Learn Irish in Time for St. Patty’s Day
Christina Tynan-Wood on Mar 05 2009 at 2:30 pm | Filed under: Uncategorized
A few years ago, I took a trip to Ireland with my husband, kids (above), and most of my husband’s extended family. We had a great time and frequently long to go back. One thing that surprised us – me anyway – was how much the Gaelic language is still used there. My father was born and raised in Ireland. And he spoke Gaelic – and with a brogue in English — but he led me to believe that it was rare for people to speak the native tongue anymore. But when we got there, we discovered that there were loads of TV shows in Irish – watching Sponge Bob in Irish with extreme jet-lag was a surreal experience – signs in Irish, newspapers, and more. We heard it spoken on the street and in pubs. Knowing a little Irish would have been nice.
We did bone up on our Irish slang before we went, of course. We didn’t want to appear complete Gobshite eejits to my cousins, who were of course all the fekkin dogs bollocks. We did well with the few phrases we managed to memorize from this bleedin’ deadly site: Every Day English and Slang in Ireland. But we all thought it would have been lovely to learn a bit of the old tongue and toss that about a bit whilst we were there.
This year, the Rosetta Stone people are trying to help get a little of the actual Irish into our St. Patty’s Days celebrations by giving away their immersive language training program for free before the day of green so we can do our toasts in the actual Gaelic. All you have to do is click on www.rosettastone.com on March 12 and register. I have long wanted to try the Rosetta Stone language program – which I have heard terrific things about. I think this is just the excuse I was looking for.
Today is March 12. I used your link and it took me to the Rosetta Stone website, but I can’t find anywhere to register or any mention of this freebie. Can you point me in the right direction?
I can’t find it either. Their PR rep told me it was going live today. I sent her a note. Stay tuned!
Thanks, Christina. I will check back later on this afternoon.
Here is the response from Rosetta Stone’s PR:
“I just checked with my client and, unbeknownst to me, the link has been a bit delayed on their end and will go live at 6pm today EST.
I am so very sorry for the issue, I just found out myself and I assure you the link will be live for the entire next week. –cc”
Thank you, Christina! I will hit your link later on this evening or tomorrow. I appreciate it, and I am looking forward to getting in on this offer, not only for myself but for my grandson that I homeschool.
I see a link for a free trial (7 days) of the Irish (Gaelic) language. That’s all I see- just the free trial. I’m not sure whether to sign up for it or not because of the “trial”. Personally, I would need more than 7 days, LOL. So- is your link for a free trial or a free Gaelic language pack? (Or do you know? LOL.)
It’s just for a trial. Sorry. Enough maybe to learn a toast or two? Shlanta!