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Sunday, June 26th
If you're tired of the typical online language learning where you match words and phrases to an image, use flashcards and multiple choice quizzes to assess your progress, and not interact with anyone, Preply might be what you're looking for. There are more than a dozen professional Latin tutors available for you to choose. Peruse their bio, see how many active students they have and how many Latin lessons they have taught with Preply. Read about what they are passionate about and what they believe they can do to help you learn.
Is this the first you've heard of Preply?
Preply started in 2012 in Ukraine as an online one-on-one tutoring platform to help students do well on standardized tests. Only a year later, they changed their focus to personalized language lessons. They have already earned over $4,000,000 and have thousands of tutors. One of the benefits of Preply is that they are expanding into not only teaching languages, but adding the arts, so if you're into music or art, peruse those possibilities as well.
You choose the teacher
Why do you want to learn Latin? Perhaps you want to learn conversational Latin, need help with your Latin homework, want to read ancient literature, or realize Latin could help with university preparation. Decide what your goals are and find a tutor to match. Also look at the price per hour to see if it meets your budget. Don't forget to view the tutors' reviews and check when they are available; you'll want someone whose schedule matches yours. Too many factors to consider? Go to the bottom of the tutor page and they will show you their top three.
You choose the price and lesson time
Given that there are more than a dozen Latin tutors from around the globe, a person is usually available when you would like your lesson. Some of the tutors are new to Preply, and others have taught over 1,000 lessons. Choose your instructor from the blurb they write, or if your budget is pretty tight, choose by price. If you have any questions, you can message the potential tutor. Your introductory lesson is 50% off, so it's a pretty good incentive to give Preply a try.
How to sign up for a trial lesson
Once you're on a teacher's profile page, you can set up a lesson by clicking on the "Book Trial Lesson" button where you set up the date and time. Then check out and pay via credit card or PayPal. Your class will be via their website in a Skype-type platform.
Costs
FAQs
Preply has a help center where general assistance is offered to site users, including guidelines, but it also has an extensive collection of materials for you to supplement your language instruction. They even have helpful hints on how to find the best tutor for you.
Everyone deserves fair pay
When you take a discounted trial lesson, Preply takes all your money, and the tutor gets none. After your first lesson, Preply takes from 18% - 33% off the top, which is a big complaint. Those tutors with fewer than 20 lessons take the biggest hit; realize that without a large following, people may not choose them, so they may stay at the lower pay grade for quite a while. We realize that you would be a student and perhaps not signing up to be a teacher, but we felt you should know the cut Preply takes off the top.
We like Preply
Preply has only been around for about 10 years, but in that time, they have acquired thousands of teachers who are eager to teach you most any language. The fees range from $15 - $100, so you should find someone within your budget, and remember that the first lesson is 50% off. Preply is a solid option for Latin lessons, whether you're a beginner or already knowledgeable but want tutoring for a niche reason.
While technically Latin may not be the native language of any people living today, it's still ever present in the world. Latin especially comes alive in English. Our alphabet is the Latin alphabet. Many of our prefixes, suffixes, and quite a few of our common phrases are, or come from, Latin. It's an official language of Vatican City, and it is used as the language of reference for translating important religious documents into modern languages.
Many scholars believe learning Latin is good brain exercise and can help you increase your vocabulary as half the English language is based on Latin words and roots. Ergo, studying Latin can help you learn more English vocabulary and master other languages.
Originally, Latin was spoken in Rome, and morphed over the years, from Old Latin to New Latin and even Contemporary Latin, which is used in the Catholic church. Pope Francis often tweets in Latin to his over 900,000 followers. With the spread of the Roman empire, Latin was transformed into the many Romance languages we know today: Spanish, Catalan, French, Romanian, Portuguese, and Italian. So, some people would say that Latin lives on.
Latin certainly isn't dead in science. Latin terminologies are widespread in medicine, names of body parts, and names of diseases. The system used for naming plants and animals is founded in both Latin and Greek, and Latin terms form the roots of philosophical study.
Latin is quite alive in legal terms. Habeas corpus, ex post facto, and pro bono are familiar terms in real court cases as well as popular TV and online legal dramas.
Do you still need more reasons to learn Latin? It will surely help you in the fields of science, philosophy, law, and some theology. It can also help you with the study of other languages, especially the Romance languages mentioned above. Latin's not conversational? Julius Caesar would disagree.
Which Latin lessons are right for you? You've got a lot of options! Here are a few things to keep in mind that can help you narrow them down:
TopConsumerReviews.com has tested and reviewed the top options for Latin lessons available today. We're confident that with this information, you'll find no reason not to carpe diem -seize the day-and take your first Latin lesson!
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