Learning endings

There's just no good substitute for context and multiple exposure, but those pesky endings have to be learned one way or another. Memorizing short readings isn't the worst place to start, because you're memorizing more than the words: your memorizing patterns in endings and how words come together to form sentences.

But even so, a bit of rote memorization can help students. It allows them to show mastery of a set of knowledge, and I can't think of a student who doesn't enjoy the feeling of secure knowledge on test day.

What not to do. It is probably not best to learn them the way I did in high school: as bare endings. We would chant "a, ae, ae, am, a, ae, arum, is, as, is". I clearly remember that. Or "O, S, T, M-U-S, T-I-S, N-T" as if it were a high-school cheer. The teacher was a fun woman and made it pretty painless, but she forgot to tell us that endings never occur on their own.

Here's something better. You should always practice endings with their word, at the very least. So instead of the first chant above, you can recite "ala, alae, alae, alam, ala, alae, alarum, alis, alas, alis" so you can learn two things at once: first declension endings and the word for wing. While this isn't the best way at to learn Latin, it does work. A 20-minute walk to school each day gave me plenty of opportunity to recite words to myself this way. There is a reason I know my case endings cold and always have.

Better yet. This is no doubt the trickiest. You'll have to find or make up sentences that feature the word in context. "Ala est pulchra. Alae forma habet aedificium. Alae pennas dedit Deus. Alam habet aedificium. In ala sunt pennae…" See how I've given each form of ala its own context? What's useful here is that students also learn how the cases work, which is a whole 'nuther problem. What's tricky is that you've got to work much harder to come up with these sentences. (You could also arrange these so that they drill one particular case instead of the one declension shown here.)

No matter how you do it, take time for it every day. Latin is a lot like math in that it needs a bit of daily attention rather than a heap of infrequent attention.

This work by Peter Sipes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Flash Cards: How to use them

After last week's foray into making flash cards, the time has come to learn how to use them.

First a confession, I really believe in learning vocabulary in context. Nothing can compete with reading in Latin for learning vocabulary and endings. However, as a supplement, flash cards are a very flexible tool.

The problem is this: students need to learn vocabulary and endings. Here's your opportunity: Dead time.

All the time you spend doing nothing: Waiting in line. Those minutes between class. When you're in bed but can't sleep—this works whether sleep or vocabulary learning is the goal. Riding in the car on a long trip—probably best that the driver not use flash cards, unless you tape 'em to the steering wheel like I do. No, I'm joking about that last part, but I'm serious about adding in time here and there with flash cards. This is part of the reason you should make them small. If they're big, they're hard to carry for use on a moment's notice.

You don't want to carry a huge pile of them, so bring a few with you everywhere. My wallet has its fair share of vocabulary cards in it. Remember to change them up on occasion, and you're set to go.

You can also make flash cards part of your learning routine by adding on a few minutes of work before or after class/homework time. The when and where isn't half so important as the repetition and frequent use.

Be sure to say hello to me if you see me working with my flash cards.

This work by Peter Sipes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Flash Cards: How to make them

I've been tackling a new language, and the bugaboo of all language students has reared its head: learning vocabulary. Latin is no exception. Even a Latin teacher like myself runs across unknown words.

Flash cards are an excellent solution for learning vocabulary and endings. Their biggest problem to my mind is that they rob the learning process of context. This is why I struggled throughout college to remember the difference between pairs like tamen/tandem and nempe/nuper. All flash card, no context.

So. How to make flash cards? And I do mean make by hand. I don't see the educational value of buying vocabulary cards, though they are awfully convenient. Some things, by which I mean nouns, will readily lend themselves to a card with a picture on one side and the Latin word on the other. Other things, that would be adjectives and verbs, may not be so easy to draw. Some things are impossible to draw. How do you draw an "and"?

Why do I mention drawings on flash cards? So that students can bypass English when learning vocabulary. It will help solidify the concept of the word in the target language—in our case, Latin.

But you don't have to limit yourself to vocabulary! You can also make cards to help you learn the fleet of endings that Latin throws at students.

Here is a sample set of cards.



Keep in mind, this is one possibility. You could mark noun on the card with the mouse to mean "mūs, mūris" and verb on another card to mean "rodere" (to gnaw). You could put the whole declension of a noun on back to help drill a whole set of endings at once. The limit is the space between your imagination and your learning goals, and you can't buy flash cards that are tailored exactly to your goals.

Next up: how to use flash cards.

A Sallust Reader (Book Review)

Have you ever had a book show up two weeks after you needed it? Last semester I taught Cicero's First Catilinarian (and had a fabulous backup teacher too). But I wish I had more about Catiline. Enter A Sallust Reader two weeks too late.

The introduction helps get students acquainted with an author who isn't as read as he could be. Background on Sallust's life, his works and his style of writing are well worth the read for Latin and history students alike.

For Latin students, Sallust's Bellum Catalinae represents an interesting bit of reading. Sallust lived through the events he described and was quite possibly in Rome at the time. This is as close to a third-party primary source as it gets in antiquity. And what a ride! Pagán's selections for the Catilinarian section of the book are wonderful. They get right to the heart of why Catiline was an awful guy and tell the story briskly. Her notes are full enough for less advanced students, but include enough information to make them interesting for even those students who read fluently. My only gripe is that they are segregated in the back of the book.

What's more, is that this book isn't just for advanced Latin students. Motivated history students who are dealing with this bit of Roman history or the Jugurthine war will find plenty of red meat in this book, above and beyond their trusty Penguin translation.

I'd rate this book as a must add for anyone teaching Cicero's First Catilinarian.