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Latin Online Seminars

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Reading, speaking & writing Latin under expert guidance

Master the art of writing Latin, perfect your speaking skills, and enhance your reading fluency in our expert-led advanced seminars designed for dedicated learners. Our approach integrates linguistic precision with cultural insight, providing an immersive environment where students engage directly with classical texts, construct sentences with grammatical accuracy, and discuss ideas in Latin.

Each seminar consists of weekly 90-minute sessions where our expert teachers guide participants through texts chosen for their richness and relevance or lead skills-based workshops focused on building proficiency in reading, writing, and speaking. These highly interactive sessions are tailored for learners with a solid foundation in grammar who are eager to refine their fluency and stylistic flair.

Whether your aim is academic excellence or personal enrichment, our seminars equip you with the tools to speak Latin confidently, write with stylistic finesse, and interpret complex texts. Interactive lessons, guided translations, and contextual discussions ensure well-rounded proficiency. At a cost of £270 per seminar, these sessions offer exceptional value for an immersive and enriching experience.

Unlock the full potential of Latin by participating in sessions that bring the language to life through structured yet dynamic engagement.

Latin Online Seminars:

Writing Latin in our advanced seminars

Develop your skills in writing Latin through expertly designed seminars that focus on advanced composition, syntax, and stylistic refinement. Our tutors provide guided practice tailored to each group’s goals, ensuring a deep understanding of classical prose construction. Each session builds linguistic confidence by combining structured exercises with creative writing tasks inspired by authentic historical texts, allowing students to compose with clarity and elegance.

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Mastering the art of writing Latin with expert guidance

Our seminars provide a comprehensive approach to writing Latin, emphasising grammatical accuracy and stylistic sophistication. Tutors guide students through various composition forms, from formal correspondence to narrative and rhetorical essays. Through personalised feedback, learners refine their writing techniques, developing a command of complex sentence structures and stylistic devices such as metaphor, parallelism, and rhetorical balance. This approach ensures students can craft authentic-sounding, polished Latin texts suitable for both academic and personal projects.

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Mastering Latin grammar through comprehensive instruction

Understanding how to write Latin grammar correctly is essential for achieving fluency. Our advanced seminars offer an in-depth exploration of the use of key grammatical structures and complex syntactic constructions.
Through contextual exercises and text-based analysis, learners gain a deep understanding of Latin’s intricate grammatical system. Tutors provide targeted feedback, helping students apply grammatical rules when writing Latin. This allows students to write with clarity and precision while developing a comprehensive linguistic foundation, ideal not only for writing but for speaking Latin, and interpreting classical texts, as well.

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Learn Latin actively in our advanced online seminars

Experience immersive Latin learning through dynamic, interactive sessions that promote active language use. Our seminars enable students to speak Latin with confidence through real-time discussions, role-playing, and guided dialogues. By integrating authentic texts into conversational practice, learners enhance their fluency, comprehension, and expressive capabilities in a supportive, collaborative environment.

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Speak Latin fluently through interactive learning

Fluency comes through continuous practice, and our advanced seminars provide the perfect environment to speak Latin confidently. Tutors lead live discussions where students practice expressing ideas clearly, applying proper pronunciation, and mastering idiomatic expressions. By engaging in real-time conversations based on historical themes or literary dialogues, learners internalise vocabulary and grammatical rules naturally.
This tried and tested method fosters both linguistic accuracy and cultural insight, ensuring practical and meaningful language use. Students also develop conversational agility, enabling them to respond thoughtfully and articulate complex ideas in Latin. Each seminar session is designed to strengthen language skills through immersive dialogue, making the learning process both intellectually stimulating and rewarding.

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Start reading Latin with greater fluency with our online advanced seminars

Enhance your ability to read Latin through expert-led seminars focused on interpreting and analysing classical texts. Our advanced courses equip students with the tools needed to understand complex literary works by exploring themes, syntax, and historical context. This immersive experience deepens literary appreciation when reading Latin while reinforcing the key skills for academic success and personal enrichment.

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Reading Latin with expert-led interpretation and contextual analysis

Reading Latin becomes an intellectually rewarding experience through guided text analysis led by experienced tutors. Students explore works by authors such as Cicero, Ovid, Pliny, and Tacitus, learning to interpret complex literary structures and extract deeper meaning. Seminar sessions highlight essential literary devices, rhetorical techniques, and historical references, enabling learners to develop comprehensive reading strategies. This contextual approach transforms classical texts into living narratives, enriching both linguistic skills and cultural understanding.

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Our current online Latin seminars

Women-Only Seminar:
LETTERS FROM MYTHICAL WOMEN – OVID'S HEROIDES

With Natalia Čepeláková
Tuesdays 4:30-6 pm UK time, Jan 14-Mar 11, 2025

There are comparatively few women in the Latin speaking field, a fact that has nothing to do with ability and everything to do with opportunity. This seminar, led by Natalia Čepeláková, aims to help redress the balance by giving women the opportunity to practise speaking Latin with each other in a mutually supportive environment. Designed for women who are fairly confident readers of Latin and specifically want to begin or develop their speaking ability, the seminar will encourage discussion of students’ response to the texts rather than primarily teaching grammar, though grammatical guidance will be given whenever it is needed.

Ovid's Heroides consist of 21 elegiac poems, most of which take the form of letters written by women of ancient myth and legend who have suffered in love to the men who have variously deserted, disappointed, deceived or otherwise mistreated them. Examples include Penelope writing to Ulysses, Briseis to Achilles, Phaedra to Hippolytus, Dido to Aeneas, Deianeira to Hercules, Ariadne to Theseus, Medea to Jason, and Hermione to Orestes. Each poem purports to present love from the woman’s point of view; among the things we will discuss in this seminar is the extent to which the male poet has, or could hope to have, understood the perspective of a woman on the receiving end of male desire in societies where women were relatively powerless. Taking one poem per week, we will also spend part of each seminar revisiting the myths themselves and noting other well known representations of the stories.

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Neo-Latin Reading Course, Part II:
EARLY MODERN EUROPE AND AMERICA

With Dr Iván Parga Ornelas
Thursdays 4-5:30 pm, UK time, Jan 16-Mar 13, 2025

Latin language and literature have a rich and enduring history that goes beyond the dissolution of the Roman empire. From the Middle Ages to the Renaissance and even today, people across the world have used Latin to write literary, philosophical, political, and scientific works of great historical and cultural significance. In order to introduce students to post-classical Latin literature, this two-term reading course will focus on the writings of late-medieval and Renaissance or Early Modern authors. The course is designed both for scholars of these periods who wish to improve their Latin for academic purposes, and for enthusiasts of the language who seek a wider understanding of the history of Latin literature.

Classes are primarily taught in Latin, and they are meant for advanced or intermediate students who have already learned the grammar and can read, but still struggle to do so fluently and without a dictionary. Some experience with spoken Latin is also desirable.

During the Winter term we will focus on international works that demonstrate the spread of humanistic ideas and classicising Latin throughout Europe and other parts of the world from the late fifteenth to the eighteenth century. Some of the authors whose texts we will examine are Erasmus of Rotterdam (c. 1469 – 1535), Laura Cereta (1469-1499), Joachim du Bellay (1522-1560), Goerge Buchanan (1506-1582), and José de Villerías y Roelas (1695-1728).

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Latine Loqui:
TALKING ABOUT EMOTIONS IN LATIN

With Pierre Gorsky-Mièze
Thursdays 5:30-7 pm UK time, Jan 16-Mar 13, 2025

Are you already skilled in Latin grammar and able to understand someone speaking Latin?

Are you already able to express yourself very simply in Latin, but keen to improve your oral
expression? Then this workshop is for you!

The method involves learning and using the idiomatic expressions found in Meissner's Latin
Phrase Book, supported by specially created videos and the reading of ancient texts. Students
will have the opportunity to use the expressions in a variety of contexts, which will make
memorising them easy.

Each term will have a different theme:
- Autumn Term: daily life, work, projects.
- Winter Term: emotions and philosophy.
- Spring Term: public life and politics.

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Women-Only Seminar:
SPEAKING OF MYSELF – GLIMPSING CICERO AND PLINY THE YOUNGER THROUGH THEIR LETTERS

With Natalia Čepeláková
Tuesdays 5-6:30 pm UK time, Apr 22-Jun 17, 2025

There are comparatively few women in the Latin speaking field, a fact that has nothing to do with ability and everything to do with opportunity. This seminar, led by Natalia Čepeláková, aims to help redress the balance by giving women the opportunity to practise speaking Latin with each other in a mutually supportive environment. Designed for women who are fairly confident readers of Latin and specifically want to begin or develop their speaking ability, the seminar will encourage discussion of students’ response to the texts rather than primarily teaching grammar, though grammatical guidance will be given whenever it is needed.

Cicero and Pliny are both well known for their correspondence. The multiple volumes of Cicero’s letters represent just one of the genres for which he is famous, while in Pliny’s case his ten books of letters are virtually all that remain of his writings. Each author’s correspondence was preserved for different reasons:Pliny carefully arranged his letters for publication,while Cicero seems on the whole to have had no such expectation, writing for his friends rather than for posterity. We will read a selection of letters from each author, touching as much as possible on similar themes, and look at what the two authors reveal about themselves, their lives, their interests and their ambitions.

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Latine Loqui:
TALKING ABOUT POLITICS IN LATIN

With Pierre Gorsky-Mièze
Thursdays 5:30-7 pm UK time, Apr 24-Jun 19, 2025

Are you already skilled in Latin grammar and able to understand someone speaking Latin?

Are you already able to express yourself very simply in Latin, but keen to improve your oral
expression? Then this workshop is for you!

The method involves learning and using the idiomatic expressions found in Meissner's Latin
Phrase Book, supported by specially created videos and the reading of ancient texts. Students
will have the opportunity to use the expressions in a variety of contexts, which will make
memorising them easy.

Each term will have a different theme:
- Autumn Term: daily life, work, projects.
- Winter Term: emotions and philosophy.
- Spring Term: public life and politics.

Back to top