learn Latin

During lunch today at the plant a friend of mine noticed my Latin flash cards and picked them up and thumbed through them finally asking, “Are you thinking ‘bout becoming a priest?”

When I said that I wasn’t in training to be a priest he asked, without a smirk, “Then why would you waste your time on it?”

I picked up a copy of Dale Grote’s A Comprehensive Guide to Wheelock’s Latin and am very pleased with the work. Grote does an excellent job aiding the student with the elements of grammar which I badly need for I am someone who hasn’t serious thought about grammar in a decade or more.

I have put a hold on my study of German in order to focus on Latin. My approach is a xerox of what I had been doing in German namely, memorizing vocab though now with the pleasure of a guide through the language of study. Wheelock seems to have been an intersting fellow who began work on his textbook at the time WWII vets were returning to college. He saw the need for a text that would reach the sensibilities of his post-war students.

I find the text delightful and though my progress is stubbornly slow I am content.

A few days ago Wheelock’s Latin was delivered to my country door. As I ripped open the package and held the volume in my hands I felt awe. Awe at the Latin language itself; awe for the strange occasion that somebody like me could study this storied tongue; awe that finally I was going to pursue something I had for many years ruminated on.

I am waiting for our friends at amazon.com to deliver Wheelock’s Latin. I know it’s not true, but I feel like I’m learning the language of the angels.