Time	Notes
1.	Grammar/Lessons	5h	All my studies last 7 years. Mostly grammar.
2.	Reading
3.	Listening
4.	Writing
5.	Speaking
6.	Vocabulary
7.	Phonetic drills

Latin - my first language learnt by myself

Yes, this is my first language that I tried to learn by myself. I had some success with it but in this time I was 16 and had no system in it.

My first touch to Latin

The first time I heard Latin was when I was 10 years old. Then became famous the song “Ameno” from Era. It was a big radio hit and I was fascinated, mesmerized. I liked very much the video clip but the lyrics was so tantalizing. I heard a language so ceremonial, magical, strong but also melodical. At this time I was heard only English and Russian but the language in the song was something different. And I truly fell in love with this language. I did not know what was the name of the language, so I asked someone. I cannot remember who answered me, maybe my mum or dad. I became a huge fan of Era till now.

In high school

Some years later when I was in high school (I was 16) my friend told me about Latin philosophers and gave me a Latin grammar. I was totally amazed by this grammar and I made a copy of it and read it whole twice. It was very old grammmar (from 1966) and then it was difficult to buy a copy because it was (and it is) the best university grammar at the time and many students used it - so it has no chance to find it on the market. Additionally I made many notes, exercises, tried to conjugate so many verbs, tried declesions and what I could try to exercise just using my fantasy. Also I went to the Sofia university and bought one latin textbook and one latin dictionary of word formation. My mum gave me a gift - her Latin dictionary. She was learning Latin in English philology and told me that this is very tought language. So I was armed and started to learn from the textbook - Lingua Latina. I continue to use the grammar, to read it again. I made a special attention to verb conjugation and declesion of nouns, adjectives and pronouns. In this time I familiarized with the language and understood everything very well. Additionally I learnt so many about grammar itself, maybe for linguistics in common. I learnt so many new things like what is supine, future participle, etc. Notwithstanding grammar I made first lessons from another textbook but realized that his book was for slow learning. It was a textbook for the schools in two volumes. Therefore it was a little bit slow and boring for at this moment because I was a child and want to understand everything at he moment. I was very passionated then because I learnt by myself for the first time, the language was so interesting for me, I made comparison with Spanish which I was learning in this moment. So I had no patience then to drag myself through lessons designed not learn anything. Sadly there were few exercises and no texts even adapted. But I like Lingua Latina because it was a grammar very synthesized.

In the university

In the university I continued to learn Latin by myself for three years. But my studying was chaotic, not systematic. And I did not produce text or try to write or read. I could not find original text in Latin except some parts from “De bello Gallico” - I understand a lot but was difficult for me to made an exact translation. So I continued to make exercises on conjugations and declesions because I could not do anything else in this moment. There was no internet, no friends to help me or place to get help. I like vey much the old grammar especially for the comparison with Romance languages and for the historical context - the development of Latin through years. My father made me a dift - a book with Latin sentences. I read some part of the book and learnt some sentences by heart. Sadly I finished learning Latin in 2004. I had no time for it.