It’s not an easy thing to do, and it’s harder when you’re a grown up with a real job ( as I am ). That said, I find it incredibly worth it and wish I had been exposed to this language earlier.
First, whatever material you use, you will be greatly enriched as a person. Name another language book where by chapter 13 you’re talking about the nature of virtue and honor instead of “A la plage” or some trivial inanity that “non-dead” languages use.
If you learn classical latin, from a grammatical perspective ( Wheelock, not Cambridge ), you will be exposed to a discipline of assiduously dissecting problems or assiduously building up from basics. Latin is extremely regular ( and even the exceptions tend to follow a paradigm ) and it teaches a focus and the ability to operate through text much the same way that a complier works through code.
And this is the biggest payoff, if you should choose to go into the computing sciences ( or any sciences ) your mind is so conditioned for memorization, association, and ‘the subroutines’ you need to conjugate verbs or decline nouns, any other “mental programming” you seek to instill into yourself will find a fertile soil in which to take root.
To say nothing that Latin reveals the hidden mysteries behind many laungages. Just the simple notion that “cum” ( with ) is usually compounded as “com” in english words allows a joyful etymological conversation to take place. Just as above compound is cum + ponere (to put) compound == “put together”. It’s a much richer world your ears live in afterward.
Lastly, your sense of grammar will be attuned so finely, you’ll write much more clearly and have a much easier time sorting out many grammatical terms that you either use incorrectly or lingustic richness that you simply don’t know are available to you ( like only playing 4 strings of a guitar and then realizing there are two more! ).
The benefits are not necessarily obvious, but the are greatly enriching.
