Hi,

Seeing the bad rep that the Duolingo course seems to get from the native speakers here (esp. regarding pronunciation) I'm looking for alternative courses. Does anyone know if this one:

http://www.rosettastone.com/learn-irish

is any good? (it's non-free, but you can check the demo)

It's not bad, as far as it goes. You won't learn any grammar from it (we get a lot of confused posts from people using Rosetta Stone who want to know WHY words change the way they do, as RS doesn't teach the grammatical rules...you're just supposed to accept that this is what happens), so you'd want a book as well. I've also heard complaints that it teaches a Munster pronunciation but uses standardized grammar, so if you really want to learn the Munster dialect, it might not be the best choice.

My general impression of Rosetta Stone is that there are programs out there that are as good or better but cost much less. It's not a bad program, but if it were up to me, I'd use the same money to get a good book method with audio (such as Gaeilge Gan Stó, below) and put the rest in my savings account for a trip to the Gaeltacht.

This is one I use for classes:

http://www.siopa.ie/en/i-67-gaeilge_gan ... aspx?ID=67

Redwolf

Slightly off-topic question about Rosetta Stone. Is it all downloading from the internet now or do they still sell cd roms? It's hard to find out from their website. If it's all fixed lengths contracts on the internet, it's much more difficult to get the same value for money unless you are very motivated and have the time to do it now.

_________________

I think they still sell CDs. I've seen them in book stores hereabouts (not for Irish, though). Anna had RS for Japanese for a while, and her license included internet access.

Redwolf

http://www.rosettastone.com/learn-irish

If you follow that link you'll see one version for apps, that's time limited. And another version for download and CD, once you have it it's yours to keep.

Your man does sound like he 's an Munster speaker, especially the way he says "cailín".

Yeah...what I've heard from Munster speakers is the speaker uses Munster pronunciations, but a standardized grammar.

I can just see me trying to use it, and it constantly trying to "fix" my pronunciation!

Redwolf

Go raibh maith agat, errrrm, guys and gals