Award-Winning Latin Courses & Classes in Kansas City, MO

If you'd like help studying Latin, Varsity Tutors can provide assistance through live online Kansas City Latin courses. Whether you're studying at Park Hill or Staley High Schools and would like to pick up skills in another language, taking Latin to get a leg up on your future law studies in college, or for any other reason, studying online with a professional instructor leading a group of like-minded learners can provide many benefits.

Latin is technically considered a "dead" language because it's not currently a language spoken in any major world community. However, its descendants are called the Romance Languages and include French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian. People choose to learn Latin for a number of reasons. For one, though not a community language, it's used in many professions, such as the law, medicine, and theology, among others. Furthermore, once you know Latin, you may find it easier to learn any of the Romance Languages.

The English language is full of Latin as well. Students often use flashcards of Latin prefixes, suffixes, and root words when studying for spelling bees or other linguistic contests. We still use the Roman alphabet. Interestingly, we have added three letters since classical times: j, v, and w. Whatever your reasons for studying Latin may be, allow Varsity Tutors to help you through our Latin courses.

What specifics are studied in a Kansas City Latin course?

There are many things that need to be studied to learn a new language, and Latin is no different. However, as an English-speaking student, you might find this to be one of the easiest languages to learn, relatively speaking. For one thing, pronunciation is generally not a problem for two reasons. First, English has many pronunciations based on Latin words, so it will be more familiar than languages like Chinese or Russian, or even German. Secondly, since it's a dead language not used to communicate socially, pronunciation is not really as important. There will be no "native speakers" to offend when you get a word wrong.

Vocabulary is another aspect where Latin may be easier to learn than some others. English has many words derived from Latin, and some are more or less the same. One example is the Latin "adulescens," which means a young man or youth, a time known today as one's adolescence. There are verbs such as affirmo and desidero that mean I affirm and I desire, respectively, and the adjective rapidus, which not surprisingly means rapid or swift.

Of course, if all aspects of Latin were that easy to learn, that might be the only language students chose to study. So we have inflections, which are the ending of Latin words. These are essential to understanding the way words work together in sentences, and not something used that much in English. We understand a lot about what's acting and what's being acted upon by the word order of the sentence. For example, "Mom goes to my sister's house" or "my sister goes to Mom's house." Pronouns are not used very much in Latin, because the ending of a verb shows who is doing the action described. How to understand how this works is something that your instructor can focus on during your Kansas City Latin classes.

Another difference between English and Latin is that nouns are gendered. This is similar to some other languages such as Spanish and German, but while those languages have masculine and feminine, Latin also has a neuter gender. The gender of the nouns affect the adjective and verb forms that will be used in the sentence, as they must agree in gender and number (whether they're singular or plural).

As with any foreign language class, you will probably spend a lot of time acquiring new vocabulary, learning and using common phrases in conversation, and understanding Latin grammar and sentence structure. You can put these into effect in your conversations and also as you learn to write and read Latin.

Part of learning a language is learning the history surrounding it, so your Kansas City Latin course may also devote some amount of time to discussing the history of the glorious Roman civilization.

Finally, if you run into an aspect of the language that's particularly challenging, you always have the option of signing up for private tutoring lessons. With the one-on-one attention of a dedicated personal instructor to meeting your specific needs, you have the opportunity to catch up quickly.

What are the advantages of studying Latin in a Kansas City Latin class?

The main benefit of studying a language with other people is the opportunity for communication. That may sound simplistic, but consider the student of basketball. Yes, they can practice specific skills such as layups or free throws on their own, but to learn the game, they must practice mostly with their team and opponents. The same is true of language. You can do things like draw up verb conjugation and tense charts and fill them out, use flashcards for vocabulary, and other activities to improve certain skills. But to truly learn the language, you must use it with other people.

In your online Kansas City Latin class, you can communicate with your instructor and classmates during your online lessons. You also have the potential for meeting students with whom you can practice conversations during and between classes.

An added convenience of studying in the Latin classes offered by Varsity Tutors is the flexibility. There are new classes starting each month, and there are multiple sections meeting at different times during the day and on different days of the week. You're sure to find a class that fits well into your schedule.

How do I get enrolled in a class as soon as possible?

Varsity Tutors likes to make it as easy as possible for you to learn Latin, and that includes getting enrolled in a course. Now would be a good time to contact us, have our educational experts answer any questions you have, and provide them information about your level of fluency, your goals, and your schedule. They can use this to offer you the best course options and get you enrolled in a Kansas City Latin course that meets your needs, academic and otherwise.