Learning Latin in a Hurry

Despite the Idiots' and Dummies' guides, learning a language thoroughly is not something most people can do in a couple of weeks or even a couple of months. The best way to learn Latin quickly would be to find a way to live in a Latin speaking community, but this is not the right time of year. It's too bad one can't just ask the Pope -- reportedly a fluent Latin speaker. However, if your goals are more modest and you already know related languages (French, Spanish, Italian, etc.), it may be possible to get to the point this forum poster hopes to reach:

"I am just beginning to learn Latin and I need help. I am planning to write a story which includes some Latin phrases. I only have 2 months to pick up the gist of the language, so I thank all who are willing to teach me. For those who know good interesting websites that are able to help in my quest to understand Latin, do recommend them to me. Thanks all."
leiannaT

While this site is not specifically designed to teach Latin, there are some resources that should help. One is a newsletter that comes out every day for a week. It introduces

• Resources for Latin Students
• Latin Basics - Pronunciation and the Alphabet
• Latin Grammar - Particles
• Latin Grammar - Declension of Nouns
• Latin - Parts of Speech - Nouns and Adjectives
• Latin - Conjugations
• Latin - Parts of Speech - Verbs

You can sign up for it here: Learning Latin Online
Another suggestion is based on what I heard was the way students used to learn Latin a couple of centuries ago: they used bilingual editions and compared the Latin with the English. A recent Bolchazy-Carducci publication of Cicero makes this easy to do. See Completely Parsed Cicero.
Tips For Learning Latin From the Forum

How do we get from

Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam Aquitani, tertiam qui ipsorum lingua Celtae, nostra Galli appellantur.

to

"All Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit, the Aquitani another, the third, those who in their own language are called Celts, in our Gauls"?

This is the first sentence of Caesar's Gallic Wars and is familiar to generations of Latin students, because it is good for beginners.

• The first step I would urge someone trying to self-teach Latin is to look at all the words, sound them out, and recognize those words that sound familiar. Gallia, divisa, in, partes, Belgae, and Aquitani -- minimally -- should sound familiar.

• Since Latin is an inflected language, there are endings on words. If you remove the last letter or two of these familiar words, do they sound more familiar? Gall? Part? Aquitan? How about adding endings to Belgae and and adding and subtracting from divisa to make Belgium and divide?

• Figure out what you've got: Gaul [est omnis] divide in parts [tres, quarum unam incolunt] Belgium, [aliam] Aquitaine, [tertiam qui ipsorum lingua] Celts, [nostra] Gaul [appellantur]. You should by now recognize that Gaul is divided and Belgium Aquitaine, and Celts are parts. You've already gotten the gist and you haven't even looked up a single word.

• You have a choice now: find more words that look vaguely familiar, like omnis, tres, tertiam, and lingua and guess that they mean: all, three, third, language/tongue or look them up in a Latin-English dictionary. Since I've given them to you, you don't need to do so. You now have:
  Gaul [est] all divide in parts three, [quarum unam incolunt] Belgium, [aliam] Aquitaine, third [qui ipsorum] language Celt, [nostra] Gaul [appellantur].

• If you know other Romance languages, you should recognize that "est" is a form of the verb for being and means "is" and from the way to say your name in French (Je m'appelle NS), you should recognize appellantur as having something to do with what the Gauls are named. Nostra may be familiar to you from the prayer Pater Noster -- Our Father or The Lord's Prayer.
  Gaul is all divide(d) in parts three, [quarum unam incolunt] Belgium, [aliam] Aquitaine, third [qui ipsorum] language Celt, [nostra] Gaul are called.

• At this point, you have only a few words left. See if you can match up the remaining words, quarum unam incolunt, aliam, and qui ipsorum, with the English:
  All Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit, the Aquitani another, the third, those who in their own language are called Celts, in our Gauls.

• Although I will explain the remaining words, doing so is not really helpful. Spending some time hunting for them in a dictionary and grammar book would be more valuable. Quarum = of which. It is a genitive plural feminine. Unam = one. It goes with quarum to mean "one of which". Unam is accusative singular feminine. Incolunt is a verb. It is in the present tense and is third person plural. Since Latin doesn't require the preposition, the verb incolunt alone would mean they inhabit. Here, the Belgae are the ones doing the inhabiting. Aliam = another. It is parallel to unam: "one ... another" Like its parallel unam, aliam is accusative singular feminine. Qui = who. It is nominative plural masculine and acts as the subject of appellantur. Qui appellantur = who are called.

Memorize a chunk of Latin