapter 12. The masculine second declension is introduced here, which means a messenger is announcing war in Gaul and a small child (accurately) comments that all boys desire swords. So much for our beloved baskets of red and white roses!
My progress has slowed with baseball season over. I no longer have interminable hours of practices/games to work on Latin. Kid's basketball takes a lot less time.
— Jan 11, 2023 07:40PM
My progress has slowed with baseball season over. I no longer have interminable hours of practices/games to work on Latin. Kid's basketball takes a lot less time.
J. Boo
is on page 47 of 544
I've discovered a Latin teacher who likes "The Road to Latin" book enough that he's created a website and a series of Youtube videos for the text. Videos are being posted right now; "MrC Latin" is covering a chapter a week, with two videos per chapter. An unexpected bonus!
Currently on Chapter VII. Also doing Duolingo Latin and helping DS1/DD1 with their separate Latin textbooks (Gryphis and LfC).
— Oct 21, 2022 04:58PM
Currently on Chapter VII. Also doing Duolingo Latin and helping DS1/DD1 with their separate Latin textbooks (Gryphis and LfC).
J. Boo
is on page 33 of 544
Moving right along in this textbook, currently in the midst of chapter IV. I like that there are a LOT of sentences to read & translate between the languages. I do not like the organization. Words & grammatical principles are introduced first in Latin text, for students to figure out in context, and then are explained in English. This risks the student getting it wrong and, worse, internalizing that wrong answer.
— Sep 30, 2022 12:09PM
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Well, in fairness, this is very early on, so it's hard to get that much excitement in the text. (*)From the Ch. IV reading: "Corbula Marcellae est rosārum albārum plēna. Marcella statuās deārum ōrnat; corōnae deās dēlectant."
'Marcella's little basket has plenty of white roses. Marcella decorates the statues of the goddesses; the floral wreaths delight the goddesses.'
It seems like bait and switch for the girly-girl type, because the later chapters go heavily into blood and death. Primary goal is, I think, to support the second year Latin curriculum of the time period, which had students go right into Caesar's Dē Bellō Gallicō. You can see this in the text -- they highlight that "Stress should be laid upon [the vocabulary] included in the word list issued by the College Entrance Examination Board". The words for women and farmer are not on that list, but the words for 'line of march', 'the tenth part of a Roman legion', and 'to get control of' are.
(*) There are exceptions - if I remember correctly, "Kraken Latin" has a pirate show up in the first chapter to save a princess from a sea monster, and Ball's "Reading Classical Latin: A Reasonable Approach" starts students off with a heavily annotated excerpt from Hyginus's "Fables".
Latin has plenty of words for shopping and decorating, but we didn't learn them, just the marching and subduing words.
(I cherish my Greek primer, which included "the judge drove the lion back into the sea.")