Latinum 101: How to learn a language with Latinum
Your language journey
Here at The Latinum Institute we are interested in results. Most language courses fail at producing effective readers.
We believe the solution is quite simple. To become a good reader all you need to do is read.
Here at Latinum we have been teaching and studying language learning methodologies since 2006.
In the end, we have arrived at the conclusion that the ancient methods that have been used again and again for over 2000 years, really do work. There is no need to reinvent the wheel.
The secret sauce is the intralinear bilingual method. This makes language learning almost effortless.
The Latinum Institute now offers 40+ languages using this method, which we have updated and improved. Our goal is to have you reading interesting stuff right from day one. All of this is offered for free!
The system we use is highly effective, backed up by academic research, and very simple. There are no ‘learning features’ and no ‘gamification’. No rewards. No testing. No exercises. No modules. No units. Only a lot of extensive supported reading.
Get started at Latinum.
Reading is its own reward. Each of our lessons is totally independent and self contained. It does not matter if you start on lesson one, or lesson one hundred.
How can this be?
Our lessons do have a progression of sorts: each lesson has as its backbone a topic word. These are based on word frequency, so lesson 100 will contain the 100th most frequent word in English as its focus.
But beyond that, the entire lesson uses a wide range of vocabulary and grammar, all made accessible by the unique system of the intralinear text
This gets you reading ‘difficult’ things easily, right from lesson one.
Where are the lessons?
Latinum uses Substack to host its reading lessons.
The URL is latinum.substack.com
Look for the INDEX where you will find all the languages on offer listed.
It does not matter if you are a beginner or more advanced because the lessons are not graded by level. This means the subject matter is always interesting.
Lesson one and lesson one hundred, it makes no difference.
Latinum’s lessons and learning features
At The Latinum Institute we are very serious about effective teaching!
Everything we are doing is backed up by modern research. Latinum learners improve their language skills after just one single lesson!
Each Latinum Institute course has no units. There are no specific goals apart from one goal - to get you to reading fluency, fast.
This is why we focus on reading. Our ability to progress in language skills through passive learning is immense. Our system takes full advantage of this natural way that we learn languages.
Why do we totally ignore writing, speaking and listening?
To build up your proficiency, to get to the magical 10 000 plus vocabulary that you need to begin to be fluent, you need to go fast and furious. Anything that gets in the way of this is a distraction.
If you learn to read at an advanced level, speaking will come naturally and effortlessly, if you are in a situation where you need to speak. Listening you can get all by yourself by watching movies and things on YouTube, and you can add this element yourself later.
However, we think you should hold off until you can read really well, and know a lot of words. Writing is the most difficult and advanced skill of all. Good readers make good writers.
Writing should be the very last thing you tackle.
The royal road to learning a language, is to read. Everything else is a distraction.
What is in each lesson?
Each reading lesson is quite long. The goal is to get through it quickly, and then re-read it until you feel comfortable or bored with it, and then move on. You can always revisit it later.
The lessons are challenging, but the intralinear method is extremely helpful. Every lesson has all the vocabulary for that lesson in it. There are no word lists, no flash cards, and no formal testing. You are just expected to read.
Part A contains our specialist intralinear text. This language teaching method has been used over and over again for over 2000 years. The oldest examples are from the third century! Right until the early twentieth century the system was used in published texts, mainly for learning ancient languages, with the method still used in classrooms in some countries for teaching English even today.
The intralinear text gives you the vocabulary you need. No word lists. No dictionaries.
Then in part B of the reading lesson, the sentences appear again as whole sentences in both languages. This is slightly more difficult, and functions as a basic reading comprehension exercise.
In Part C is only in one language. This is where you can finally check your comprehension, in an informal and stress free way.
Then you keep on reading. The next part gives some grammar, with more usage examples of the topic word. Some cultural background is also included.
The section after that is a brief quote from literature. This is also treated with an intralinear and the other sections just described. This way you will build up a library of interesting literary quotes, and be able to impress everyone around you.
The final section of each reading lesson is what we call the Genre section.
This exposes you to a wide range of reading material such as memoirs, letter writing; business writing; stories; poems; travel writing; recipes; instruction manuals and so on.
Only Reading?
What you will not find is anything that involves speaking, writing, or listening.
Why not? Because all the research indicates that these slow your learning down. When you are learning a new language, you need to follow human nature. Our passive language skills advance much the fastest. Speaking, writing and listening are highly advanced skills and develop slowly. If you can read well, they will come to you with ease, later on. After reading, comes listening. After listening comes speaking, and finally, after speaking comes writing.
This is the natural order of language learning.
If you try put your energy into reading, speaking, listening and writing all at the same time at the beginning, which some courses try do, you will waste an awful lot of precious mental energy, and never reach the level you need to actually become fluent in a reasonable time. You will need a lot of gamification and other tricks to keep you going, because progress will be slow, so it needs to be souped up.
At the Latinum Institute we are not in the business of selling snake oil. We just want to get you reading.
Motivation
Reading is its own reward. The Latinum Institute courses get you reading interesting material from day one.
This is why no gamification or incentivisation is needed in this system. We believe the lessons are interesting enough all by themselves to keep you going. If you find one particular lesson boring, just open another one. Each lesson is totally independent of every other lesson.
At the Latinum Institute we don't think it is necessary to sugar the pill. Language learning, done right, should be interesting and entertaining all by itself.
As you progress, you will get a sense of how you are progressing, not in any measured formal way, but just by your growing feelings of confidence that will blossom in you as you make your way through the lessons.
Happy learning!
