Hi,
since Latin is extremely close to becoming the next beta language in four days, I am already thinking of possible content to share in the library. What kind of lessons would you like to find there? Would it be useful if I tried to translate the LingQ series for beginners? What about grammar (cases, verbs, syntax): how would you like it to be introduced?
Thanks for your feed-back,
Michele
I ask myself, what is the reason to learn Latin? Just fun? Religious reasons? Do you want to read “De Bello Galicao”? Do you want to understand the roots of Italian, Spanish, French? Or apply for a job in the Vatican? Even Esperanto is spoken more than Latin.
Because Harry Potter and Asterix are published in Latin. I don’t need a more sensible reason than that 
Some languages just don’t need to be spoken to be worth studying.
@guineapig: many things happen without an apparent reason. Many people have expressed the wish to learn Latin in the poll carried on Facebook. Majority wins. That’s all.
So, back to my question: what kind of material would you like to find in the Latin library? 
The Aeneid?
Well… typical material for beginners, isn’t it, Helen? Anyway, I can agree that it would certainly be more interesting than Who is She? or Greetings and goodbyes!
Michele, I would like authentic content. Grammar lessons would be like transplanting high school latin into lingq, and if there is anything certain in this world, it is that I don’t want to do any latin drills again. If you could translate both versions of “un italiano a Sofia”, that would be awesome. I also like travel journals and diaries. Latin lessons similar to Susanne’s “letters from my cottage in england” would also be fantastic. I understand you were on vacation in France this summer, maybe you could write some beginner latin lessons on that as well. Finally, I would love latin lessons on history, for example on the roman empire, or simply how was day to day life back in those days. You studied foreign languages at university, therefore I suppose you can write them. As for more technical aspects, I would like lessons (except those for beginners) to be 3 to 5 minutes long, stereo and recorded at least at 128 kbps. I look forward to studying latin on lingq as much as possible, given my new schedule and my german study, which has precedence over all other languages.
I would also like pov stories (to finally nail the consecutio temporum down)
Update: there is an english premium collection, whose title I don’t recall, which has lessons about a man going through his daily routine. For latin that would be great.
@Michele
Es freut mich sehr,dass Du Lateinlektionen vorbereitest!
Wie wäre es mit Texten aus dem Stundenbuch?( Brevier)
oder andere liturgische Texte?
oder( Kirchen-) Geschichte?
Aeneis tönt auch interessant!!
Übrigens:“Who is She? “und” Greetings and goodbyes!” werde ich lieber in anderen Sprachen lesen!!!
Herzlichen Dank für Deinen Einsatz!!
@Michele
Hier scheint ein online Brevier Deutsch/Latein in Vorbereitung zu sein!
http://tinyurl.com/3rqt824
Thank you both for your answers.
Adalberto, why would recordings at 64 kbps (as recommended by LingQ) not work?
I can translate the beginner series of “Un italiano a Sofia” quite easily, but the normal version will be much more difficult to translate because it contains quite a few idioms.
Anything will do. The LingQ beginner series, which not everyone finds boring, would be a good start since we have the translations in other languages.
You can add grammar explanations in the notes section if you like. I would imagine that many of the people who study Latin, ( I really wonder how many there will be) will have had some Latin in school.
My greatest interest would be to do some of the famous works of Latin, Cicero, Ovid, Pliny etc.
Back in my early days at lingq, I listened to mp3 files recorded at 64 kbps. They are just unpleasant to listen to, with all that fuzziness. I’m not telling you to record at cd audio quality, but 128 kbps is ok, most adsl connections can handle the file sizes it implies. Besides, I reckon lingq recommendations were written a long time ago, maybe it is time to revise them.
I have just translated the two first lessons of “Who is She?”, with a considerable effort. I haven’t translated anything INTO Latin since the first year of high school (14 years ago), so it’s a bit complicated, but I will cope with it. As usual, the problem will be to find female voices to record the lessons with.
Michele, conosci per caso questa collana? Ciascun volume contiene 250 versioni di latino ordinate per difficoltà, commentate, analizzate, e tradotte all’italiano. La collana sarà sicuramente protetta da copyright, però potresti ricavarne qualche idea. Io posseggo entrambi i volumi, però non so che farne, giacché non credo che il latino si pronunci come l’italiano, sebbene al liceo si faccia così. Credo di aver capito che tu conosci la pronuncia, quindi potresti considerare il loro utilizzo.
Adalberto, la pronuncia che viene insegnata in Italia si chiama “ecclesiastica” ed è una delle 2-3 pronunce comunemente accettate, insieme a quella scientifica e a quella classica o “restituta”.
Non conosco quella collana, ma ho ancora i miei libri di latino del liceo e ne ho appena ordinati altri, che però mi arriveranno fra diverse settimane.
Since it will take long to have the whole “Who is She?” translated and recorded, I have started recording some prayers in Latin and will continue recording more texts next week.
There is no accounting for tastes, and I am sure that there are some people who will enjoy learning from prayers.
As for me, if you are going to record something, I would prefer something from the many texts available from the Gutenberg site in Latin.Virgil, Cicero, Julius Caesar etc.