Legentibus: Learn Latin

But, I’m going to for this one because of how awesome this app is. I’ve wanted to learn classical Latin for years. I maxxed out the Latin on Duolingo, which was fun, but it was too short to be of great use. I purchased a textbook and tried to learn that way, but it’s boring and difficult. After a long time of wanting to learn, but not, I found this website. If you want to learn Latin, use this. It’s not like those surface-level or non-user-friendly platforms. It’s professional, well-designed for learning, and most importantly: fun. I think it’s easy to prioritize the “best” way to learn something, but we are human, and an important factor in continuing to learn is enjoyment of the process. From the first page of reading you will feel like you can read the language. Truly a must have for nerds like me.

I have known Daniel Pettersson for a number of years and have seen him demonstrate that he is a remarkably skilled scholar, reader, and speaker of Latin by any yardstick you choose. His Legentibus platform combines both the traditional tools that have been available online to the Latin student reader for some time (i.e. linked glossaries for each word and explanatory notes) with a high-quality audio transcript or performance of the text, read clearly and expressively but avoiding melodrama. A specialist might quarrel with some details of Daniel’s pronunciation, but the bottom line is that Daniel’s viva voce performance presents vowel quantities consistently and in a believable way. Scholars agree that Romain texts were written to be heard rather than read silently. Daniel has provided us and those we teach with a convincing and engaging text performance to hear and read at the same time. Other than participating in a Latin immersion workshop with highly skilled presenters, I can think of no better way to improve one’s sense of authentic Latin usage than to spend time every day with Daniel’s text performances.

Legentibus is not only my go-to Latin app, but it’s also my favorite language-learning app in general! It does one thing, and it does it very well. The beginner stories are a fantastic resource for varied comprehensible input all in one place, and there’s plenty of intermediate content to keep someone busy for a long time as well. The best part about it: as a busy person and mere hobbyist progressing at a slow pace, I no longer have any excuses for not reading at least a little bit every day; so even if I’ve had a day whereby I didn’t make any time to study at all (and I have more of those than not, unfortunately), I can still keep the candle lit by quietly (re-)reading a quick story before bed, and calling that a win.