Course Overview
Living Latin is the Paideia Institute's self-paced online Latin course for total beginners. Set in modern-day Rome, Living Latin tells the story of a group of study abroad students from across the world who adventure around Italy reading ancient, medieval, and Renaissance Latin texts associated with the monuments and historical sites they encounter. Eventually, the story develops into a fast-paced mystery novel.
Spanning 60 learning units, Living Latin covers all of the foundational grammar, vocabulary, and reading skills of an introductory college Latin course sequence and prepares students to confidently read authentic Latin texts at the intermediate level upon completion.
Paideia's custom digital learning platform includes a wide array of interactive (and fun!) features to support and engage learners pursuing self-directed study: animated videos on Latin grammar, clickable vocab and morphology charts, built-in quizzes and summative assessments, and supplementary articles on the history and culture of the Latin language across the centuries. Individual subscriptions are priced at $10/month or $100/year.
Grammar Videos
Living Latin features one hundred fun, engaging videos teaching Latin grammar. These videos start with the basics of the language, like pronunciation, and proceed all the way through the most complex topics in Latin grammar necessary to read authentic Latin texts. All grammar videos are followed by written summaries of the main topics covered, as well as quizzes that check students’ comprehension.
Graded Reader
Living Latin also includes a graded reader of more than 80,000 Latin words. This reader tells the story of a group of students from around the world studying abroad in modern Rome. As the students adventure around Italy, they visit famous monuments from the past and read ancient, medieval, and Renaissance Latin texts associated with those monuments. Eventually, the story develops into a fast-paced mystery novel.
The graded reader’s early chapters are in extremely simple Latin, which are designed to be easy to understand for speakers of English. Over the course of 60 chapters, the Latin becomes increasingly challenging. By the end, students are encountering fully developed Latin prose similar to what one might find in Cicero or the Renaissance humanists.
The reader is currently available online in a custom-designed reading environment. The reading environment features illustrations, a built-in dictionary, Latin-Latin glosses to help students understand what they’re reading while staying immersed in Latin, drop-down morphology tables, and easy access to the grammar lessons that are relevant for each chapter.
The graded reader is currently only available online, though a print version is in production and will be available in 2025.
History and Culture
In addition to the grammar videos and graded reader, each chapter of Living Latin includes a short article in English expanding on an aspect of the history or culture of the Latin language that comes up in the chapter. Since the scope of Living Latin is not limited to antiquity, these articles cover the history and culture of not only ancient Rome, but also Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance.
Assessments
Quizzes follow each lesson to check student comprehension of the subject matter covered. Additionally, a broader assessment measuring student reading comprehension accompanies every chapter of the course. Every five chapters, a larger summative assessment in both English and Latin recapitulates and tests the learner’s command of the grammar introduced to them in previous chapters, ensuring a solid foundation before moving on.
Forum
All Living Latin users have access to a general Forum, an online message board where they can post questions and interact with other users. The forum is monitored by Paideia staff, who are available to answer questions.
Print Edition
The Living Latin Volume I: Urbi et Orbi textbook and student workbook are available for preorder!
The Urbi et Orbi textbook presents the first half of Paideia's Living Latin curriculum (Capitulum I – Capitulum XXX), including the graded reader, glosses, grammar modules, and history and culture enrichment articles. Its accompanying student workbook offers a wide array of practice exercises to review and test the grammar and vocabulary learned in each chapter. The print editions of Living Latin can be used as a companion to the digital course or independently for analog self-directed study. Volume II: Loci in Locis is forthcoming later this year.
Testimonials
"I’ve been looking for a text that would allow me to use more Latin in the classroom and build the students’ comprehension with lots of repetition and colloquial phrases. I think that the Living Latin textbook will help my students acquire the language more naturally and thoroughly. Plus, the language learning videos are a great resource for the students to access on their own."
L.J. Scurfield, High School Latin Teacher
"I am an autodidact, and had a little Latin under my belt before beginning your course. I write to tell you how very impressed with the pedagogy of the course, as well as the overall design and function of the site. I'm particularly impressed with the chapters in English on Roman history; they're extremely well written and very informative. [...] I only hope a million others feel the same way, so that your excellent work may continue."
William Laws, Independent Learner
