In this article, I will explain the difficulties facing autodidacts, debunk some language learning myths, define meaningful activites, outline five viable strategies for learning Latin, and even talk about how cults of celebrity propagate misinformation, and how to avoid being deceived by them. By becoming autodidacts (self-teachers), they can save hundreds or potentially thousands of dollars.īut many Latin autodidacts are vulnerable to being deceived by well-intentioned language advice which tells them to work hard at meaningless things instead of focusing on truly communicative, meaningful, and beneficial activities. That is why so many opt instead for teaching themselves Latin. For many learners in the community, even the relatively cheaper options for learning Latin with a teacher may be out of their price range. The average cost of the live courses was about $1,500, while the average cost of a self-paced course (one with pre-recorded video lessons) was about $500. In my previous posts, I listed all the places you can learn introductory Latin online with teachers who speak the language, through both live classes and self-paced courses.

I also propose a strategy which legitimately costs $0.00, so stay tuned for that. Since both your money and your time are valuable, if you don’t want to be working needlessly hard while learning Latin, this essay is for you. But during its month-long writing process, the essay turned into ‘how not to be deceived by well-meaning but terrible language learning advice’. I started writing this essay, which grew to over 16,000 words, with the goal of explaining ‘how to learn Latin on a budget in 2023: the most cost-effective autodidact strategies’.

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