Gwynne's Latin: The Ultimate Introduction to Latin Including the Latin in Everyday English

I bought the book for a basic knowledge of Latin. Will read it once again. This time with more concentration.

This book is not only a compact size for bringing wherever you want to go but it is exceptionally written. As the author states, it is meant to provide you a Latin learning resource up to a high level, to prepare you to learn more through reading, etc. It is finally a foundation resource for learning Latin much needed. I personally think Mr. Gwynne's way of teaching Latin is proper and serves to educate you as a Classics student would be in the prime of learning pre-1960's. I simply love this book, now one of my favorite language books ever.

My wife and I are home educating our two children now aged eleven and thirteen. Three years ago we decided to introduce them to Latin via the Cambridge Latin Course. The children enjoyed the entertaining material but, after a years study, it became apparent that they were not actually learning Latin at all. There were merely learning to guess at the grammar of carefully contrived texts written according to a themed story. You cannot guess at the grammar of an ancient language so this course was leading nowhere useful. In the summer of 2014 I read the newly published Gwynne’s Latin. The arguments for memorising all the Latin grammar were most compelling as well as the explanation of why modern teaching methods prevent children from becoming fully functional in Latin. We were so convinced by Gwynne’s Latin that we abandoned the Cambridge Course and started again with Gwynne’s Latin following the book verbatim. It has, to say the least, been an interesting experience. Both children adapted very quickly to learning grammar and vocabulary by heart. For example, the verb ‘Amo – I love’ has 144 endings. These, like other verbs, have to be committed to memory. This is not difficult if you learn to recite the conjugations out loud as they have a natural cadence. These are very well demonstrated by Chloe Gwynne on the book's website. With twenty minutes practice each day it took the children about three months before they were able to use the grammar and vocabulary to translate English into Latin without reference. This is something not even required in secondary examinations. The confidence this instils in them is notable and they both find the experience very satisfying. Their ability to learn large amounts of complex information has been considerably expanded and, as a result, the elder child will commence the learning of classical Greek in the Autumn. This is an even greater test of memory and really would not be possible without the experience of learning, and applying from memory, complex Latin grammar. Latin has become a big part of our lives and, as a family, we are more than satisfied with Gwynne’s teaching. He has raised our expectations considerably. There appears to be some kind of institutional bias against learning by heart. This is misplaced. Many professions require lots of complex information to be committed to memory. Why not include this form of teaching in schools? As Neville Gwynne points out it worked well up until the 1960’s. Gwynne’s Latin is not easy but neither is it overly hard. It has worked for us because we embraced the need to learn grammar and vocabulary by heart. Far from being a chore this is, in practice, enjoyable and something the children actively enjoy.

Mr. Gwynne is true to his word: learning Latin is one heck of a challenge especially for someone is his late sixties but his book makes it fun unlike that of my grade ten teacher. Even if you don't take the plunge and struggle with all those declensions, it is well worth reading. I am very glad that I own it.

If you believe the author is right, you might as well go find tables of declensions, conjugations, participles etc.. anywhere online and memorize them. If, however, you believe context, explanations and especially exercises (maybe even some inspiring texts) are important too I'd recommend the excellent 'Wheelock's Latin' or truly any other books that try harder to actually engage, capture and help the student. I use this book now only for its very clear tables, since I prefer the full-list, English style (nom, voc, acc, gen, dat, abl).