A big red flag with the teaching methods discussed here is saying that you don’t need a teacher who knows Latin well to teach it. You cannot teach what you do not thoroughly know. You can try learning together, but you need an outside teacher to aide then. As far as grammar, I am in agreement that grammar studies are essential, but grammar-translation methods should not be the exclusive teaching. This has been used for centuries with poor results. Grammar translation needs to be supplemented with massive amounts of comprehensible input. The student who couldn’t translate the text needed grammar basis, but also more comprehensible input to build up his or her vocabulary

Apologies for typos and auto-correct. That’s part of the danger of watching videos on a phone and commenting. Anyway, I appreciate the educational videos and what you are doing

Our curriculum equips students to do both!

That sounds intriguing. Is Scottish Gaelic really similar enough to Latin to pursue the study of SG?

What is then?

@@David-cm4ok 1. Latin grammar prepares one for most Indo-European grammar, and likely much outside it. That is why Latin is taught. 2. Grammar is taught incorrectly in every textbook I have seen. For example, the main grammar is presented at the end. You will read nothing authentic without it. 3. The aim in mastering a language is vocabulary and using authentic grammar. The grammar is presented in one day and the student starts reading a real text day one. Asterix is a good example. Stick with one author until you are comfortable with the language. Wasting 4-6 years on grammar is silly. Why do they teach grammar instead of vocabulary? Because the answer to 'Give me the accusative singular of Caesaris,' is right or wrong. The answer to 'Describe in Latin what Caesar did in Gaul,' is open to eternal debate.

@@aSnailCyclopsNamedSteve Thanks for the reply. I’m struggling with my Spanish just now, but understand that we go through phases like this when learning a new language. I was interested to know about Latin and can see what you mean. By authentic grammar, do you mean applying it within the context of what you’ve just learned?

@@David-cm4ok I studied Spanish when I was still young and my ideas were not yet full formed. Spanish grammar is going to be closer to English than Latin and Latin will not help you with Spanish grammar. What do I mean? Spanish grammar is going to be more about selecting the right words and putting them in an appropriate order to avoid confusion and to impart a specific meaning. Latin is so much more. According to one academic paper, Slavic requires learning a core vocabulary of 9000 words, English 18000 words, in order to achieve real basic fluency. Spanish will be between these two figures, but since it relies more on a single language base (fewer near synonyms), let us say 10000 words. You can immediately see the problem with any textbook as they rarely teach anything close to 3000 words. Yes, you can survive with a 2000 word vocabulary but you are going to be very limited in comprehension. Now, just as the textbook has taught you the base vocabulary, so it has taught you the base grammar. You can express basic thoughts, but nuances are going to escape you. As an English speaker, you immediately recognise that, 'Yeah, right,' likely has the opposite meaning to the dictionary definitions. Such gems are unlikely to be found in standard textbooks; you need to read real texts. Or take that semicolon I just used. Likely you were technically taught how to use it, but did you really master it in class? How many semicolons did your textbook even contain?

One of the myths promulgated by language textbooks and exams is that people need to achieve general fluency. For example, sit a C1 exam and you need to be prepared for a text using fairly technical sports language. (The specific test may contain no athletics-related terms, but you need to be ready in case it does.) If you don't like sports, this is hard work. What you really want to achieve is basic fluency plus topical fluency. Mine is in archaeology, although the new interdisciplinary nature of science now means a knowledge of advanced chemistry and advanced mathematics are also required for fluency in archaeology. I am a person who adds 2 + 2 on a calculator and gets 3 half the time and 5 the other half. So, life gets fun. What you need to determine is why you want to know Spanish and achieve topical fluency, which is far easier to do. You may not pass any exams doing that, but you can find work and friends that way. There is nothing like someone who clearly speaks your native language as a second language pointing out your mistakes in your native language. That is what topical fluency means.