A Chairde,

I am sure this topic has been beaten to death over here, but I wanted to bring it up again as I am in the final stages of making the decision to purchase the aforementioned (re: the subject line of this post) software to aid me in my continual quest to learn the Irish. I have a bit of Irish already, of course, but, living in a country with very few Irish speakers... or even English ones for that matter... I have found it increasingly difficult to continue improving the little Irish I already have. So... I have been researching and have (almost) come to the conclusion that RS's software (although it seems to be quite dear) might be my best option. I realize that some here have used it... as well as other programs to learn and (or) improve their Gaeilge so...

What are your thoughts now? I know some have probably finished the thing... if one does like it... how should one follow it up??

I have a million questions... I am still awaiting my approval for posting in a non-guest manner here...

Mise le meas,
Cearnaigh

Grad school keeps getting in the way. I am almost done with it, and stand by my previous assessments as to its effectiveness.

It is not a cure-all that will magically bestow fluency once completed, but it is certianly the most efficient way to pick up what it teaches, and the most effective as well. The picture method substitutes for what you did as an infant - looking at the world around you to absorb the language is a more or less organic way. The difficulty in book-learning a language or even class-learning a language is that it makes your brain think about it in an analytic way that more often than not involves mentally translating and keeping a "decoded" lexicon in your head...absolutely incompatible with conversational speech.

By rough estimate, I would say that someone who knew only what was in the RS that they'd done, and had a dictionary for non-RS vocabulary (a necessity regardless of learning method), could fairly easily read books by Ruaidhrí Ó Báille by the time they're half way done, if not before (perhaps by the end of level 1).

A Antaine a chara,

Gracias por la info!! Seriously... thanks a million. :)

I think I am going to buy it... it will be my project to really dig into my Irish over the next couple of years. I will make Rosetta Stone the first step into my re-introduction into the language.

A couple more questions...

How far are you into the RS program?

How long do you think it would take you to get it done if you could spend 30 minutes a day on it?

How well do the lower lessons and levels flow into each other?

What would you follow it up with? (Should I retry my 'Learning Irish' text and tapes or something else?)

I would appreciate any other thoughts you might have as well, mate.

Que estes muy bien.
Cearnaigh

Hey Unregistered guest..


Perhaps also as u go thru it you can start to post your comments on your progress with it to give the rest of us insight into whether to get it or not? i.e. does it lead you to become a more competant speaker in it?

I am thinking of getting it myself but I wont until i finish off a current book/cd in Irish which is "Buntus Cáinte." Im on chapter 42 of that and I have to say that even though it provides basically no grammar rules I am still picking up phrases and ways of saying things that I can recall much easier than say if I was just studying a book or a more involved book/cd. Buntus cainte has very short chapters so I dont get bogged down in too much information at once. But my point is I want to finish one project before starting another and by that time I'll hopefully have more feedback on Rosetta Stone.

Someone on here before said that you could approach the Rosetta stone two ways regarding how to puchase it...

(1) Buy the whole series at once which saves u some money Or (2) buy it one section at at a time (It is in 3 parts) That way if it turned out that you lost interest in it then at least you might just spend $100-$200 on part 1 instead of $500 for part 1,2, and 3

I know for me I have a tendency to start projects and not finish them... that's why this time I want to stick it out with 'Buntus Cáinte' before going for Rosetta. So I'll be interested to hear your feedback once u get started.

GRMA and good luck
Niall

So your considering using Rosetta Stone to learn Irish? So am I. It's really expensive, but from what I've learned and heard it's great! For more info you can just go to rosettastone.com Read the reviews their , their great! It has 5 stars.

How far are you into the RS program?

Each level (cd) consists of four long units (12 total). I'm on unit two of level three (unit 9).

How long do you think it would take you to get it done if you could spend 30 minutes a day on it?

That would be the pace I'm going (tho I miss many days while I'm in school)...doing that would be one Core Lesson or two of the supporting lessons every day. At that rate, it will take you approximately 10-12 months depending on missed days, repeated lessons, etc.

How well do the lower lessons and levels flow into each other?

I had no problem with the flow. The first level can be a little buntúsy, but is designed to give you a good pool of vocabulary and syntactic models that the later things build off

What would you follow it up with? (Should I retry my 'Learning Irish' text and tapes or something else?)

Honestly? Ruaidhrí Ó Báille books once you're half-way through, and never stop reading for the rest of your life. Work your way up in complexity. I read them with a highlighter and score the words I have to look up, writing their translation right in the book. You learn a lot that way.

Progress would also be good, but I've long been of the opinion that it works best in a classroom setting. Might want to go for Teach Yourself Irish (the new one). Everybody's learning style is different. Depending on what kind of reading you do along with RS, you might go straight for Turas Teanga.

Also, they way they sell them, you can buy 1, 2, 3 separately or together, or 1 and 2 together, but there's no package deal for 2 and 3. If you buy 1 by itself, the whole package will run you 200-250 more. You're best off to buy all three together, which is what I did.

The license is good for two computers (five users each)...find a friend and split it...then you have someone to talk to as well...