I have collected Latin resources from all corners of the world. This weekend I actually found some Lingua Latina resources this weekend for 20% off at Half Price Books. I also found a great box set of the Little Tim series. It includes a CD of all 6 books and next week is a little boy's birthday (it was on sale for $15).
But that's not the point. Today, I found a series of you tube videos that address some very basic Latin questions based on popular curricula (again, found at Half Price Books). There are a few different series that he has put together:
TuTubus Latinus Tutor uses the stories from the Cambridge Latin Course to introduce basic grammar and vocabulary to the student. There are 13 lessons to match with each of the chapters in the first book. It turns out that you can get the book online for $15 or for your ipad at 99 cents a chapter. The book does give you more grammar background, questions to ask and history about Roman culture, etc.
Constructing Latin Sentences is a series of 11 videos that uses vocabulary from Oxford Latin Course to teach you the basics of building sentences. It is a step by step look at the parts of a sentence and how they work together in Latin. It does not teach the material in this course - it truly focuses on how to create a correct Latin sentence.
Write Like a Roman is a series of 15 videos helps translate English into Latin using the vocabulary from Oxford Latin Course.
Learning Latin with Virgil is a 31 part series that covers basic material while referencing sections of Virgil. I think it probably moves faster than the other series and covers more material. From the bits that I watched (I haven't watched nearly all of it) I appreciate the fact that he draws out some of the finer points of Latin that you just don't know unless you've studied Latin for a while. This is the part that I am concerned about as I think about teaching my kids Latin when they are older. The point of this series is to help you read, not translate, Latin.
Latin Vulgate covers the first three chapters of Genesis in the Latin Vulgate. In this series he has the sentence or phrase on the top half of the screen and reads it normally. Then the bottom half of the screen shows the English translation and he more slowly reads the Latin while highlighting where that phrasing is found in the Englihs translation. It's a really interesting approach.
Aeneid - This is a series of 54 videos, so far, where he reads the whole book in small sections with the text on the screen (he is currently around lines 401). This is not an adaptation - it is exactly what Virgil wrote. As he goes through he helps get to the gist of the story by highlighting and translating key words from the text to help you grasp what is happening. He rearranges to make it easier to understand in English. This approach may not be great if you really want to read "Latin as Latin" (read this interesting article here) but it helps you see how the poem works.
Verbas - Right now there is only one video in this series - it is for vocabulary building.
This man has done an amazing amount of work. There are a few other videos he has produced with poetry and other items. He is not a Latin a professor - just a lover of the language. He is Australian and some people do mention his pronunciation - but honestly - it's not a big deal. So, if you are looking for some good, basic, FREE tutorials I recommend you check these out!
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