Welcome to my website! I am Christopher Birkbeck, an ESL/ELT teacher with a variety of interests,
including linguistics and languages, history and various aspects of computing. Click on Resume
to see a list of my qualifications and on Blog to read my blog interests.
I am not sure what I was expecting when I borrow Beginner’s Latin from the library. Yet I like it thus far.
I am probably not the target audience, as I have already have complete a summer class in Latin, and
I have done some self-study after that with Wheelock’s Latin. Yet it is always nice to have a good
concise review, and this volume works well enough.
The most interesting part of the book is the setting. When Latin textbooks or graded reader try to
give a continous story, they usually resort to three modes:
By the standards of most people, I really a lot of books. I am always going to the library, borrowing as many books as possible. I also buy lots of books, both new and used. Yet I always feel like I am falling behind on my reading, sometimes never getting past chapter 2 in many books.
I need to focus my reading. Other than ’targeted’ readings (for various projects), I need to keep the number of books that I am concurrently reading down to manageable number: I think five is a good number. And make sure I keep a nice variety of subjects and difficulties.