An online magazine, interested in promoting Visual Latin, had some questions for me this week.  I thought I would share my answers.

Here are their questions:

– How many hours is the course? Specifically each video lesson, and how long it will take on average to complete including the worksheets and quizzes.

– Could you provide a bit more background to your teaching / Latin history?

– Finally, do you have a rough ballpark figure as to how many people have used Visual Latin?

Here is my reply:

I am happy to help you any way I can.

There are 60 lessons in Visual Latin.  Each lesson is divided into 3 videos.  Each video ranges from 5 to 15 minutes.  The average then is probably 10 minutes.  This means there are roughly 30 hours of video content.  This makes Visual Latin the comprehensive Latin video series on the market.

I recommend 30 minutes to an hour for the worksheets.  Assuming it takes students an average of 45 minutes, it would take 45 hours to complete all of the worksheets.

As for how many people have used Visual Latin, I can honestly tell you that I do not know.  You would need to contact the guys at CompassClassrooom with this question.  Kathryn may be able to give you this information.

As for my background in Latin… I am afraid you are not going to like it.  When it comes to academics, I march to a distinctly different drummer.

I grew up in Europe.  I was surrounded by languages and began to study them in high school.  I began studying Latin after completing college and studied mostly on my own.  At 23 years old, I did enroll in a local Latin high school class.  I studied there for 3 years.  We read through most of Jenney’s First Year Latin.  Never did finish the book in class.

After “high school” I continued to study on my own.  By this time, I was teaching Latin in a local elementary school.  I continued to teach myself Latin.  In fact, I still do today.  I continue to look for challenging material to read.

The point is, I did not go through the proper academic channels.  I do not have a degree in the classics, in Latin, or in Greek.  My degree is in History and in Business.  I was on my way to law school when Latin distracted me.  I thought I could flirt with Latin for a bit and move on. We ended up in a serious relationship.  Now, I am completely in love.

As an autodidact, I am not sure I am the best spokesperson for Latin.  Nonetheless, If you need help, and if you want it from me… I am happy to help you any way I can.