I just ordered the new Irish course from Living Language.

Personally, I am very excited about this one because I have been a fan of the Living Language programs for a while now.

Has any one here already ordered it?

Since this is test product for a lesser spoken language, I know what to expect because I have purchased their Czech and Persian tester courses.

Here is there official webpage, however...I bought mine from Amazon.

http://www.randomhouse.com/livinglanguage/display.pperl?isbn=9781400024575

Would love to hear reviews from others if they have purchased it already...

For those who are not familiar with how Living Language works...they run a pretty standard template.

Each lesson starts with a conversation. Then the rest of the lesson is a series of grammar topics with exercises, and a vocabulary section at the back.

This course has six CD's which will have the conversation and vocabulary words for certain, but because this is a tester course it will be anyone's guess what they speak in terms of the grammar and exercises.

In there Ultimate Courses, they cover a lot of material with audio that usually covers about 80-90% of the material. Which is really nice!

If this works, I would love to see an Ultimate Irish soon.

I can't wait to hear about how you like this program.

I just put up a post in regards to needing a beginner course for myself and my 14 year-old daughter to use.

Hopefully it is a good course because I certainly can't afford the Rosetta Stone program which everyone always suggests using.

Do_chinniúint,
To be strightforward, I wasn't very impressed with the speakers on the CDs. Who am I to talk? I know. My spoken Irish is less than a three year olds. I just got the sense that they got some people with choppy rhythm or that they "dumbed" it down for listers. It did not come off smoothly and naturally as I hear speakers in natural settings. Perhaps I am giving it an unfair judgement. I'll listen again, but that was my first impression.

hmm...

When it comes to the speaking of Irish, I am in the same boat as you.

Personally, I have come to accept (mainly thanks to the disgusted faces of my wife) that I will never be able to speak fluent or even "pretty" Irish. LOL

However, I have chosen the start enforcing the motto:

"Some Irish is better than no Irish...and I speak the Irish that I speak so deal with it." ;-)

What did you think of the format? For example, did they present the grammar in an acceptable manner for you?

Did you notice a favortism for any dialect, or did they present speakers from all? I heard they were going to choose people more from the Munster world than any other as did the Rosetta Stone?

And Stephanie72...

It was slow coming, but one of the good things that I have noticed about marketed language courses is that once one offers something, they all join in. And after that, they begin to compete in terms of better quality. I know it has been a long time, but if we think about it...in the last 5-10 years Rosetta Stone, Living Language, Learning Irish, Teach Yourself, and a few lesser products have either created, modernized, or improved their courses for Irish is which is a good sign.

I kind of wish I had been born a decade or three later. ;-)

quote:

What did you think of the format? For example, did they present the grammar in an acceptable manner for you?

I'll be straightforward again -- I didn't finish the course. In my finite time to enjoy Irish during the day, I quickly decided it wasn't for me. The book is nicely laid out, the format is nice, and it provides a good overview of the basics. I recall the speakers having a central to southern blas, but also, as I said, some choppy sounding speakers. There was one woman I remember which came off to me like she didn't know Irish, but she was reading phonetic cards or something. I'm just being honest with what I thought and my impression. I've heard Dublin Irish, Gaelscoil Irish, many second language Irish speakers, and it didn't come off to me like any of those. I could be wrong. I am certainly no expert on these things.

Oh no problem...

The reason I wanted to know if there was a dialect bias is because one of the things that really slowed the Rosetta Stone project down was that they struggled with the dialects.

I bought the LL course when it was first published. It's neither the best nor worst course I've ever seen, but for comparable cost, I think "Colloquial Irish"(Routledge) is a bit better.

A chairde, Dia daoibh!
Gael-Lin have given me blessing to make the TYI recordings freely available. I have also been offered access to a virgin set of records to copy.
I will make these available on box.net in due course.
Also for my friend Kenneth, I will provide a true image set of recordings for his master set.
TYI is now awaiting only cross linking to the Gael-Linn recording, and though it is freely available, I am not, for copyright reasons, allowed to tell you where!
Is mise, le meas,
Déyv.