Lectiones Antiquae
Ἐν γράμμασι καλόν
Who am I?
My name is Giovani Marchi Frizarin (Ioannes Australis), and I am from São Paulo, Brazil.
My first contact with Latin and Ancient Greek was when, at 15 years old, I read Schopenhauer's book The Art of Writing. As soon as I read those strange sentences which reminded me of my mother tongue (the Latin ones) but were incomprehensible, and saw what Schopenhauer said about them, I said to myself: "I have to learn them."
I am convinced that this was the best decision I ever took in my life. At 15 I didn't have the imagination nor the maturity to understand how beautiful, fulfilling and rewarding the pursuit of knowledge could be.
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I read grammars and had multiple tutors who guided my way through the complexities of these ancient languages.
At first, I did not intend to teach them. I studied Law at university, even though I seriously considered joining a monastic order at that time. One day, a friend who was trying to learn Latin asked my help, and I said that I could help him with a method that was much better than memorizing grammar rules written in Portuguese. We gathered other friends, and I started teaching them. Unfortunately, it did not last long: they had too many preoccupations regarding university and starting their professional life to keep a consistent schedule.
The more time passed, however, the more in love I was with it, and I was 24 when I decided to teach Latin as my full-time job. I started publishing audibooks, and soon God blessed me with my first student (and he is up to this day).
