Learn Latin Online

SCHOLA - Learn Latin by Communicating in Latin
By Christopher Howard on July 2, 2009 5:12 PM | 1 Comment
The traditional way to learn Latin includes two activities. The first activity involves memorizing Latin declension and conjugation charts. The second activity involves translating ancient Latin texts into your modern language.

While both these components are important, they are lacking in interactivity. Before Latin was relegated to its classical role as an exclusive language of priests and scholars, there were quite a few people who spoke Latin as a native language. These people had learned Latin by communicating in Latin with other people, and the method worked quite well for them.

Obviously, that is difficult for those of us who do not happen to have a lot of Latin-speaking friends or Latin pen-pals to communicate with. However, one useful resource I have found is this website:

http://schola.ning.com/

SCHOLA is an online social network dedicated to helping people learn Latin by communicating in Latin. Anyone can become a member (sodalis) as long as they understand that all communication between members should be done in Latin. To help members interact, the site provides a chat room (locutorium) as well as special interest groups and user-submitted photos and videos. Each member has his own page (pagina mea) where he can optionally provide information about himself and his interests.

This admonition is displayed on the Sedes Situs:

Cum errare humanum sit, ne timueritis scribere, metu errandi permoti.
If my translation is good, that means:

Seeing that "to err is human", you should not be afraid to write, being influenced by the fear of making a mistake.
So the site concept is that you can supplement your regular Latin studies by trying to communicate with other people who have learned Latin or are trying to learn Latin. When you do make mistakes, other sodales will be understanding because they understand why you are there: to improve your Latin skills by communicating with real people.