I spent seven years of school learning Latin based on Kennedy's Latin Grammar. I took an exam after five years, and failed. I retook it after seven, and scraped

I spent seven years of school learning Latin based on Kennedy's Latin Grammar. I took an exam after five years, and failed. I retook it after seven, and scraped a pass. By contrast, I got top marks in a French exam a year early; and top marks in German after just a year of lessons. The difference is that the modern languages were taught mainly conversationally (i.e. not based on a grammar book, but "as she is spoke"). I wish I had learned Latin that way. It would have been a lot less painful, and I'd have spent much less time in Latin classes.