Customer Reviews

Berlitz Self-Teacher: Italian (Berlitz Self-Teachers)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is brobably one of the best Italian Language books that you can find for self study. The only problem with this book is that it has no tapes to help with pronunciation. However, this book is the greatest book that I have ever seen for Italian. It teaches some basic nouns, which are great for having a small conversation. If I did not think that this was a wonderful book, I would not use it to teach my younger brother Italian!

I cannot say enough about this book! I have tried so many tapes, books, techniques, you name it! I became overwhelmed by numerous rules to learn, conjugations to memorize, and the like until I grew discouraged! This book is simple. Each lesson builds on the previous one. There are minor notes to guide you, to remind you- and you will practice real conversation in the exercises. Each and every word has an English phonetic guide so that you instantly pronounce Italian words correctly. Not only is the technique used (almost no grammer rules to memorize, which is how you learned your 1st language) incredible, but it is extremely fun! The format is friendly, youthful, energetic, charming in style, and extremely user friendly. I could go on and on! This book is the best thing to happen to Italian language aquisition, ever!

I rate this book the highest out of my books on teaching yourself a language. There are two big problems with it however. It does not go into irregular verb usage and adjective placement, you just have to sort of figure it out on your own. Also, Berlitz often throws in vocabulary and concepts that are not defined in either the lesson, glossary, or index.

Obviously this is not an all in one sort of book.

I speak German fluently, thanks to getting my start from the Berlitz Self-Teacher in German, but I've always had trouble learning Italian, even though I studied it for two semesters in the late 1980s in college.

Nonetheless, I took Italian courses at the Berlitz school in Princeton, NJ, last year to refresh my knowledge of the language. Although the course had a companion book (written in the 1970s), I found this older volume to be more helpful with keeping up with my teacher, who was quite a taskmaster.

Now that I am back in Texas, and no longer taking Italian at Berlitz, I am still working my way through the book. It keeps you entertained, and I like the "little professor" illustrations, particulaly those of Italian celebrities of the day, such as Arturo Toscanini and Joe DiMaggio. Fun book!

Bought this shortly before I went to school in Italy; even brought it to school with me in Florence; On-the-ball with the way the language is used and worked great- easy to understand and learn - Just wish they made a series for scandinavian!

I bought this for a friend who wants to learn Italian. I already speak Italian. Now we are conversing (very simple stuff, of course) in Italian!

Learning a foreign language can be a nightmare, but the Berlitz book takes you slowly, step by step, through the Italian language. It made a very complex language simple to learn.
I'll never speak as fluently as Marcello Mastroianni but if and when I go to Italy it will make my stay there a lot more fun.

As a languages major in college, I cannot sing enough praises about the Berlitz self-teacher series. I own the ones for Russsian, German and now Italian. If one is into comparative language study, you can't beat this format. When studying French in high school, many of the Berlitz techniques were used in the classroom. The books are action-packed, entertaining, and less "stuffy" and dull than the traditional textbooks. I must agree with other reviews I read about Berlitz that it's not extremely comprehensive for language study, but to my mind, the self-teachers are auxiliary tools as indispensable as english-whatever language dictionaries for language study.Berlitz Self-Teacher: Italian (Berlitz Self-Teachers)

I first bought the Berlitz book of Italian in 1987, just for fun, and to see if I could teach myself a second language without going to college. I worked at it but not as hard as I could have. Then I went to Italy (including Sicily) in 1996 and realized I could not understand a single word I heard, though I could pick out a few words on menus. I also understood gestures.

Only recently did I decide to revive my interest in studying Italian. I have since been to college and earned degrees and I now credit myself with the ability to learn if properly taught. I looked up Italian languages and see that Berlitz is still considered an expert. One thing I knew about Italian before I started to study it is that it is close to Latin, so anyone with a gift for etymology (such as me) it would come naturally.

Having said that, and with the understanding that I have revitalized my interest in reading/studying the Berlitz book of Italian, I must say that the burning question I have now is the same one I had then, which is, "If I study this Berlitz book of Italian, will I be studying the classic, literate Italian, or will I be studying the great manners of the 1950's, and be a laughingstock amongst blue-nose or "hip" Italians?

I.E. Has the Italian language/colloquiallism changed as radically as the American language has, or can we count on Italian being what it once was/because it still is? Who can I ask, and who would tell me the truth? That is my question.

This book has been very useful for our purpose. We are anticipating another class
to start in the near future. What I would like to know from you is; can you you get more of these books (About 30),
or recommend a suitable substitution. This book is presently being used as an aid to the students who
are inrolled in the "beginning Italian Class". Please reply.
Thank you