Customer Reviews

Adesso!: An Introduction to Italian (with Audio CD)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Yes, it's a reasonably good book. But if you are a student buying this book for a class, most classes require the online workbook/lab manual, too. This requires a key that will cost you at least $51.00 extra if you buy it separately. I made the mistake of buying my book online (not here, though) and it did not have the key included, so I'm paying a lot more than if I'd bought them together as a package. Most bookstores on campus get them together for less money than if purchased separately. Check to be sure your online purchase includes this if your course requires it.

I read about the positive reviews here and took the plunge - put my order to have the book delivered across the Pacific Ocean. It was a delight at arrival - well printed, realistic scenarios posing the ones I experienced during my trip to Italy. Excited and carried away, I quickly got myself a tutor to accompany the book (I figured, if I can not be in a classroom like the other reviewes did, a native-speaker tutor should well be a good alternative.) The problem is, once the tutor leaves, I can not recall what the pronounciation and accent of everything, anything, is like. The audio CD that comes with the book does not provide line by line demonstration. It only has a 1 minute long conversation for each of the 17 chapters. But for a beginner who has but 1 hour of private lesson per week, I would appreciate more "sound" from the book to keep me familiar with the language. Aside from the drawback, the book has been good otherwise.

Some of our teachers use this book when teaching Italian and find that it works very well. It teaches grammar almost painlessly while teaching how to communicate effectively.

This textbook with accompanying CD is VERY EASY to follow, giving many excellent real-life experiential samplings for converational Italian, along with the all-important grammar, vocabulary, etc. I am enjoying it as an accompaniment to the Converational Italian class I'm currenty taking at university.

Ciao, amici! See you in Italia...:)