Stage I·Grades 5 & 6·Upper elementary
Natural Latin
For the ten- and eleven-year-old. Latin learned in Latin, the way a first language is learned: by hearing it, reading it, and answering in it, long before the grammar has a name.
- ForGrades 5 and 6, no Latin needed
- MethodThe nature method
- LengthAbout two years
- MeetsOnce a week, two hours
Why this way, at this age
A ten-year-old does not learn a language by memorizing its rules. She learns it the way she learned her first one: by meeting it again and again, in sentences she can almost understand, until one day she does. Linguists call this comprehensible input. Teachers of Latin have taught this way for over a century: an English headmaster in the early 1900s taught his pupils Latin entirely in Latin, and the society his students founded to carry it on still meets.
So in Natural Latin, as much as possible, Latin is taught in Latin. Students read a continuous story, are asked about it in Latin, and answer in Latin. The grammar arrives inside the story, and is named afterward, when the student has already understood it.
A class period, step by step
- Certamen
A quick round of questions on what was learned last class. It wakes the room up, and because students know it is coming, they review before class without being told. It is also the format of the Latin contests, so contests feel familiar rather than frightening.
- Exercitia
We go over the homework together: exercises in vocabulary, grammar, and composition.
- Reading, in Latin
The heart of the class. We read the next part of the story, learning its grammar along the way. I ask questions in Latin; students answer in Latin. The passages are read for meaning first, and then translated literally, word by word, which is exactly what the contests ask of them.
- A short Socratic seminar
The class ends with a conversation about Roman life and culture, drawn from what we just read: how a Roman family ate, prayed, schooled its children, and argued.
The road from here
Natural Latin takes about two years. Then a student moves into Latin Literature, then AP Latin, and, for those who want to go further, Advanced Latin Literature.
- Natural LatinAbout two years
- Latin LiteratureTwo courses in two terms, or one Summer Intensive
- AP LatinFall to the May exam, or one Summer Intensive
- Advanced Latin LiteratureOptional: for the top levels of the contests
One honest note
Of the four first courses, this is the most gradual, and that is the point. There is no chart of rules in week one, so it can look slow from outside. But a child who has lived in a language for a season keeps it, and arrives at Latin Literature reading, not decoding.
This winter
- Natural Latin 1, for beginners, from November 21Saturdays, 9–11 AM Korea time
- Natural Latin 2, for two to four terms of Latin, from November 22Sundays, 9–11 AM Korea time
Common to every Latin course
What every course here shares
One teacher, live, every class
Every class, from a ten-year-old’s first sentence to the last line of the AP exam, is taught live over Zoom, in English, by Ioannes Magister. There is no second teacher and no substitute. Classes last two hours.
The work happens in the room
Students read aloud, translate at sight, and defend their answers out loud. A machine can translate a Latin sentence; only the student can learn to read it, and in class there is nothing to outsource. Latin in the age of AI →
Nothing is lost
Every class is recorded and posted to the student’s Google Classroom for the whole course. Homework is submitted online, checked, and graded. When a question cannot wait until the next class, the answer comes as a short video, made for that question. A student who is busy for a whole term can even follow the course from the recordings and hand in the work online; several students each term do exactly that. How that works →
Every course leads to the contests
Each class opens with a certamen (why?), and the translation practiced in class is the literal kind the contests reward. Before each international contest in Latin and classical humanities, a separate preparation course of up to five sessions works through real past exams, many going back decades, and study guides of our own. Our students take part through the year, and their results are recorded as they come in.
Credit and standing
Emerson Latin works on the Carnegie Unit standard used in American secondary schools, is a registered chapter sponsor of the National Latin Honor Society through the American Classical League, and is pursuing accreditation with WASC. Students who have needed credit transferred to their schools have received it, on the strength of our syllabus and transcript.
Is this the right course for your child?
Fifteen minutes will settle it, and it costs nothing: in English with Ioannes Magister over Zoom, or in Korean with our administrator by phone. If your child already knows some Latin, a free Placement Reading shows exactly where to begin.