Ah, is Lingva Latina the one with Caecilius and his family? I had a Latin class in 7th grade and remember having a book of that same name, and I somehow remember the main father character's name. They had a dog too, I want to say his name was Cerberus, haha. "Cave canem"—"beware of dog"
Every day, we'd start class by the teacher saying "Salvete, discipuli!"
to which we'd reply "Salve, magistra!"
The fact that all these years later I still remember some things from it shows its effectiveness I suppose.
In any case, in years since, I've used Pimsleur (for other languages), which is a similar "get actual language input rather than learning a set of language rules up front" method, and I like to think it's worked decently for me at least!
Caecilius who, spoiler for a decades old Latin textbook, dies when Vesuvius erupts, is from the Cambridge Latin Course. The dog, who survives, is in fact named Cerberus.
I am not sure about the names of the characters. But a Roman family is definitely involved in the first part (Familia Romana).
> I like to think it's worked
It works as long as you do some slow and steady work at it. I don't think it will work if you drop-in for a couple of days every few months, read something, and then disappear.
You might remember a few sentences here and there. But we want to be able to understand as well as use those sentences in the applicable context.
Every day, we'd start class by the teacher saying "Salvete, discipuli!" to which we'd reply "Salve, magistra!"
The fact that all these years later I still remember some things from it shows its effectiveness I suppose.
In any case, in years since, I've used Pimsleur (for other languages), which is a similar "get actual language input rather than learning a set of language rules up front" method, and I like to think it's worked decently for me at least!