Looking to learn
Latin
online? Learning
Latin
from scratch is a multiple year-long commitment. It requires both persistence, but also a proper strategy for interfacing with
Latin
speakers.
This said, it is never enough to simply take online courses and hope that you’ll reach fluency. Interacting with native speakers, understanding their regional origins, and frequent immersion are vital, and when combined with an online course routine, you’ll reach your goals in no time.
In this post, we’ll cover 5 ways to learn
Latin
online so you can reach your
Latin
goals sooner and on your own time.
In the last year, ChatGPT has gone from being quite an impressive innovation to an incredibly useful tool with a constantly diminishing risk of error.
And with ChatGPT’s voice mode, you can practice
Latin
as if you were speaking with a native speaker in real time.
While this mode is typically only practical on occasion, and ChatGPT isn’t always up to date on slang and changes in the language’s etymology, it is a great tool to practice the basics and check yourself as you come up with
Latin
sentences on your own.
The models available with the premium version are much more reliable and have great value in supplementing everything else.
Pro Tip: For a more natural implementation of ChatGPT, use BrowserTranslate to learn
Latin
while browsing the web. Highlight text you don’t understand, and the extension will provide instant translations and insights, giving you an extra layer of practice outside of ChatGPT conversations.
Many courses will slowly take you through these ropes, but oftentimes understanding the general scope of
Latin
grammar will set the stage.
There are several articles on the web that provide an overview of how
Latin
structure works, including word order, possession, and more.
Spend some time digesting this information so that going forward, as you encounter new phrases and vocabulary, you’ll be more aware of what’s actually going on.
While simply relying on online
Latin
courses is not enough to learn
Latin
to fluency, it is still an important route to acquiring the building blocks of
Latin
.
Online
Latin
courses are ways to quickly acquire a ton of relevant vocabulary, that way you won’t be wasting immersion time trying to catch up on the basics.
You can find official
Latin
courses on platforms like Udemy, Mango, Drops, etc, or you can find well crafted courses on YouTube.
All of these options can open doors to quick mastery of basic vocabulary and sentence structures so you can focus on more nuanced things during your immersion routine.
It’s a no-brainer that speaking with real native
Latin
speakers is an absolute must when learning
Latin
from scratch.
Good news is now that conferencing softwares like Zoom and Google Meet work very well, you can easily find a
Latin
tutor to work with you on an hour-by-hour basis.
Apps like italki and HelloTalk allow you to find tutors in a social media-like manner, reducing the barrier to finding native speakers to learn from. In exchange, these people seek to learn English from you, making it a valuable 50/50 exchange.
However, not all of the people on these apps are necessarily good teachers, so finding a qualified
Latin
instructor who will meet over Zoom will surely get you to the next level.
Practicing with native speakers is a must for learning languages, but as the world becomes more and more digital, learning to understand the
Latin
social media culture is a great way to be more in touch with the
Latin
community in general.
Find some
Latin
influencers on Instagram, Facebook, etc, whose content you can keep up with. This will open an avenue to understanding the constantly evolving landscape of
Latin
slang trends and, more importantly, allow you to quickly consume conversational applications of
Latin
to keep in your back pocket.
While practicing this routine, using Google Translate or even ChatGPT to translate phrases 1 at a time is highly inefficient and unmotivating.
By using browser extensions like BrowserTranslate, you can learn how the
Latin
phrases you encounter on the web work in real-time.
BrowserTranslate allows you to highlight any text in the browser, press the translate button that appears, and read a detailed breakdown of the vocabulary, grammar, translation, and formality context of the selected text.
Click here to download the extension, connect your ChatGPT account, and start learning from the web today.