The Familia Sancti Hieronymi (Family of St. Jerome), out of Florida, promotes the idea of Latin as a living language within the context of the Catholic Church.
I have no special connection with this organization except that, having struggled to learn Latin on my own for some years, my breakthrough came via the Cursus Linguae Latinae Vivae (Course in the Living Latin Language) offered by that organization, as taught by Fr. Suitbertus Siedl entirely in Latin (for a rich set of Latin-only materials offered by FSH, see http://www.hieronymus.us.com/Venalia/IndLatin.htm, with English translation of the offerings here: http://www.hieronymus.us.com/Venalia/IndEngl.htm).
The premise of the Cursus is that language is primarily an aural experience - hence, trying to learn Latin by translating words and sentences into another language such as English is a fundamentally poorer way to learn than by simply hearing and repeating it in the Latin itself even as one learns the grammatical rules and syntax. Asculte et alta voce legere (listen, and repeat out loud) is the command one hears throughout, along with Repetitio est mater studiorum. In each segment, there is a teaching from the ancient Latin of Rome, from historic Catholic Church materials, and from daily life. And you will hear Fr. Siedl vigorously proclaiming: "Lingua Latina non mortua est sed viva."
Take it for what it is worth. But clearly there are pockets within today's world where people take seriously the idea that Latin should survive as a spoken tongue and where their gatherings are held entirely in Latin. For anyone who wants to learn the language, it is well worth dipping into that world. A pretty fascinating place for those with an inclination to learn about it.
That's really cool. I have been tempted to try the Lingua Latina books, which argue a softer version of this thesis: that memorizing tables of inflections doesn't work as well as "immersive reading." I'm inclined towards this because, as a non-Catholic, my interface with Latin is textual rather than aural. It would be interesting to hear from someone who tried both.
Now corrected. Thank you both for pointing this out. Just asleep at the switch, since I hope I know at least that much after years of studying this stuff.
I have no special connection with this organization except that, having struggled to learn Latin on my own for some years, my breakthrough came via the Cursus Linguae Latinae Vivae (Course in the Living Latin Language) offered by that organization, as taught by Fr. Suitbertus Siedl entirely in Latin (for a rich set of Latin-only materials offered by FSH, see http://www.hieronymus.us.com/Venalia/IndLatin.htm, with English translation of the offerings here: http://www.hieronymus.us.com/Venalia/IndEngl.htm).
The premise of the Cursus is that language is primarily an aural experience - hence, trying to learn Latin by translating words and sentences into another language such as English is a fundamentally poorer way to learn than by simply hearing and repeating it in the Latin itself even as one learns the grammatical rules and syntax. Asculte et alta voce legere (listen, and repeat out loud) is the command one hears throughout, along with Repetitio est mater studiorum. In each segment, there is a teaching from the ancient Latin of Rome, from historic Catholic Church materials, and from daily life. And you will hear Fr. Siedl vigorously proclaiming: "Lingua Latina non mortua est sed viva."
Take it for what it is worth. But clearly there are pockets within today's world where people take seriously the idea that Latin should survive as a spoken tongue and where their gatherings are held entirely in Latin. For anyone who wants to learn the language, it is well worth dipping into that world. A pretty fascinating place for those with an inclination to learn about it.