A Latin Manifesto

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What, in your view, is the biggest problem facing those wanting to learn Latin?

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A huge obstacle sits between the average Catholic in the pew, and the resources of the

Church that are in Latin. For it does not matter whether you are a devotee of the Latin Mass

or interested in the teachings of Vatican II – or both. Either way, learning this language poses

a challenge and it has nothing to do with the capacity of the individual learner.

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Think about the experience of most Latin teachers and tutors. Most likely they learned this

language over long years, maybe working on it (as I did) for several hours a day. And now, in

adult life, you — as a learner — are expected to digest in short order, and in a much shorter

amount of time, the same “fundamentals” that it took the teacher an age to acquire.

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This disconnect is almost never addressed by adult Latin courses and classes but here we

have addressed it.

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How does the course you offer try to solve it?

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We have thought carefully about what you need to know, and the skills you need to gain in

order to enjoy reading Latin. Our course instills knowledge of these skills from the get go. It

gets you practising the skills and it does so entirely in the context of the best loved prayers of

Catholic tradition.

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There is therefore a sizeable difference between this experience that you will have with the

Ave Maria (and other prayers), on the one hand, and the older style of learning long tables

that are difficult for anyone to remember.

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At the same time, we take the grammar of the language very seriously. (It is not this that we

object to, just the standard method of acquiring it!) The difference between our course and

others is that you will come to understand this grammar, from the beginning, in the way that

a very competent Latinist already understands it.

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More details on the structure of the entire course is set out below but why should you trust

your tutor?

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Why are you the person to provide the solution, even if it works?

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It would be true to say that I have had a fairly distinctive experience of Latin, one that

probably has more to do with its original roots in mediaeval times than with the structure of

most modern education.

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The high school I went to had been teaching Latin, at a surprisingly slow and calm pace, for

about 500 years. By the time I got there, it is true that it was optional from the age of 13.

However, what (I think) this age-old experience brought to the table was a sense that we did

not have to learn all the grammar tables in one single shot of a few months. Since this only –

for most people – causes stress, I looked on with horror as my sister was forced to learn the

pluperfect after about three weeks. Was she already comfortable with the rest of the material

of the first three weeks? It seems that only one group was really being taught in that

scenario: those who instantly felt comfortable with the material. Not everyone is part of this

group and I am not sure I would be writing these words if that kind of education had been my

pathway.

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You might be interested that it is quite likely that Thomas More attended the same school

that, hundreds of years later, accompanied my first steps in the language. But, even if he did

not (he may have gone to the other school in town) I think it is clear that the school was not

insecure about transmitting the riches of the language, both classical and — the most

important thing for present purposes — ecclesial.

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In terms of the second aspect, it seems that my school had supplied altar servers for the

college I went on to in Oxford. So, in a sense, there was an unbroken link between the two

halves of my education that went way back in time.

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I would only add that, while much of my own education, was the standard classics of

Western tradition — from Cicero to Horace and other authors beloved of the mediaeval

monks who preserved their memory and their writings — I learned Church Latin

pronunciation, in one of its forms anyway, from my father who had served the pre-Vatican II

Mass.

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I hope that, from this relatively unusual experience of coming to grips with Latin, I may be in

a solid position to think about the differences between “cramming” the learner with abstract

information they barely understand the point of, on the one hand, and actually learning to

use (and read in) Latin.

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Tell us about the structure, then, of your course.

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It’s quite simple and there are three phases.

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Phase 1

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We start with 4 weeks on the Ave Maria. Then we follow this up with three more prayers

(four weeks on each): Pater Noster, Regina Caeli, and Salve Regina.

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In each week of the course, at this stage, you watch 2 videos a week. Each video comes

with a set of (approximately) half a dozen exercises. These are your chance to start trying

out the skills you’ll need to acquire.

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Where our course is really different, however, is the following:

Every time you send in an exercise – by email — an expert Latinist will respond with an

encouraging word and any further clarification that you need. Please be assured, however,

that at this stage the emphasis is on consolidating what you are already starting to

understand rather than on correcting every last detail of where you may not yet have quite

stabilised something. There will be plenty of time for subtle corrections as the course

continues, and particularly as you reach its higher levels.

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Phase 2

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A very innovative part of our course is the new “Latin Shots” programme. Whether you think

of these as a dose of Latin caffeine, or a needed injection of grammatical medicine, I find

that the Shots programme gives me the chance to really start passing over the essence of

what a competent Latinist needs to know.

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Each “shot” lasts around 5 minutes and mostly they contain one exercise only.

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It is my chance to tell you what you need to know — and hopefully all of what you need to

know — about a particular grammar point.

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As before, with Phase 1, an expert Latinist will respond to your efforts (within 24 hours of

your sending over your answers by email).

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There are 128 shots in this part of our programme: this equates to 4 shots designed to

support each of the 32 videos you watched in Phase 1 (4 x 32 = 128),

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Phase 3

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Those who complete the first two phases are free to apply to my new 3-hours a month

advanced Latin series.

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In this new part of the course, a small group of Latinists (never more than 5) get to work on

texts or authors of their choice, for the convenient amount of time that is 3 hours a month

only.

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After trialling this phase with a group of advanced intermediate Greek students, I found that

the progress they made was favourably comparable with those who took two sessions a

week for a number of weeks.

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In this phase, we meet twice a month — for 1.5 hours a time — and, in cases where this is

necessary, I am more than happy to record an additional “shot” or two (see Phase 2) to help

consolidate what still needs to be stabilised in terms of advanced grammar awareness.

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Testimonials

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You might be interested in what your peers think of these courses. Here are three

comments:

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It’s amazing how much can be learnt from quite short texts that are so familiar that I have

just assumed that I knew what they said. I feel that I know the [Pater Noster] in a different,

better way now!

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As an “older” student, I find Matthew’s approach, explaining grammar and syntax using

biblical and liturgical texts and not relying on rote memorisation, much more helpful than

classical courses designed for the young.

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A retired doctor from Wales

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AS A LAYMAN who has fallen in love with the traditional Mass and Divine Office over the

past 3.5 years, I was looking for a way to regain and enhance my knowledge of Latin, which

I hadn't studied since back in secondary school.

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Matthew's ONLINE COURSE has certainly helped me in that regard. I've been able to

continue relearning the language, but in what feels like a much more ORGANIC WAY --

structured around some of the most beloved prayers of our faith, as opposed to simply

memorizing rules and tables.

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The PRE-RECORDED class option has been GREAT for me, allowing me to fit classes in

whenever I have the free time available. And I would highly encourage choosing THE

FEEDBACK OPTION as well -- the exercises are not onerous, but they are very helpful in

reinforcing the lessons, and Matthew is very prompt with his feedback as well.

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A layman from the United States

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