Le Latin (5 CD audio + 1 CD mp3) (Latin Edition)

First, this is a course in French. If you cannot read/write French, then unfortunately, this is not for you.Assimil's courses are typically full of audio and light on grammar (though there is a longer grammar reference in the back). This course is not much different, and I love it for that. If you aren't sure what Assimil is, then a rough idea is this: Latin on the left, French on the right, grammar notes below. Each lesson has been recorded. The recordings are Latin only, usually between 1-4 minutes. The exercises (Latin -> French translation) are recorded as well and are great listening comprehension practice. There are 101 lessons which amount to just over 5 hours of audio.Just in case you are wondering: DON'T BUY THE BOOK ALONE. GET THE BOOK + AUDIO PACK. I know it is //Latin// and a dead language, "who am I going to speak it to", etc. Ignore that line of reasoning. Writing is a relatively new (on the timeline of humanity) invention, but learning languages is something we've been doing for eons. By ear. Trust your brain's ability to soak up language via sound. That's the only way we knew how to long ago. However, If you want that dry Latin course in a thick tome that drones on about grammar and gives you lots of translation exercises and stunningly long vocabulary lists, then this is not it.Back to the content now.The lessons are often humorous and involve people talking or what they are doing. Later lessons involve excerpts from texts and plays; they get fairly complicated but not inaccessibly so. I thought it was neat that they have excerpts from "The Little Prince" in Latin ("Regulus"), which have cute and memorable dialogues between the pilot and the Little Prince.In each lesson, you are expected to assimilate, through exposure, verbs and noun inflections and the grammar that controls them. The course can move a bit fast, but if you put in the effort of listening and reading along, you can do it. Sometimes, the authors tell you not to worry about a certain difficult construct for now, and they later cover it. This is the only course for Latin that I've seen that cares deeply about you actually learning to comprehend Latin when spoken at a normal pace.If you think you can listen once or twice and be done, you'll be frightfully mistaken. In fact, as a previous student of Latin, I assumed I would be fine -- turns out that I was basically starting from zero again. Going from written -> spoken was a headtrip. Latin is highly inflected and requires time to develop the mental muscles required to become accustomed to its patterns.The exercises at the end of each lesson are translation from Latin to French. I suggest that you don't read the text immediately, but instead, listen carefully and use them as a chance to test whether you comprehend what is being said. That's right, no crutches, no text. No doubt, the first time, you just hear a jumble of words and can't get a clear meaning. It's too fast, not sure where one word ends (does this sound like the complaints that other foreign language students have?). And so you listen to and read the main lesson again and again and gradually pick up on meaning. Eventually, it will click. "Holy crap. I understand what you're saying! How did I do that? I've never understood Latin before!" - That is the magic of Assimil and what motivated me every time it happened. Then you can transcribe it, check your transcription, translate it, and check your translation. Typical Assimil courses have 5 translation exercises, but in this one, especially in later lessons, the number of exercises gets really long (e.g. lesson 74 has 14 exercises), which is probably why there is 5 CDs (most courses have just four).Sometimes, the early lessons have little short songs instead of exercises, which is really cool. It really helps bring Latin to life and break up the monotony.The speakers represent some dialectical variations of Latin pronunciation. None really use the reconstructed classical pronunciation, but they don't definitely don't use the ecclesiastical (to me: Italian-sounding) pronunciation either. It's sort of simpler phonology (no nasal vowel allophones, vowel length not contrastive) that sounds closer to what I heard in classrooms. One woman has a strong French accent: her "r" sounds uvular, she tends to barely pronounce 'h', etc. Other speakers are different but generally "Romance"-esque. The authors are somewhat inconsistent about when they want to use long vowel marks (preferring to omit them), but they are mark stressed syllables in bold, which can signal long vowels in some words.I don't know if I would say that this is exactly Latin "sans peine" (without difficulty), but it's definitely Latin with Rewarding Results. Very different from typical Latin courses, which is probably why people who believe that Latin can only be learned through tons of translation exercises will hate this book and why you should consider it. It doesn't have lots of ancient texts, but once you've internalized the grammar, you probably won't struggle nearly as much.

My French needs to improve in order to fully benefit from this course.

A great help to any student of Latin. An amazing audio and print publication,

I am very upset at this book. I love the Assimil series and especially their classic language treatment (Le Sanskrit, Le Grec Ancien). Le Latin also has the potential to be a great book, but the design Assimil chose here is terrible. Instead of the eye-pleasing blue as in all the other Assimil books, they are using a red font throughout. It's not even a "real red" but kind of ugly "lipstick-pink-red". What's worse, the page notes and grammar comments and literal translations are all in a very thin italic grey font that is very hard to read. This font is so faint that the letters and designs of the opposing pages shine through at places.It's a pity, cause this is potentially another great book in a great series, but as is I cannot recommend it. You will spend more time trying to decipher the text than actually studying Latin.PS: This book also is grossly overpriced on the Amazon US site. Order from Amazon France to get it for less than half the price!

A mi me parece un método muy ameno, aunque creo que no es para principiantes, debes tener un nivel intermedio para disfrutarlo

Excellent ouvrage ! Longtemps après avoir pratiqué avec plus ou moins de bonheur un latin scolaire parfois tristounet, j'avais envie de m'y remettre pour le plaisir. Quelle bonne idée ! C'est effectivement très plaisant de redécouvrir cette langue au travers de petits textes souvent très drôles. Je suis sûr que la méthode conviendrait également à un débutant intégral. C'est vivant dès la première leçon et drôle dès la deuxième. Concernant les enregistrements, j'ai hésité à les acheter. La prononciation latine n'étant vraiment pas très compliquée, je n'en avais sans doute pas besoin. C'est vrai, mais c'est tout aussi vrai que je ne regrette pas du tout de les avoir finalement pris car c'est un plaisir très rare que de se promener en ville en écoutant des blagues en latin sur son smartphone et c'est excellent pour la mémorisation. Enfin, le choix des textes donne un très large aperçu de tout ce que l'on peut trouver en latin : de l'Antiquité à l'époque contemporaine et dans tous les registres.

I am very upset at this book. I love the Assimil series and especially their classic language treatment (Le Sanskrit, Le Grec Ancien). Le Latin also has the potential to be a great book, but the typesetting Assimil chose here is terrible. Instead of the eye-pleasing blue and black as in all the other Assimil books, they are using a red font throughout. It's not even a "real red" but kind of ugly "lipstick-pink-red". What's worse, the page notes, grammar comments and literal translations are all in a very thin italic greyish font that is very hard to read. This font is so faint that letters and designs of the opposing pages shine through at places.It's a great pity, cause this is potentially another great book in a great series, but as is I cannot recommend it. You will spend more effort trying to decipher the text than actually studying Latin.PS: If and when Assimil changes the typeset back to blue/black this book will get 5 stars.

Della stessa serie comprai già il greco antico, lo spagnolo, il francese e mai mi hanno deluso permettendomi di migliorare le mie conoscenze linguistiche con ironia e divertimento

Très bonne qualité.Dommage qu’il n’y ait pas de complément par un support audio.