Irish Gaelic from Rosetta Stone

[tmcg]

Rosetta Stone has finally added Irish Gaelic as one of the languages it offers instruction in, and at all three levels, which is great. I did Italian Levels 1 and 2 online and Japanese Level 1 with the old-version CD-ROM, and it's a terrific and effective way to learn a new language.

I haven't tried the new version--I'll post an update once I have--but the old version was fantastic and I trust that the new one improves on it, so I highly recommend Rosetta Stone to anyone who's been wanting to learn some Irish but has no access to local instruction and has been frustrated trying to work with teach-yourself books and tapes. You used to have to download software to try the method out, but that's no longer the case, and the demo is here. The lessons are pretty addictive, and as fun and absorbing (to me, anyway) as FreeCell or any online Flash game.

It's not cheap, but it's reasonably priced and competitive with other language-learning tools and classes, and the cost should be deductible as an educational and/or software expense for writers and editors. If you're self-motivated and a fairly fast learner with a broadband Internet connection, an online subscription is the way to go; you'll probably zoom through Level 1, and Level 2 has the material you'll need to start usefully communicating. I'd just started Level 2 Italian when I flew off to Italy, and I did pretty well with my month's intensive study, but when I got back and finished Level 2 I found myself learning everything I sorely lacked when I was there (how to ask for and understand street directions, for example). "Oh, man, if only I'd gotten this far," I said partway into every Level 2 lesson. You don't need to own Level 1 on disk unless you'll be working through it very slowly, you'll want to have it available for years for starting-overs and brushing-ups, and/or you be working primarily offline. For me, all three are true of my Level 1 Japanese (especially the working-through-it-very-slowly part), so I'm glad I bought that on disk, and I'll be buying all three levels of Irish Gaelic (least expensive place I've seen it so far is Amazon), but the online subscription suited my needs perfectly for Italian, and I'll be using it to dabble in other languages and refresh my fading Spanish and Latin in the future.

I recommend getting a good basic grammar book to go along with any Rosetta Stone course. It helped me with both Italian and Japanese, at any rate, because I can soak up a great deal intuitively, but there are times when I like to have the rules laid out for me (and I needed a lot of ancillary materials to help me with the reading aspects of Japanese). Máiréad Ní Ghráda's Progress in Irish is a wonderful book we used in class at the Irish Arts Center, and since it's good to have a dictionary, too, I suggest Foclóir Póca.

Comments

[wrdnrd]

Oh! Thank you so much for the tip!! Long ago when i applied to the University of Pittsburgh for linguistics (didn't get in, alas -- sigh), one of the reasons i wanted to go there was their "uncommonly taught languages" program, which included both Scots and Irish Gaelic. I should also look into Rosetta Stone's Mandarin because i've been having a really hard time finding a Mandarin class that works for me.

[terrymcgarry.livejournal.com]

Definitely look into both Irish and Mandarin. I've got the Irish disks now but haven't had a chance to load them yet; I'll let you know what I think of them when I do. I imagine that Rosetta Stone's an excellent way to start out with verbal Mandarin, although if it's similar at all to my experience with Japanese you'll want to use ancillary materials to help you learn the writing system. And by the time you've done all you can do with the RS material maybe you'll have found an in-person class to continue with that works for you. Let me know how it all shakes out.

(I hope Scots Gaelic isn't too far in the offing, now that they've got Welsh and Irish Gaelic....)

[webfarmer.livejournal.com]

I keep threatening to dive back into German again (I minored in it) but I can't seem to schedule the regular things in life properly so that may not be for a while. Nice to know that Rosette Stone works so well for you. It's something I've often considered. Sounds like it would be a good way to get back up to speed with a language in particular.

The "Thistle and Shamrock" (http://thistleradio.com/) was on NPR the other day and it, of course, made me think of you. Good thoughts as always. :)

[terrymcgarry.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the good thoughts. We listen to "Thistle and Shamrock" every week. Sometime when you're not having too much fun with Pandora, you could give "A Thousand Welcomes" (http://www.wfuv.org/programs/athousandwelcomes.html) a try over at wfuv.org, either archived or as it streams on Saturday mornings. Great traditional-Irish-music show broadcast from Fordham University in New York City.

You do need to be self-motivating to get the most out of Rosetta Stone, although it gets kind of addictive, like a video game, and provides its own motivation through fun, at least for me. :)

[webfarmer.livejournal.com]

Why did I read that as wtfu.org? Another bad brain moment. :)

Addictive is good when it comes to things you want to or have to do. Rosetta Stone sounds like an excellent program if it can do that to you.

[terrymcgarry.livejournal.com]

There are wtfwtfs everywhere, usually where you least expect them. Wouldn't have surprised me all that much if that had been what I typed. *g*

[webfarmer.livejournal.com]

I know EXACTLY what you mean. And that in the reflexive sense. :)

[hand2hand.livejournal.com]

cool.

so many interests; so little time! sigh.

[akaspeedo.livejournal.com]

I like your icon.

I'm still needing to buy the Russian one (Rosetta Stone, not icon, heh).

[hand2hand.livejournal.com]

re icon: thanks! i kinda have a thing about wolves...

i studied russian in college lo these many years ago; i am sadly very rusty.

[terrymcgarry.livejournal.com]

Don't I know it!

[brightvalley.livejournal.com]

Cool!!

[terrymcgarry.livejournal.com]

It's a definite "yay." :)

Great suggestion!

[shimyshamrocks.livejournal.com]

Ive been trying to learn Gaeilge for such a very long time. Rosetta sounds like it just what im needing but ouch! any chance you'd gimmie a copy of the disks? or perhaps even sell them to me when your done?......i like the first one better though, poor student here :)