##When I was at school everyone was taught French from the age of 11, along with English language, English literature, maths, physics, chemistry, biology, history and geography. When you were 13 you had to decide whether to add Latin or German to that list of subjects, and drop two of them to give you eight to study through to 'O' level[1].
That's quite a decision to make at a fairly tender age. My Dad was an engineer and he suggested that German would be the more practical choice, but he assumed that I'd follow a similar career to him and that I'd meet German engineers and perhaps even be able to work there if I could speak the language. This made sense, so I picked German, but I didn't become an engineer and although I met a lot of Germans over the following decades, every single one of them spoke almost perfect English.
That youthful decision wasn't exactly wrong, it just didn't take into account that I was better at history and literature than anything technical, and I didn't predict how useful it would be useful to be able to read 'the mother tongue'[2]. Years later I realised I'd missed an opportunity, but I decided it would never be too late to start and so learning Latin went on my retirement bucket list.
###Options for the independent learner
In practice, learning Latin means learning to translate classical Latin from original sources. I knew that even if I could find a tutor, what I really wanted to do was to learn at home using a suitable course. There are various options, but the three I identified were:
Lingua Latina sounded ideal - no learning grammar by rote! I bought the course books and those for the following more advanced course and made a start. It's an interesting approach and for many people it is apparently very successful. However, I found myself frustrated that I was learning grammatical concepts without really understanding or being able to explain the theory. This might work if I were learning a modern language I would actually be speaking, but with Latin I wondered if a more traditional approach would be better.
I have therefore switched to Wheelock's and it is going well, although it's early days. I find that learning by rote isn't as easy as it was when I was young, but it's not impossible and I think that by following the course closely and completing all of the exercises and tests I will make progress. I'm currently learning the endings for second declension nouns and find that knowing, for example, the dative and ablative forms are the same but being able to name and explain them feels more comforting than the 'natural' method. Eventually I'd just like to be able to read and understand some classical Latin authors, or even the Latin that we find in English literature and in churches or historical buildings. I don't have to achieve a particular level or to pass an exam, although perhaps if I did it would help me to remain diligent.
The other objective is to provide some mental exercise. Since I retired I don't do much which is intellectually demanding, and it seems like it would be a good idea if I did. I don't know how my cognitive abilities will change as the years go by, but giving the brain some exercise and something new to learn can't do any harm.
[1] For the youthful UK reader, 'O' (for 'ordinary') level is what we used to call GCSEs. For the non-British among you, they are the external exams everyone sits at the age of 16, before many people go on to study 3 subjects at 'A' (for 'advanced') level
[2] The 'mother tongue' is how Latin is described by Professor Richard La Fleur, one of the authors of Wheelock's Latin
[3] The so-called natural method involves presenting the student with a simple text, amply illustrated and with explanatory notes also in Latin. As long as you are a native speaker of any European language with some Latin roots you will be able to work out the meaning