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 practicing 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 tablesthat 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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​​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.​

-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.​

-A layman from the United States

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