Customer Reviews

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Italian, 3rd Edition

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you want to learn Italian on your own, this is an excellent book. It helps to have already learned a romance language (French, Portugese, etc.), but even a novice at foreign languages can pick this up and begin to learn vocabulary and grammar in a snap. While she does break it down very well, I won't downplay the difficulty. An idiot you may not be, but grammar is tough in any language, and you may get lost sometimes without a teacher. In all, however, this book is a really good buy. I recommend purchasing three things with this: Pimsleur's Italian I (because hearing the language is so important), the Barron's Italian Grammar (which helps you get out of any tough spots you encounter in grammar), and a good Italian/English dictionary (Larousse or Oxford are the best). With these four items you can truly begin to learn Italian, then through careful study you might even achieve fluency alone. And all because of this guide. It's for this reason that I have to give it 5 stars, because it's such an incomprehensibly great resource for starting out. If you want to learn Italian without a class, I'd start here.

I found Gabrielle Euvino's "The Complete Idiots Guide to Learning Italian", Second Edition useful and fun to read & work with. The vocabulary,phrases and situations presented are down to earth, very practical and surprisingly comprehensive & exhaustive.
Ms. Euvino's love for the Ialian language and culture is quite apparent throughout the book. It is a "can do" book anbd her enthusiam for learning Italian is contagious. A wonderful resource. I recommend it highly.
Henry Urbanksi, Ph.D,
Director,Language Immersion Institute
State University of New York at New Paltz

I have always wanted to learn Italian. In my opinion it is the most Romantic, culture reflective language out there. I have always dreamed of traveling to Italy and experiencing all the history behind it with the art, architecture, food, music and scenery but I was intimidated by the language. I noticed that this book recieved wonderful reviews and I have had sucess with Idiot's Guides in the past. This one was no different. It is broken down in easy to understand, step-by-step instruction where you gradually build on what you know. Pronunciation is broken down for you. I havent even finnished it and I feel like I'm well on my way to my dream. It has an extensive glossary for english/italian translations and is perfect for beginners starting with the basics and climbing upward.

I studied in Italy and ended up staying there working for 3 years after school had ended. I owned probably 12 Italian books but none of them compared to this one. This is a book that explains things thoroughly and I referenced this book for the first 2 years I lived there. This book is a must have for learning Italian for the first time.

Learning a new language is very daunting. There is not only an overwhelming amount of information to process, but then to memorize and recall in order to use correctly and communicate effectively on the spot say on some beautifully, cobblestoned via in Rome. It is intimidating. A new language is hard.
But, I had a very strong desire to be able to do just that. To go to Italy and be able to walk down the streets and stroll through the piazzas and experience this absolutely, amazing country with more than just my eyes. I wanted to be able to TALK with the people whom I have come to know as the most charming and generous people.
To learn the basics of the language, I used "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Italian" by Gabrielle Euvino. The book takes what I found to be an overwhelming information and lays it out like a sumptuous smorgasbord. First the antipasti (appetizers)- rules, structure and tense- the basics. Then the primi piatti (first courses) some phrases and building on more layers of nuance that is the Italian language. Continuing right through contorni and secondi piatti, and finally dolci. All together, an Italian language feast! This book has given me a great foundation on which to continue to build my love for Italy and the language.
Do not be overwhelmed. Buy it, read it at a comfortable pace and before long you are amore Italia-in love with Italy.

I bought this book to learn some italian before a trip to Italy. This was not the right book to buy. It has WAY too much detail and no drills. For a beginner the key should be get you saying *something*. As a raw beginner, even saying sentences with the occasional mistake in gender of the noun or agreement of plural/singular is better than saying nothing.

Sure, there are irregular verbs, there are nouns that end in -o that are feminine, and so on. These are the exceptions, for the most part. But this book goes on in exhausting detail about the exceptions filling page after page with rule after rule. And while we're talking about too much detail, if your idea of the way to learn is to see tables of verbs then this is the book you want.

If you're looking for something that starts slower and introduces things a little at a time, a book that has drills so you can practice what you just read, then there are MUCH better books out there. The one I found and can recommend is "Italian Now!: A Level One Worktext" by Danesi. It's a book actually meant for beginners.

I'm not saying this Idiot's Guide is a bad guide for the right person. If you are fluent in spanish and want to transition over or if you took a few years of italian a long time ago and want a brief refresher, this is perfect. But if you're a rank beginner and want to get started in italian, this book isn't what you want.

Italian was my first stab at learning another language. Euvino is the perfect teacher. Its fun, easy, and you actually learn Italian. If you want to learn conversational Italian, this is the book.

About 3 years ago I began to teach myself Italian using Gabrielle's book First Edition. I have recently been using the Second Edition and I find it to be so much better in the way it teaches the language and how the book is laid out. I like the expanded vocabulary list and glossary in the back of the book.

I think it is definitely worth the price for anyone who has the First Edition to upgrade.I did and my studies have definitely benefited.

Before buying this book, I tried several other books for learning Italian, but none of them were very effective. However, as soon as I bought this book, my Italian skills improved greatly. The structure of the book makes it very easy to follow. Eeach new chapter builds on the previous chapter, so you are constantly using everything you have learned. I also like the interesting notes about Italian culture that are spread throughout the book. After studying this book for only a couple months, I was able to converse effectively with natives on my recent trip to Italy. Highly recommended.

P.S. I meant to rate this book five stars, but for some reason it showed up as a four.

I purchased this as a kindle book. I think the book is a great resource, but not very workable on the Kindle. It has many tables and they are very difficult to read on the Kindle. Although you can adjust the text size on a kindle, it does not work with the tables in this book. Also, the exercises require you to go to the appendix to check answers. It is very tedious to "flip" between the chapter of the book and appendix. I have seen other workbooks which seem to be more interactive and better for the Kindle. Suggest buying this book in hardcopy only.