Colloquia Personarum (Lingua Latina) (Latin Edition) First Edition

I bought this years ago. But I still go back to it frequently just for the pleasure of reading a bit of graded Latin. I wish there were more readers like it.One of the reasons I like it so much is that it gives me a chance to increase the number of Latin sentences I have processed. For me it now approaches the ease with which I read English, my native language.I found when starting out with this series that I understood little at the first reading. But as I read repeatedly what was opaque became clear as if by magic. I believe that repeated exposure to Latin material mimics the natural language learning process.No one ever learned their native language by memorizing declensions or using flash cards to learn vocabulary. They learned by prolonged and repeated exposure to simple material.I have heard it said that we all have a built in grammar engine that allows us to learn grammar with exposure. I think repeated reading helps in the same way. Sadly there is not much interesting aural material to help you learn to hear the Latin. I often read out loud (to my wife's annoyance). I try to figure out how the words should sound and how the sentences should flow, it's rhythms and phrasing. There is a lot of Latin on YouTube. Evan der Millner is particularly prolific. I subscribe and support him on Patreon. You can hear Latin spoken there.

The text in "Colloquia Personarum" is a necessary supplement to "Lingua Latina per se Illlustrata." The text is several degrees easier than the chapter that it expands. And the narrative Ørberg provides clarifies the story line in the primary text. The book is a pleasant experience after slogging through new vocabulary and new grammar presented in the same chapter in the primary text. As the title says, the book consists of dialogues among characters already presented in the primary text. Consequently, this little book is a great help to those who not only wish to read Latin but to also speak it.

I used this book in direct combination with the base Orberg text  Lingua Latina: Pars I: Familia Romana (Latin Edition) (Pt. 1) , and my satisfaction with the volume is untempered by the slightest scintilla of complaint. After pawing through each of chapters in the source book, I read through the matching colloquium, and the experience was sublime, because the struggle of the original is shown to pay off with fluent comprehension of the auxiliary dialogues. For this reason I used this product as a test manual to gauge my comfort with the lessons and vocab of the Familia: if I could get it at one go, I was good to advance; otherwise I needed to go back and review before moving forward.Another of the benefits of the text was that it carries on with the same stories and characters as are found in Familia Romana. To most readers I understand that this will not seem important, but it provides a social context for the language which is vital for acquisition. When you hear language used by a character you know is a pig-headed student, you receive it differently from the same speech coming from a good boy or a lazy slave or caring father. Adding more stories with the same characters not only allows more chances to reinforce concepts of grammar and usage, it also helps the text develop social sense and not appear dry and unconnected to anything the reader has experienced.When I learned Greek, I did it without the benefit of materials such as this. How miserable then was life, and how happy, oh so very happy, am I now in comparison.

One commenter on a previous review requested information on this 79 page book of Latin stories meant to accompany Hans Orberg's Latin text Lingua Latina. Like Orberg's text Lingua Latina, Colloquia Personarum is written entirely in Latin. Unlike Lingua Latina, which has descriptive pictures and information in the margins, much less help is given the reader, who follows the same cast of characters introduced in Lingua Latina, but in new stories that expand on those given in the Lingua Latina text. The difficulty of the vocabulary and grammar in each story corresponds with the progress students are making chapter by chapter in Lingua Latina. Gradually the stories become more difficult to read and make more demands on the reader.A Roman family consisting of a father, mother, their three children and one hundred servants and slaves form the foundation for Orberg to construct entertaining stories of life in ancient Rome and its surroundings. Orberg's intention is for the reader to enjoy the stories in Latin without translating them into English. For the most part, it is possible to do this if the student has carefully learned the lessons in each chapter of Lingua Latina.Those readers not using Orberg's text might enjoy the entertaining stories in Colloquia Personarum to practice reading a carefully graded first year program designed to improve comprehension and facility with the Latin language.

This book is a small supplement to the main textbook,  Lingua Latina per se Illustrata, Pars I: Familia Romana . Lingua Latina per se Illustrata is probably the best book for learning Latin, especially if you are learning on your own.This supplement is only 80 pages, so it's pretty expensive for how small it is. However, it is excellent and I strongly recommend it. It gives additional readings for the vocabulary you've already learned in the main textbook. This kind of "comprehensible input" is invaluable in acquiring a language.Unfortunately, for me this book suffers from the same weakness as its parent book, Lingua Latina: Familia Romana. That is to say, the readings aren't very interesting, for an adult at least. Many of them were tedious to get through, some even annoying. If you can make yourself read them, you will learn a lot of Latin, though.Another textbook series that I like a lot is  Cambridge Latin Course: Unit 1, North American 4th Edition

This book is designed to be read alongside  Lingua Latina per se Illustrata pars I: familia romana , that is to say chapter I of Colloquia Personarum is to be read after chapter I of Familia Romana, and so on.The title means 'people's conversations' and the book contains just that - conversations between characters met in Familia Romana, which are related to the stories found in that book (it's almost like a 'behind the scenes' or 'meanwhile' addition to the main stories).Do be aware that the book is very thin - only 80 pages long - which some might feel does not justify the price. If you can afford it, it is good extra practice. If you can't, don't worry: it is not essential to the main course. Lingua Latina per se Illustrata pars I: familia romana

Lovely little stories to go with the chapters in Familia Romana. Like FR, the stories are enjoyable in their own right, and like FR, I was sad when I finished it!

Short dialogues accompanying the Lingua Latina main book, adding some extra reading to exercise your Latin. Many of these are really fun to read and that is, of course, motivating :)

Wem die Orberg-Reihe gefällt, dem wird auch dieser dünne Band gefallen. Auf Rund 80 Seiten wird hier der Schwerpunkt auf Dialoge gesetzt. Die Dialoge orientieren sich lose an den Geschichten von "Lingua Latina I" und dienen zur Übung und Vertiefung (Übungen zum Text gibt es hier allerdings *nicht*). Die Texte sind ebenfalls "per se illustrata" - also aus sich heraus verständl., dank Kontext, knappen Hinweisen am Seitenrand sowie Abbildungen. Wem das nicht genügt, sollte mal einen Blick in "Latin for Oral Proficiency" werfen (gibt's vermutlich nur über die Englischen Amazon Seiten). Dort finden sich ebenfalls haufenweise Dialoge auf Latein - thematisch sortiert - inkl. engl. Parallelübersetzung.

Amusing and indispensable to anyone working their way through Lingua Latina per se Illustrata Pars I.