Recently, I have been posting five minute episodes of a bizarre, essentially plot-less miniseries to the YouTube channel I share with my friend and teacher, Mr. Borri. I am well aware of the artistic failings of this venture. We are not particularly good actors. I film with my smartphone. Sometimes I forget to use a proper microphone and don’t bother to rerecord. The project is not a particularly serious one from the perspective of cinematography, nor to I care much.

The Latin language is not solely the domain of posh people who want to be the prime minister or the richest of the rich. It is for everyone! It’s a really cool language that was used in so many places during so many time periods that, no matter what you like to read about, you will probably find something related that was written in Latin in the past 2000 years.

Maybe, if I had spent less time in conventicula, I would have learned Italian better instead, but I was determined to learn to read Vergil and Apuleius as one might read Shakespeare. I was very driven and lucky enough to be in a situation that allowed me to learn quite a lot, very quickly.

Have you ever wanted to experience Madrid in August while staying a giant concrete block with no air conditioning? Neither have I! Yet I go every single year, not because I like torturing myself in dangerously hot weather, but because I want to be where all the other cool people who love to read Latin literature are.

What should one read after Catullus? Perhaps the poetry of Giovanni Pontano, a Renaissance humanist who also wrote about love in eloquent Latin.

If you happen to be learning a modern language such as French, you can - if you have the requisite time and funds - travel to a country or city where it is spoken by residents. The same is not exactly true of Latin. There is no France- or even Quebec-equivalent - where everyone speaks Latin all day, every day and schoolchildren can visit. Believe me, if such a town existed, I’d live there and be the local librarian.

Thanks to my success using Familia Romana to learn and, subsequently, to teach, I find I also prefer these methods for other languages as well. I believe these books are a valuable resource, particularly when used with a teacher, and for that reason I have decided to post links to all books of this kind that I am aware of.

Having written a play in Latin, I can say I would not suggest it. Unless you have lots of friends who are somehow both zany theater kids who weep over Sondheim lyrics and competent Latin speakers, you won’t be able to cast it.

Why is the countryside such a great place for Latin summer school?

When I study late at night, sometimes I wake up thinking in Latin. What happens when I accidentally start speaking Latin to Italian people in cafes?

There are at least hundreds of us more-or-less Latin speakers, possibly thousands, although there are at most dozens of truly competent and eloquent speakers who can give a great Ciceronian oration without much preparation. There are many more who can comprehend aurally than speak, of course, who might listen to audiobooks of Cicero’s letters or Caesar’s De bello gallico without being capable of actually producing more than a few simple phrases.

This summer, as always, there will be many Latin courses and conventions. In this index I will list all of those I know.

All about Rome’s Latin Speaker’s Circle or Circulus Latinus.

De omnibus conventiculis latinitatis vivae ut dicitur in toto orbe terrarum!