This news comes to us from the Classics department at AMU in Ave Maria, Florida.
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At Ave Maria University in southwest Florida, we have been offering interested students a unique opportunity for the past four years: two three-week summer courses in beginning and intermediate Latin and Greek, teaching students to speak, read, write and respond in the ancient languages. After six weeks, participants build a basic 600-word vocabulary, learn to compose sentences, build basic narratives, and read and analyze all in the target language.
The Summer Intensive Immersion Courses in Latin and Greek at Ave Maria are designed to bring students to an active proficiency in Classical Latin or Koine Greek through immersion and dedicated study. Students learn by communicative exchange from the first day of class. We have taken the successful formula of intensive summer courses in Latin and Greek, as taught at CUNY and the University of California, Berkeley, and added a methodology inspired by applied linguistics: reading skills built through communicative competence. Our goal in speaking Latin or Greek in the classroom is certainly not to learn to speak an ancient language for the sake of it but to read ancient texts without the constant need for analysis through translation.
Latin courses are designed and taught by Dr. Bradley Ritter. Dr. Ritter received his Ph.D. in Classics from the University of California at Berkeley. He has published on Hellenistic and Roman history and Judaism in the ancient world. Greek courses are designed and taught by Dr. Christophe Rico. Dr. Rico received his Ph.D. in Greek linguistics at the Sorbonne and has published on general linguistics, Greek linguistics, and Koine Greek. He is also the founder of Polis, an institute in Jerusalem which offers a two-year M.A. program in Classical languages, philology, and the culture of the Holy Land.
This year, Level 1, for both Greek and Latin, is held from Monday, June 1 until Friday, June 19. Level 2 is held from Monday, June 22 until Friday, July 10.
We invite you to visit us online (classics.avemaria.edu/polis_greek_and_latin/) or contact us directly at summerimmersion@avemaria.edu for more information.
