Latin, Occitan, Italian, Romanian, Portuguese, Catalan, Spanish & French Language Learning Resources

Join me on a virtual tour of my resources for learning Romance languages. As I go through the collection, I pull down and talk about specific volumes, and I also answer questions from Xing Hao, who is filming.
If you enjoy learning from my videos, then you might also enjoy learning by interacting with me in my virtual academy: www.alexandera... First quarter 2023 has just begun, so you can join me this week to improve your abilities to read French, German, or Spanish literature; learn to read Medieval languages; practice spoken Latin at various levels; participate in Great Books seminars; learn about linguistics and comparative religion in lecture series; or get support for guided self-study of languages.
If you are in a position to support my educational efforts, please consider making a contribution at: ko-fi.com/alex...

[@lluiscornet9020]

A Catalan here, and of course I also speak Occitan (both languages are so alike I sometimes believe they're just different dialects, especially because I'm from the north of Catalonia). Sadly, Occitan is a dying language: France doesn't really enhance its use, and old people who still had it as their mother tongue are fading away. I hope a revival will happen, although it's most unlikely. I also speak French, Spanish and Italian. I'm amazed at your interest and knowledge of Romance languages. I hope you keep enjoying it and you have a new subscriber.

[@ProfASAr]

Thank you for your support. Around 1995, I went to a meeting of the "Occitan league" in Carcasonne and found everyone speaking French with only scattered words of Occitan.

[@olivierdigiacomo7999]

This summer, I spent a holiday in France, in the Occitan region, and an old man I spoke to told me that there are now Occitan classes for children at school. I hope this initiative can revive the language. I'm from Wallonia, the French-speaking part of Belgium, and I'm much more pessimistic about the survival of this Romance language, one of the northernmost before the Germanic zone. For decades, the language has been blamed for being ‘vulgar’ and has been supplanted by French in every respect. How can a language be vulgar? It's ridiculous.

[@Rafaelleao1977]

Its's nice to have a collection of something that is not wanted by thieves! I feel the same with my (much smaller) most cherished belongings, language books as well. I do like when you said in one of your latest videos that it takes years, sometimes decades to master a foreign language. That is very reallistic and I have been showing that to my german language students. I think it eases the task of learning a foreign language if you know that it's going to take a lot of time to master it, unless you're living in the target country. Even so, a lot of my portuguese students strugle with german after three or four years living in a german speaking country.

[@seaghanobuadhaigh8240]

You're not wrong! My house was trashed just over ten years ago. They stole my late mother's wedding ring, my father's signet ring, two TVs, a DVD player, and about a thousand euros in cash. They completely ignored the approximately four thousand books in the house, some of which are very valuable indeed! Thank God for criminal illiteracy.

[@ProfASAr]

"Thank God for criminal illiteracy." Wonderful!

[@dosgos]

My favorite vintage language learning resource was "Curso de fonetica y fonologia españolas : para estudiantes angloamericanos". This is a Spanish pronunciation guide and workbook customized for English speakers! CSIC published different versions from the 1960s to the 1990s; I saw a cassette tape of the exercises in Spain but stupidly did not buy it on the spot; since then, I haven't found the audio anywhere. The book is entirely in Spanish so requires an advanced-intermediate skill level to read IMHO. A lot of the exercises would be fine for beginners. This book pops up on used online stores frequently, including new, unopened copies!

[@ProfASAr]

I don't have that but would be pleased to welcome it into my collection. As I've stated, I really do want to make my library the core of a physical Mediathek somewhere, sometime, and I would love to have examples of excellent vintage courses of all stripes.

[@ProfASAr]

If you enjoy learning from my videos, then you might also enjoy learning by interacting with me in my virtual academy: www.alexanderarguelles.com/academy/ First quarter 2023 has just begun, so you can join me this week to improve your abilities to read French, German, or Spanish literature; learn to read Medieval languages; practice spoken Latin at various levels; participate in Great Books seminars; learn about linguistics and comparative religion in lecture series; or get support for guided self-study of languages.

[@MahbubeKhuda]

Thanks

[@YogaBlissDance]

Prof. you might want to 1) add a # to the END of each video title -- so folks in future can get it like #2/5 etc! And put them in a playlist together. 2) It would be nice to scan the shelves (in between) so we can see the titles like you do at 6:47 for example and we can then freeze on it if we want...(thumbs up if you agree!)

[@ProfASAr]

Thank you for the kind suggestions. I will make the playlist. These have all been filmed already and are just being edited, so I don't know if there will be more shelf scans.

[@JC-oo1iu]

Are you still planning to continue the Q&A section of your site? I really enjoy reading those.

[@ProfASAr]

Yes I am! So sorry, I just haven't had time in recent months. Keep the pressure on and I will get back to it.

[@trayamolesh588]

Thank you for making more videos! Your endorsement of Assimil kicked off my Chinese learning 10 years ago. Although the two volumes of Chinese were not two of the brighter stars in the Assimil constellation, they were enough to help me quickly reach escape velocity in the language. I eventually went on to work through the Russian manual as well, used the Japanese manual as a review tool, and started (though did not continue unfortunately) with the French, Dutch, and German courses to get a sense of what the 'flagship' languages in the series felt like in comparison. Would you ever consider perhaps making a video dedicated to looking at all the generations of Assimil you possess for each individual language and providing maybe a sort of ranking for each generation per language? My impression is that in general older generations were more rigorous and thorough though that may vary depending on the author and/or generation. However, other times my impression is that for some languages the modern courses come out on top.

[@ProfASAr]

Hello Trayamolesh, and thank you for the suggestion - a "generations of Assimil" might indeed make a good video...

[@LLavery]

Bookcase goals right there! I'm definitely curating a collection, I just need to sit down and put some more time into studying the languages 🤣 Nice to see Welsh on your shelf (I live in Wales), I'm starting a refresher course at the end of the month.

[@ProfASAr]

I will look over and discuss the Celtic materials next time.

[@LLavery]

@@ProfASAr I shall look forward to it

[@anmathunach]

Delightful video - nice to see you have a copy of Mikhail Petrunin's four language comparative grammar! Just going to timestamp 07:52 for anyone interested in celtic languages - closeup of some of great books there!

[@ProfASAr]

Thank you for the appreciation. I will go over the Celtic volumes in some detail in the next video, so do watch for it next weekend.

[@Yan_Alkovic]

Oh it's so delightful to see your collection in detail! Really glad that you have Rhaeto-Romance, Catalan and Occitan there, they're my favourite Romance languages! Are the Occitan and Catalan novels just the modern versions or do you have samples of the mediaeval versions too?

[@ProfASAr]

Hello Yan, it is always great to "meet" you here as well as in our weekly Latin conversation sessions! To the best of my knowledge, my Catalan literature collection has not been modernized, but is in the original ~ 13th century texts.

[@Yan_Alkovic]

@@ProfASAr That is splendid! Glad to hear your collection is that diverse!

[@cito2820]

Hey professor, I’ve reallly enjoyed rewatching these videos. They’re lots of fun! Have you thought of touring your library of literature in multiple languages? I think that would be a great addition to the series if you have the time. Thanks so much for these great videos!

[@ProfASAr]

Xing Hao will be spending this Christmas/New Year's with me, so maybe soon.

[@gustavofarias8321]

Amazing!

[@ProfASAr]

More to come.

[@gustavofarias8321]

@@ProfASAr I’m waiting professor.

[@The_Lord_Of_Confusion]

thank you for this overview, really interresting, some notes I have 1) I´d love to see (and I hope I´m not the only one here) an overview and your commentary on the latin books, I decided to start learning latin, but frankly, I´m lost when I see how many books there are. I ordered, as you said some time ago, the Lingva Latina by Orberg, what else shoud I get? 2) Are there any good bilingual texts/readers you know about? Maybe with some notes? 3) How about the assimil with CD? And do you have any experiences with audio materials for latin? I saw some out there, but to me it sounded like "american with other words" rather than an authentic language *off topic note --- we also finally found the other secret of polyliteracy --- go and buy yourself a G-shock! :)

[@ProfASAr]

Regarding learning Latin, don't get overwhelmed by the amount of material out there - just start with what you have - Orberg is a great first foundation that you can add upon later. In particular for readers - there are plenty but if you are just starting out, you are not ready for those yet. Assimil re-recorded their course some years back, so if you get it, make sure you get the newer version (book is the same). If you might be interested, I have multiple levels of Latin in my academy, including a guided self-study for beginners (using Orberg). As for the G-shock, joking aside, studying with a stopwatch at various stages is indeed a "secret" of polyliteracy!

[@peterbrown3004]

Un paraiso linguistico.

[@ProfASAr]

Paraiso!

[@joseramonperezdelriogarcia9089]

Paraíso lingüístico

[@MahbubeKhuda]

Magnificent

[@ProfASAr]

There are four more shelves to be shown.

[@MahbubeKhuda]

@@ProfASAr Marvelous 📚💐

[@kastanie7445]

I'd be very interested to see your slavic languages book collection!

[@ProfASAr]

That will be after the next video in the series.

[@kastanie7445]

@@ProfASAr very much looking forward to it!

[@Christopher_Stead]

This video does make me wish for a historical development overview series for the Romance languages! Their classification seems to be much more complex than the Germanic languages with so many more sub-families and divisions.

[@ProfASAr]

Hello Chris, if I could do one without every constant nitpicking about accents, I would.

[@Christopher_Stead]

@@ProfASAr I was thinking more along the lines of the historical linguistics series you did for Germanic. The nitpicking comments for the textual readings are indeed annoying...

[@superdeluxesmell]

Book smellers are my tribe! 😂 Inspirational video!

[@ProfASAr]

It is sad that it means the book is essentially rotting, but it is a delicious smell!

[@azamatkhamidullin4383]

It is very important and interesting to have so much books. Actually, in my library there are books that I have bought abroad

[@ProfASAr]

Thanks for commenting. I have purchased my books in many countries around the world over the years.

[@samuelengle7873]

This is great! It would be great if you could get the camera closer to the shelves because you can't really see most of it.

[@ProfASAr]

I will be going through all of the shelves in detail.

[@aliahspirituality]

love this! and you have a very relaxing voice

[@ProfASAr]

Thank you so much 🙂

[@alfonsmelenhorst9672]

I recognize the good German-Dutch and Dutch-German dictionaries from Wolters-Noordhoff on the third shelf of the second cupboard, with a green cover. I use them myself

[@ProfASAr]

I will cover that next shelf in the next video, next weekend.

[@PaleoalexPicturesLtd]

I've been looking for the recordings of the 1981 Assimil "L'espagnol sans peine" as well as the corresponding 1988 "Approfondissement" course. Does anyone know where to find them ?

[@ProfASAr]

I have both, but I cannot share them with the general public due to copyright concerns. However, just as I could let students who visited my office during office hours borrow some of my materials for their personal use, I can let let students in my academy do the same.

[@trentfowler6239]

Assimil has a lot of Spanish options, which do you like? What are your general recommendations for learning Latin-American Spanish?

[@ProfASAr]

The 1950's vintage Assimil is a connected story of a language stay in Spain, which is fantastic. All Assimil Spanish volumes do focus on continental, but for something similar, Linguaphone did put out a separate Latin American Spanish course.

[@DavidLopez-dv1sm]

Espectacular

[@ProfASAr]

¡Gracias!

[@dowolo]

Thank you for this great service, sir. I will definitely be coming back to these videos when I need to look for resources for another language.

[@ProfASAr]

There will be four more such videos with even more detail of other languages and language families so do stay tuned.

[@ioanayt]

Nice collection. So you will be able to read Mircea Eliade's "History of Religions" in Romanian language :) .

[@ProfASAr]

Eliade did most of his academic writing in French. He saved Romanian for his stories and novels. He supposedly said he wanted to be remembered for his creative writings more than for his scholarship. My father can read Romanian much better than I can, and he says that Eliade is indeed a remarkable stylist with a fantastic imagination in his fiction.

[@titnesovic4522]

Wonderful tour, thank you. A guy could pitch a tent here and stay for a long time :) My mother tongue is probably one of the more obscure languages of Europe - Slovenian. Prof. Arguelles, I'm quite curious, have you ever encountered it or have you maybe even a dictionary or a grammar book about it? There are only about 2 million people that speak it and it's like a faraway dialect of the other south Slavic languages. Perhaps comparable to the German-Durch divide. Close but not too close :) Hoping to one day see the rest of the shelves.

[@ProfASAr]

Greetings. Indeed, I heard much Slovenian when the polyglot conference was held in Ljubljana. I think I may have one book for it in my collection, but I am not sure of that, unfortunately. The Slavic shelves should come up two weekends from now.

[@fedecalace8632]

Hi Alexander, I am a native spanish speaker. What do you think about this method? I learned English by transcribing an interlinear Bible. I am currently learning Latin and Koine using this method, I believe it is kinda lacking in grammar but somehow it's kinda effective and maybe tedious at the same time. I don't know if it will work with latin and greek, I don't know how people learned languages in the middle ages, but I will try it, I am also using audio material, there are several recordings in latin and greek . Tell me if it is a good idea. Thanks in advance. My main issue with latin is that I understand what I read, but inside of my head it's a mess, I want to speak it :(, maybe it takes years to be fluent in spoken latin.

[@ProfASAr]

This is indeed a good method, but you should supplement it with formal grammar study for best results.

[@dosgos]

Older language textbooks (and cassettes!) are undervalued. The writing, editing, and publishing standards for technical books was very high in the heyday of the "book industry". Old books may be inexpensive and may be more effective than newer books / computer schemes. With older materials, there is some risk of outdated words, phrases, pronunciations, pedagogy, etc. At the beginner and intermediate levels, does that really matter in any language? I would do some preliminary research anyways. For example, in Japanese beginner textbooks, romaji text has fallen out of favor. Japanese paper dictionaries were especially painful and rarely used by learners; today, we just use speedy software dictionaries & hover-over dictionaries for their phones and computers. The former is a change in pedagogy, as the romaji is a crutch that can mispronounce Japanese plus delays learning how to read the kana. The later is a technology shift that saves a lot of time.

[@ProfASAr]

I don't know if you are familiar with things I have written about this subject in the past, but I could not agree more that language courses were superior in the past and are generally getting weaker and worse with each generation.

[@AlexanderDumb]

In your "path of the polyglot" post, you said that even after 8 years of living in Korea, you still were nowhere near to being fluent in the language. Do you think that if you spent your "monastic" years only studying Korean and no other languages, would you have been able to achieve mastery in the language?

[@ProfASAr]

No, I don't think so. I treated studying and analyzing the Korean language as a full-time professional job in my office, in conjunction with my colleague Professor Kim Jong Rok. There is only so much one can focus on any one thing. If I had attempted to study Korean as actively in my off-office time, I believe that would have lead to burnout.

[@AlexanderDumb]

@@ProfASAr Thank you for your response!

[@cito2820]

I'm very excited to see the celtic and slavic languages!

[@ProfASAr]

Coming soon!

[@Cammed5point3sierra]

Any resources for Biblical Hebrew?

[@ProfASAr]

I have a few resources for Hebrew, which you can see in the last video in this series (coming soon!).

[@adlovett9831]

tell me you're on the spectrum without saying that you're on the spectrum. Impressive collection, super jealous.

[@michaelchen8643]

The French government by its constitution has to promote the French language above any other language in France In fact, until recently, they had a policy by which they would send French teachers to different parts of France for the purposes of killing off any of the local languages So you might have people who speak Occitan As a home language, or a village language, but not as a language for broad public consumption So if you went to the south of France, and even looked for places like that, you probably run into people who I’ve been exposed to metropolitan in public and in their formal government supplied study, and might identify with the Occitan language, but do not have the practice or exposure This is especially true in North America, where English might not be the official language, but it might as well impact be, and all the other languages are struggling to survive with the exception of Spanish, with somehow managed to get a foothold in common practice. French for instance, has been very much Suppressed This all started after World War One we are by the state governments and local governments in Maine, and Louisiana actively suppress the French language Let us not forget the Indian schools which forcibly removed Native American children, and thereby separating their personal ties to their language and culture

[@ProfASAr]

Thanks for the historical context.

[@pingoleonfernandez7638]

Those old yellow rotten page books tend to smell good, cause they're made of paper made out of sugar cane.