[jbarrs]

As an aside, I'd like to recommend to people the Cambridge Latin Course (https://www.cambridgescp.com/)

This was the course I followed learning Latin in school. Whilst it may be tailored more towards a school audience, much of the content of their books is available for free online, which includes lots of translation and vocabulary practice. The books and stories are all very light-hearted and fun and teach a lot about Roman history as you learn the language. This could make good supplementary learning material for anyone trying to teach themselves Latin for free.

[throw0101a]

I believe the other popular suggestion is Ørberg's Lingua Latīna:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_%C3%98rberg

[SilasX]

Yes! Orberg's is neat in that it's all in Latin, and you just infer what everything means from the pictures as you read.

I got referred to it from this earlier HN thread:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14448974

[billfruit]

I thought the common suggestion for a modern Latin textbook is Wheelock.

https://www.amazon.com/Wheelocks-Latin-7th/dp/0061997226#

[HuShifang]

From my own casual investigations, Wheelock is considered a perfectly good textbook (particularly for people with lots of experience learning languages, e.g. grad students in the humanities), but also a bit "traditional," focusing more on learning grammatical rules and less on developing an intuition for the language. Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata is at the other, "immersion"-oriented end of the spectrum.

[voldacar]

My latin teacher used both wheelock and lingua latina. They complement each other really well.

[throw0101a]

It is common, but that does not mean it's good, especially with all the research that's been done in learning over the past few decades. As someone remarked, Wheelock:

> It teaches about Latin, teaching you the Latin language is not the goal of this book […]

* https://old.reddit.com/r/latin/comments/8rp222/

Wheelock can be used as a technical reference if you want to know the exact structure. But it's like trying to read the C++ ISO spec if you want to program.

The consensus seems to be either Ørberg and/or Cambridge if you want dead-tree materials.

[andi999]

Why call it dead tree which sounds negative and not carbon sink instead...

[jthnews]

Yes, several other commenters have made that suggestion, and I agree it is a good one. This tool is aimed at those interested in a public domain text, or people who using other tools who are looking for additional practice in the form of interactive exercises with explanations.

[cambalache]

For me it is the best book for language learning I have ever seen, irrespective of the target language.

[jthnews]

Thanks for the link to a great resource. I don't mean to detract in any way from any of the other terrific resources available online - free or otherwise. I created selfstudyclassics.com to scratch a very particular itch. When I started to re-learn Latin after many years, I was looking for something which was focused on examples and featured a lot of practice with instant feedback - something like Khan Academy, which I love. My hope is that it is helpful to others with a similar itch.

[jbarrs]

Yes I totally understand, and I don't think you've detracted from the others at all. The more resources are available, and the more accessible they are for different learners and different styles of learning, the better.

[abhisuri97]

Ecce Romani gets no love despite the exciting saga of the main characters being stuck in a ditch for half a book.

[oliverobscure]

I have many fond memories of learning Latin with Ecce Romani. Raeda in fossa est, whatever will they do?

[ChefboyOG]

Who could forget the spiritual predecessor to the oregon trail, the via appia?

[tragomaskhalos]

It's really important that these texts have this lightness of mood to engage kids - and the way that so many adults remember Caecilius and family is a testament to how effective it is. Timeless too - I was amazed and delighted when my daughter used the exact same texts. In similar vein, for Greek we used Thrasymachus, which follows a plucky kid on his adventures encountering various characters from mythology.

[timthorn]

Also new this year for Lockdown, the Oak National Academy produced an intro course: https://classroom.thenational.academy/subjects-by-key-stage/...

[jthnews]

Wow, this is great. Thanks for the link. I hope to take Selfstudyclassics a little farther than this one goes over time, but this would be a great place for anyone to start.

[timthorn]

The other resource you might be interested in is Minimus, designed to introduce Primary school children to Latin, and to allow non-Latin speaking teachers to lead a course. None of the interactive elements you offer, though there are CDs :) http://www.minimus.com/

[gadders]

Caecilius est in horto.

[dbuder]

Caecilius est in Matella.

[wfreeborn]

Grumio est in Metella.

[_joel]

I can almost feel and smell the textbook.

[exdsq]

Caecilius in hortō sedet