Latin for beginners

As a beginner I got a lot more out of the course than I had been expecting. I liked my teacher and the way he explained things in Latin. The fact that the teachers (organisers) spoke in Latin to each other was very inspiring.

Now I can say I love Latin.

Taking Latin through Oxford Latinitas has hands down been my best language learning experience. The curriculum is so well structured. Each lesson builds seamlessly on the previous such that it requires minimal effort to understand the new vocabulary and grammar. It doesn't feel like a struggle at all, more like a fun discovery! My instructor, Krasimir, is so knowledgeable and engaging. I wasn't sure that learning a language online would work as well as in-person instruction, but it was lively, fun, and personal. The small class size made it possible for everyone to practice and ask questions. I am so grateful Oxford Latinitas makes this available globally online! My class included people from all over the world and it was such a joy to be brought together by our passion for learning.

I will remember and cherish this experience for the rest of my life. Oxford Latinitas really went out of their way to teach us and make us feel comfortable the entire time.

The course has really helped me increase my knowledge of Latin and be unafraid to try and communicate with it. I think it has complemented my previous attempts to improve, using this natural approach and I completely recommend it.

Everything was perfect. The teachers were very passionate and knowledgeable and they sing like angels! The location was amazing, the excursion was very interesting and the group was great!

Ayeleta is a great teacher and created a perfect productive atmosphere for the lessons. She was very supportive, she explained and repeated stuff as many times as it was necessary. This summer school was a wonderful time for learning. I enjoyed the programme and the style of the lessons. Of course, studying Latin in Latin is not that easy but it that was a great challenge. After that, you feel way more certain in your knowledge and start to understand the structure of a language way better.

«Women-only seminar» with Dr. Melinda Letts not only increased my understanding of the ancient authors, but also gave me the opportunity to discuss a number of important subjects (love, grief, consolation, hatred, and so on) with other great women. I was thrilled to be a part of our little team, to immerse myself in Latin studies, and to make contact with such wonderful women. I want to return to Oxford Latinitas to study in the future!

After learning Latin on my own for about a year I was starting to struggle but Ayelet's own enthusiasm for the subject seems to be infectious. This course boosted my motivation and turned out to be just what I needed. I felt stretched at times, as we covered a lot of material that was new to me, but getting to the end of the book now seems much more achievable! I am very pleased with the course.

Renatus showed extremely amiable as well as significantly demanding approach I surely enjoyed, engaging us in multiple philosophical and general conversations fully in Latin that were crucial for activating our grammar and vocabulary in speech to a higher extent. Moreover, I am eager to thank him specifically for his willingness to check, correct and improve our essays in order to clarify and amplify our writing skills.

Jason was a patient and very helpful teacher. The course was perfect for me. I found every day's class challenging yet not overwhelming. The reading material provided was interesting and very useful.

Beautiful, meaningful, magnifique.

I can only thank Oxford Latinitas. I joined at the basic level, and now I am at Intermediate II. I can express myself, write, and speak in Latin, as well as read, and I am progressing towards the classics. None of this would have been possible without the help of the Oxford teachers. I owe this to you, and I will carry this gratitude with me forever.

Aurelius was a great teacher, and thanks to him and his methods, I understood that ancient Greek grammar wasn't so difficult to learn. He explained with great clarity. … He's also very patient and he varied the sources so that we keep our motivation intact. lt was another great experience. I'm always amazed by OL teachers' proficiency. They're also very patient and encouraging.

I feel like I have learnt more Latin during this term with Oxford Latinitas, then in a year of high school lessons. I wish the method used by Oxford Latinitas will be introduced in all schools. I have studied Latin many years ago with the traditional method and I was a little sceptic at first, but I am now so impressed by the results.

At Oxford Latinitas, there is a love affair between its teaching staff and the art of teaching classical humanities.

I will be forever grateful to you for giving my daughter such an incredible experience in Italy. She has never been this happy, and the benefits will ripple long into her future... This adventure has made her fall in love with the Latin language and helped her confirm what she wants to do in life. All the teachers have taught and looked after the kids so amazingly well. Your care, organization and kindness were the best, more than I could have imagined.

I really enjoyed the class. Ayeleta challenged me to speak and go deeper into spoken Latin. I really appreciated her ability to gently challenge.

The teaching, together with language, setting, and people, made this an experience of a lifetime.

This trip put a new face and energy into Latin, a subject I'd previously associated with stagnancy. Unforgettable experience.

It is a daunting thing to start speaking any new language, let alone Classical Greek - but the sessions quickly became one of the highlights of my week. It felt more like a catch-up with friends than anything else – and, in addition to being more enjoyable than grinding through a grammar book, improved my Greek miraculously!

I loved the course and felt that my speaking confidence had really improved by the end of the two weeks! … Thank you once again for all your efforts teaching us!

I am a Catholic seminarian, and after studying Latin for a while using the grammatical method, I became capable of reading fluently some texts such as the Vulgate, the Summa Theologiae, etc. However, I was unable to write or speak in the language, nor could I read more complex texts without the aid of a dictionary. With a short time of exposure to the active method, through the classes at Oxford Latinitas, I have noticed incredible progress in this regard. I intend to continue my studies to the most advanced level, confident that I will achieve the expected proficiency. In Brazil, my country, I am doing what I can to share with fellow students the advantages of the active method and the excellence of teaching offered by the teachers at OL. I confidently advise everyone: if you want to learn the language with greater efficiency and speed, Oxford Latinitas is the way!

The classes were excellent: rigorous, informative, and challenging. I very much enjoyed the classes, and learnt a great deal, but I found them very challenging. … But the difficulties were outweighed by the benefits of the lessons – I cannot believe how much Cicero I read in a fortnight!

I really liked the way Ivan taught us. The effort he made every time someone had a question so that we could fully understand was very helpful to us. He seems to love his job. The classes were very useful for me because I studied Latin for 2 years, but I didn't have the basics of the language, because I had missed it in the beginning and now I can say that I love Latin, because of the Summer Schools.

Diana is such a wonderful teacher! She puts so much thought and effort into the classes to make sure they're interesting and fun. She is very encouraging and always makes the class a comfortable learning environment. I'd recommend her classes to everyone!

After every lesson with Oxford Latinitas, I not only feel much more confident about speaking Latin, but I also become more interested in the language and its history. Pierre explains the grammar very well and encourages the students to discuss what we have read in Latin, something which has helped me to improve my speaking skills a lot.

I would highly recommend Oxford Latinitas to anyone interested in studying Latin or hoping to improve their Latin language skills. The active method is an amazing opportunity to connect with other learners as it brings 'dead' languages to life. Discussing literature and grammar with experts in real time has helped me so much with my Latin proficiency, and I look forward to continuing my journey with Oxford Latinitas into the future.

Very engaging sessions, pitched at a challenging but accessible level; well-paced, very interesting selection of material; I learnt a great deal from Renatus' correction of errors and comments on the text, as well as the invaluable time spent on composition at the beginning of many of the lessons. Well organised and friendly; an excellent programme.

I recommend every classics student to try the active method of Oxford Latinitas, I can never say enough about how natural learning ancient Greek becomes for me, having no prior exposure to ancient Greek. I think not using the active method is exactly why Augustine says he never fully mastered ancient Greek, as it was probably taught to him in a dry handout, whereas Latin, spoken by him and his parents on a daily basis, comes more naturally for him.