Rosetta Stone and dialect

[pipersgrip]

Hi there I was wondering if Rosetta Stone was a good way to learn if anyone has experience with it. Also, would it be more of the Southern Irish or Northern Irish dialect. I can't seem to find that out. Thanks!

[Redwolf]

Hi there I was wondering if Rosetta Stone was a good way to learn if anyone has experience with it. Also, would it be more of the Southern Irish or Northern Irish dialect. I can't seem to find that out. Thanks!

My understanding is that it tried to remain dialect-neutral (which really isn't possible with Irish), but that the pronunciations are purely Munster. So I guess "Southern-neutral"

I'm not a huge fan of the Rosetta Stone products myself...I feel that they're overpriced, and that there are lots of other computer programs out there accomplish the same thing for a lot less. But that's just me...obviously a lot of people are sold on them. I can tell you that we get a lot of puzzled queries from Rosetta Stone users at IGTF, because it doesn't EXPLAIN anything...and with a highly inflected language like Irish, that really confuses people ("Why is 'mother' pronounced "MAH-hir" here but "VAH-hir" there???" is an example of the type of questions we get).

Someone on IGTF recently posted that Rosetta Stone is offering a free trial of its Irish program through the end of March, so you might want to try it out and see what you think:

http://www.irishgaelictranslator.com/tr ... 05080.html

We also have reviews of various learning products here:

http://www.learnirishgaelic.com/productcomparison/

I don't know if it's OK to post something I'm involved with, but here's a new, reasonably low-cost on-line program you might find interesting as well:

http://www.bitesizeirishgaelic.com/

I don't have any financial interest in the company...I just do some editing and writing for them.

Redwolf

[Danner]

One of the guys in my Irish class used Rosetta Stone. It drastically improved his pronunciation. I didn't see much improvement in his command of the language though.

Ádh mór ort! (Good luck!)

[pipersgrip]

Thanks everyone. I do think Rosetta Stone is extremely expensive. I was just wondering if it was worth its money, like everyone claims it to be.