So you really want to learn Latin Book 1

I have worked with Wheelock's Latin, and Lingua Latina. Both strike me as terrific books. However, in working through Wheelock's I realized that I had to wade through a lot of interesting material to get to the core for each chapter. There is nothing wrong with this. However, I realized that I was looking for a way that got me deeper into Latin faster. First I tried Lingua Latina. I loved that book, and perhaps unreasonably worship it. However, after five chapters I realized that I was losing track of the new vocabulary and declensions, as they were given out piecemeal, despite doing the exercises. I decided that, at least for me as an at home learner, I perhaps needed a book with the fundamentals of Latin first, then I could return to Lingua Latina. This was when I found "So You really want to learn...." I cannot praise this clever little book enough. It is fun, and seems simple, but it is not. Rather, it is both rigorous and essential. It is so masterfully laid out and structured that it is a pleasure to work with this book. I am half way done the first one, and will order the other two. I love this book, and I love Latin. I have been struggling with Ancient Greek for a long time, and do not love it, but I respect it immensely and now am at a more advanced level. With both, I will be somewhat less ignorant, and have a lot of pleasure in the process! Robert Girvan, Canada

I am a self-learner wanting to truly understand Latin. I picked up Lingua Latina (Familia Romana) including the workbook (and a companion guide) and immediately had an issue--while I seemed able to "read" Lingua Latina and comprehend it when I actually tried to answer the questions in the work book I was CONSTANTLY getting the wrong answer! I believe some might be clever enough to learn via the Natural method without classroom instruction but I am, alas, alone in this endeavor. So, I searched and searched and searched and, to be frank, I judged this book by its cover--anyone who could affix a title to such an illustration seemed sufficiently no-nonsense enough and...IT WORKS! I'm only about half-way through (and I do indeed plan on purchasing the other course books in due time) but I am ACTUALLY LEARNING LATIN! The method Oulton employs seems shockingly simple but very effective (and the YouTube videos are a nice complement). So, buy the book, have a pen and composition book ready (it's ALL about info on the left page/exercises on the right) and get to work!

This is an excellent book. I can see it working in both home-school and brick-and-mortar school environments. It was written by a British author, and so the order of presentation of the cases in declension charts is the UK order: nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative. There is an associated youtube channel. Book one contains 300+ words of vocabulary broken up over ten chapters. It treats the first three declensions with basic uses for all cases, all four conjugations (present, imperfect, future, and perfect tenses, active only), and the verb "to be." The format: material to be learned is on the left hand page, with exercises on that material on the right. It would likely work for the first semester of a high school course or the first year of a middle-school course. A teacher would want to supplement the very short articles about Roman history with YouTube videos and outside reading. The price--at a fraction of what the rapacious textbook companies charge--is very reasonable. The only problem with adopting it for classroom use is that it is produced in the UK. I don't know how easy it would be to buy in bulk in the US. Perhaps it wouldn't be difficult at all.

I've tried Latin curriculums from "Classical" homeschool curriculum companies and they all had videos, or childish storytelling and either I couldn't keep up with it or my kids were repulsed by the cartoonishness. This has been perfect. It's simple to understand. It's not childish, snobby, or unnecessarily complicated. There are no jingles and songs to chant. It's just straight forward lessons for a child or adult who's a competent reader- which is when Latin is best started. I have a 12 year old jock who reaches for his a Latin book every morning without prompting. It's a fun mental puzzle that he feels proud he can accomplish.

This was exactly what I needed. I haven’t studied Latin in years, and wanted to learn it again. This book was fantastic at reinforcing old concepts and drilling everything into my brain again. The left-hand pages give information to learn and memorize, and the right-hand pages provide exercises. I found it to be an excellent system, and I think it was a great first step towards learning Latin again. I’d highly recommend it to anyone teaching themselves Latin, and I’m looking forward to working through the other two books in the series.

Arrived really fast and I am impressed with the quality

I like the way this presents the subject

When I was school age, I learnt a little bit of Latin and recently decided that because it is such a beautiful language, I wanted to get into it again. After looking online I decided not to take a paid course and to learn it for myself at my own pace. Amazon, as ever, came up trumps and I came across these "So you really want to learn Latin" books. I ordered books 1, 2 and 3 (with their respective answer books) and am now steadily working through book 1. Believe me, you will learn quickly with these books. Grammar, verbs, nouns, prepositions etc are all presented in bite-size chunks and are well explained with examples. I highly recommend buying books 1-3 with answer books. Enjoy the ride!!!

Excellent book with the most thorough painstaking preparation .

Clear, precise explanations and good exercises. Text is properly bound and durable.