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A club for learning ancient languages. Every week we work through a lesson together in a fun, friendly setting. Learn about the cultures of the past in their own words, one language at a time.

Dead Languages Society

A club for learning Old English. Every week we work through a lesson in a fun, friendly setting. Come examine the origin of the English language by reading real texts (including Beowulf) with us! 

Old English

This is a template for collecting the artifact resulting from this cohort — a final, publicly viewable summary of what participants learned or created during the course.

❗️**Important:** The contents of this post will appear on the cohort page, visible to everyone. Don't post anything you don't want to be publicly shared.

Please edit this topic with an artifact that makes sense for your course.

## [Artifact Title]

Replace with: summary description of what the cohort created or learned together.

This may be a final writeup, a summary of each participant's project, a link roundup to externally hosted  assignments — whatever makes sense for your course.

Note that participants can reply to this post, but only this initial post of the topic will be published to the cohort page as its public artifact.

Artifact

This is a template for an assignment you want to give participants in this cohort.

Please edit this topic with description, instructions, or anything else that makes sense for the assignment you'd like to share. The text below is just a starting point.

## [Assignment Title]

Replace with: summary description of the assignment. What are participants creating? What's the learning goal in the context of this course?

## Instructions

Replace with: details on the expected format or process for completing the assignment.

Example (for a final writeup):

- Please post a link to a Google Doc with 500 words on what you learned
- Make sure that sharing is turned on so others can comment

Example (for a photography workshop)

- Select your three favorite photos from the week's theme
- Upload them to a post here, each preceded with a one-paragraph description

Assignment

This is a template for details / discussion related to a specific event in your cohort.

Please edit this topic to include most or all of the elements listed below!

❗️**Important:** Please schedule each event from the main cohort page. This template is not the main way to create an event, but may be useful as a reminder, a way to share related details, or collaborate on event notes.

## [Event Title]

Replace with: short description of the event; any additional info beyond what you included in the event description on the cohort page.

## Details / Instructions

Replace with: further details about the event, if needed. How to join, anything participants need to do to prepare; etc.

Event

This is a template for outlining a few simple steps for how participants in this cohort should get started.

Please edit this topic to include most or all of the following elements — or anything else you like!

## Introductions

Replace with: brief note encouraging participants to introduce themselves in this topic. Something like:

Please post a brief intro below! Let everyone know who you are, why you signed up, and what you hope to learn. And say hello to other participants; let's get to know each other!

## Logistics

Replace with: notes about any logistical details participants need to know. 

Any other tools / services participants will need to sign up for or download (e.g. Google Drive, Zoom, etc.)? Materials to prepare? Be sure to let everyone know any preliminary action items.

This topic contains details for this particular cohort. Right now you're in our private forum just for members of this cohort.

## Start Learning!

Replace with: any day-one action items that participants should complete prior to your first meeting. First reading(s) or assignment(s)? Share those here.

Getting Started

This is a template for a prompt — a question or discussion topic you'd like participants to discuss or respond to.

Please edit this topic to include any details necessary to spark this discussion!

## [Prompt Title]

Replace with: the prompt itself, with as much detail as you need, and how you'd like participants to respond below.

Prompt

This is a template for your cohort to run a retrospective — collecting valuable feedback from participants that will help the course improve over time.

Please edit this topic to include most or all of the following elements — or anything else you like!

## Questions

Replace with: particular questions you'd like students to answer at the end of the cohort, aimed at helping your course improve.

The questions below are just examples. You'll get better feedback if you ask targeted questions about specific aspects of your course. Tweak these questions, or write your own!

- What did you expect to get out of this course? Were those expectations met? If not, how do you feel about the progress you made in this course (if any)?
- What specific things (moments, techniques, conversations) did you feel were most useful to learning in this course?
- What do you wish we'd spent more time on? Anything you felt we should add?
- What's one thing you'd suggest we change or remove?
- Please share anything else you'd like us to know!

Participants: you can quote some or all of these questions to structure your replies below.

## Sharing the Retro

Replace with: how the info from this retrospective will be used to improve the course. For example:

The maintainers of this course will review all feedback collected in this retrospective process. We'll think hard about how we can improve the course structure, specific processes, even particular assignments, questions, or readings.

We may follow up if we want to get more detail on anything mentioned below. 

Thanks so much for taking the time to help us improve this course — we really appreciate it!

Retrospective

## Learning Goals

The **_Dead Languages Society_** aims to help us understand the cultures and societies of the past in their own words.

Each cohort, we take a particular ancient language and learn it together by working through a free or cheap textbook together. The textbooks we'll use include historical texts written in the language we're studying, so we'll be reading real material by the end of the course at the latest.

By the end of the cohort, you'll have a working knowledge of the writing system, pronunication, and grammar of the language we're studying. You'll also learn about the life and times of the people who spoke this language. Finally, you'll have read excerpts from a number of important texts written in the language.

## Structure

Each cohort of this club will run for 8 weeks. Each cohort we study a different language, but we spend all 8 weeks of a cohort on the same language.

Each week we will meet for 1 hour to work through the material in a single chapter of a textbook (or less, depending on the density of the textbook!).

Any necessary grammar explanations will be provided by the facilitator Colin Gorrie, who is a linguist – although not an expert in any of the languages we are studying. 

In between our meetings, we will be able to use the forum to ask questions and do optional practice exercises.

## Who Should Sign Up

This club is for people who are curious about the past and want to learn to speak its language(s). It is not intended for experienced students of the language that we are studying, who will likely find our pace quite slow!

No linguistics knowledge or language learning experience is required, although if you have any of either, it will be welcome.

- If you're a more experienced language learner, you can use this club as a framework and accountability group, doing plenty of reading and exercises between sessions.
- If you have more of a casual interest in the language, you can simply follow along during the meeting to get an appreciation for the language and its history.

So, in conclusion: Do you want to know what *Beowulf* sounded like? Do you want to read the *Ramayana* in its original Sanskrit? Do you want to check the accuracy of the *Daode jing* translation on your nightstand? Would you like to learn to tweet in Sumerian?

If you said yes to any of these questions, **this is the club for you!**