<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Latin Comprehension
Review: I am a current student of the Ecce series. Student comes from the Latin verb STUDEO which means not to merely to study but to be eager. This series is the best textbook I have used in my entire schooling career in any language (I've tried three of them). For middleschool (6-8 grade), freshman (9), or sophomore (10) level pupils (from pupae meaning dolls) the story is engaging and follows children who are more our age. I have developed a great ability of reading comprehension due to this series. In fact, my magistra (teacher) chose to use this series at her own expense over the district sanctioned Latin for Americans series for the very reason of comprehension passages instead of just boring sentences. From the first day you are reading complex sentences, bu they are presented in simple enough vocabulary and in English syntax so you can understand them. Anyone who has taken a textbook based language course can remember phrases like: the sailor sails; the soldier marches; the swimmer swims, (these examples were taken from the form of Latin for Americans.) BUT there are no such boring single sentence, unrelated translation sections in Ecce. In the third year (junior, 11 grade) book I am currently in, the story ends and students go on to read actual letters written by Pliny and other great historical Romans. There is the requisite section on Caesar, but with careful selection of passages to include only narrations which fit with the style of Latin learned previously. The first two years give one a solid base in the language and Roman life while the third gives one the opportunity to learn Roman history by reading from the historians, statesmen, and graffiti of the time. I credit this program for making me, a very poor language student indeed (this being the third one I've tried having quit the other two out of boredom), a gold and two time silver medalist on the National Latin Exam, which is now administered worldwide, www.nle.org.
Rating: 
Summary: Try CLC instead
Review: On a whole, the Cambridge Latin Course is a much better way to learn Latin. The four books are much better layed out and the stories are less depressing. (except when mons Vesuvius goes off!)
Rating: 
Summary: Breathes life into a dead language!
Review: This is the first text book I used when I learned latin back in fifth grade (many a year ago!), and I still value the approach it took in awakening my interest and understanding of not just the language, but the culture, the history, the politics, the context of the Roman people and their language. The text is filled with short 'stories' written in latin that encourage students to interact with the language in a living context, rather than treating the language as a dead, unusable language, as most latin texts do. This text engaged my imagination, fascinated me, and inspired me as an an adult to visit Italy to see the ruins, the town of Pompeii, and other sites that I first learned about through its pages. I thank this text for allowing me to translate latin I encountered in European Cathedrals I visited, as well. There are few texts from my grammar school years that I can recall, let alone praise (hint, I'm nearing 30...), but Ecce Romani is one that still cherish for the impact it had on me as a student, and the lasting effects I've been able to trace in my life.
<< 1 >>
|
