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Intermediate-Advanced Conversational Latin: Cicero's de Amicitia (selections)

Monday., 8pm (U.S. Eastern Time)

Course DescriptionIn this course participants will read the now obsolete AP selections of de Amicitia, as well as Latin summaries of the sections not included. This way participants will be able to treat the principal arguments and text as a whole but with enough breathing room to be able to have rich discussion of each session's segment and practice idiomatic conversation based on phrases and idioms from that segment. E.g., once participants have read the passage where Laelius uses the idiom pingui Minerva, participants will have friendly dialogue about what things each does very well and very poorly, using tenui/gracili Minerva and pingui/crassa Minerva (respectively). The instructor aims to achieve enough non-tedious repetitions of such expressions from the text, so that they settle permanently in the participant's memory and fall out of their mouth.

DETAILS

Level: Participants should have a decent amount of exposure to spoken Latin.

Textbook: Instructor will provide pdf of the text with period map indentation and easy paraphrase. However, it may be helpful to order the old AP edition of Ricks and Dickison.

Sections capped at: 5 students. If the course is sold-out, please fill out this waiting-list form.

Regular price $250.00

Please fill in the following information regarding your Parent/Guardian:

INSTRUCTOR

DAVID RING

David Ring teaches Latin and Ancient Greek as living languages by using an eclectic mix of methods, ranging from the insights of Renaissance Humanist pedagogy (especially the advice of Erasmus) to the Direct or Nature method to (first and foremost) Teaching with Comprehensible Input. Be it a discussion in Latin or Greek about a beautiful painting, or personal life conversation, or solving riddles, or paraphrasing poets into simpler prose, or storyboarding Lucian's True Stories -- David and his students aim to get lost in the joy of what they are doing, such that they forget they are speaking Latin or Ancient Greek. He believes that the purpose of liberal education is to help young people grow in self-knowledge -- both individual and cultural --, to help them form sharp intellects, wise judgment, and greatness of soul. He believes this is best done via direct encounters with the greatest minds and greatest stories of the last 3,000 years.