Latina Loquenda!

*Magister Gallagher waves hello*

Latina Loquenda! Latin must be spoken!  It's the title of my course, as well as my general outlook towards the Latin language.  We spend so much time *reading* Latin that sometimes it's easy to forgot that this language was spoken by a diverse range of people over a vast period of time.  Not everyone in the Roman world had the same mastery of the Latin language as Ovid (really, perhaps no other individual did, but that's a conversation for another time...).   When we think of Latin, we always dwell on the highest caliber authors, not on how a regular ol' pleb might have used the language.

It's my goal to teach you to use Latin as a spoken language.  While you already know how to *read* Latin, I'm going to help you produce your own Latin sentences on the fly!  Ultimately, you'll be participating in some full-immersion activities where we will only speak in Latin.  You'll soon be able to talk about your daily life, the world around you, and the things you are doing IN LATIN.  I'll also teach you how to buy and sell things IN LATIN.  Are you scared or intimidated by that?  You shouldn't be!  You already know Latin.  I'm just going to help you use what you already know in a new way!  

I expect absolutely no experience with spoken Latin before you get here, and I'll teach you everything you need to know from square one.  Mistakes are going to happen all the time.  You'll mess up, and I'll mess up too.  You'll forget words, and I'll forget words too.  We'll learn and get better, always trying our best.  The important thing is that we communicate with each other.  After all, that's the whole purpose of language!