Customer Reviews

Basic Italian: Cassette/Book Package (LL(R) Complete Basic Courses)

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

 

 

This course proves outstanding, both in its presentation and its content. Coupled with the audio, I have never seen a more thorough review of the language from any other source. It is inclusive of the text and two sets of tapes (one to go along with the manual and the other as a self-study unit after the learner becomes more familiar with the language). The dialogues, exercises, and grammar all clearly follow the course objectives, and the course includes cultural notes and useful information. After years of studying languages and linguistics, I have found that the most excellent path toward language acquisition must encompass reading, writing, speaking, and understanding. This course helps with all of these. The dialogues, exercises, and supplemental readings allow the student of the language to gain competence in reading Italian, the exercises do an extraordinary service by enforcing the written language, and the tapes (or CD's) allow the learner to advance in speech, pronunciation, and verbal comprehension. The extensive Italian to English and English to Italian, as well as the appendices, help the learner to gain an ever-stronger competence in the language. This course should, and shall, give sufficient confidence in Italian to anyone who finds an interest in the language, for whatever the reason. Learners of other languages would be privileged to obtain material of this quality. If you have a desire to learn Italian, this is the place to start, and enjoy. You will find the easy-to-read grammar, the interesting text and cultural notes, and the easier, "at your own pace" style very simple and fun to work with, as well as educational and informative. Grazie, e che vi piaccia (Thanks, and enjoy).

While the content and format of the course is well done, the main complaint that I have about this course is that there is no English translation on the audio cassettes. You can NOT utilize the tapes without the accompaniment of the book. You must read along in the book to understand the audio lesson, therefore, this course is not ideal for someone who is planning on learning Italian in the car.

This course is not meant to take the student to a very high level, but it is excellent to provide basic phrases for true beginners. An outstanding feature is that the tapes (or CD's) have only Italian sounds! This is definitely an advantage for the beginning student who works for a while with the book, and then continues to use the tape once a certain familiarity has been achieved.