Maybe interesting for those who want to teach or learn a language is languagetransfer.org and the “Thinking Method Guidebook” at https://www.languagetransfer.org/s/TMG-1ST-EDITION-FINAL-Goo... - an interesting approach to a guided “induction” process where soaring explanations are made throughout the material.
It's an excellent book that I love dearly, and I think the HN crowd in particular would take to it like catnip.
That said, it's not right for everyone [1]. In particular, the high vocabulary load means that most readers can't simply read straight through it, and the focus on one grammatical concept at a time can feel artificial ("oh, this is the pluperfect chapter"). I also found that there were a few words that I couldn't grasp from context alone and had to search for online, which is fine but dims the magic a bit.
I love the book on so many levels. My copy is swollen and waterlogged, and held together with packing tape. I love it for all the Latin I relearned, but I love it even more for everything it indirectly teaches about teaching.
I’ve always treasured polished and well edited textbooks, but this thing makes the best textbooks feel like the work of amateurs. I always think of Neal Stephenson’s Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer when I’m reading it. It’s like parts of your brain being unzippered to discover understanding your didn’t know you already had.
I think of Lingua Latina in a surprising number of conversations… it reminds me to be considerate of how much new information can be absorbed, but also to fully trust my audience with that new information. I don’t need to belabor the presentation of ideas. I simply need to share my ideas in the context they matter, as if my audience already understood completely.
great series, probably the best way to learn Latin. there's also some nature method courses for French, Italian, English, and German that you can find online if you google hard enough (search for "X by the nature method")
