thoughts on studying Latin

I'm studying Latin on my own right now and it's interesting to see what my strengths and weaknesses are. I find it much easier to go from Latin to English than from English to Latin. And I have a really hard time getting the order of the words right. That's actually my worst problem with English to Latin translation; I tend to use the correct words and cases and everything but in the wrong order!

Though as it turns out, because it's a highly inflected language, the word order isn't a crucial to the meaning as it is in English, though there is a standard one that is preferred. The textbook mentioned that different word orders might be used for emphasis, but didn't really go into detail. I looked it up on Wikipedia and they mentioned that in poetry they might use different word order for emphasis or to fit the words into the meter they want to use.

I'm curious about this subject, so if anyone out there can tell me what exactly different word orders in Latin might mean, do let me know.

Another thing is that I'm much better at translating exercises than straight up grammar exercises. When I'm translating a sentence, I'll generally get it right, but I won't necessarily be thinking "okay, dative here, genitive here, etc." I find it really hard to try to do that, actually. I just seem to figure out what makes the most sense given the context. Which mean that when I got to the exercises that just asked for word endings for different cases or wanted me to translate different cases alone without them being a whole sentence, I was pretty lost. Which means I'm obviously relying on context a lot.

I wonder how much I'm riding on the fact that I started learning Latin when I was 12 and my brain was still fresh and wet and sticky. I didn't feel like I remembered a lot explicitly (though I do remember how to conjugate to be, even though I haven't gotten to that part in the textbook yet), but I have the feeling I'm relying on a lot of subconscious knowledge right now that I don't even know I know. Very strange.

Oh and I switched textbooks, and it's kind of a mixed bag. Cambridge suited my learning style better, but didn't have an answer key for the main book, only the workbook, which meant I could never check my answers or know if I was translating things right. Wheelock's has an answer key, but it's a harder textbook for me to use because it's much more technical and presents a lot more material at once.

At some point I'd like to take an actual class, but that'll have to wait a while for personal reasons. And by that time, I'd probably have to take a placement test because a beginning class might be too easy for me at that point, assuming I'm able to stick with studying it on my own for a while.