Fluenz Version F2: Italian 1 with supplemental Audio CD and Podcasts

by Fluenz

Product Features

• Build your vocabulary and language abilities
• Spell and write accurately
• Speak without a script
• Retain what you've learned
• Read and understand your new language

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces
• ASIN: B001BSGC3Y
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 27, 2008
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #695 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #93 in Software > Education & Reference

Product Description

The only interactive language program offering an immersive environment that recreates the best elements of great one-on-one tutoring.

Be Fluent in Italian

The Harvard, Cornell, and University of Chicago graduates who developed Fluenz were determined to create a program that conveyed the unique beauty of Italian while providing a step-by-step path through the language. By bringing the magic of a great teacher to the computer screen, Fluenz Italian makes reaching fluency in this storied language possible for every single learner.

Love Italian, Actually Learn It

As strong believers in the magic of Italian, the program designers moved beyond the cookie-cutter approach typical of computer language education: methods that boast a suspiciously simple way to learn and treat adults like children by emphasizing the association of words and pictures. Instead of the "fast-food" approach to Italian, Fluenz is all about taking learners step by step through the most beautiful language in the world.

Fluenz Italian brings the power of an amazing teacher to lead, challenge, and inspire adults and teens with a real love for the language. The application is ideal for those who need everyday conversation skills, as well as for those who want to establish a strong foundation for advanced learning.

An effective approach for English Speakers

It is impossible to understand how Italian nouns must agree in gender and quantity (plural or singular) not only with articles, but also with adjectives and adverbs, without a clear explanation. Fluenz is the only interactive program offering tutor-led explanations in English that guide learners through the strategies necessary to reach fluency. This realistic, no-nonsense approach produces real results.

The Magic of Learning: Audio CD for Your Car or iPod

The Fluenz Italian Audio CD is the ide

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Experience with both Rosetta Stone and Fluenz, March 2, 2009

By 

M. Morris - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fluenz Version F2: Italian 1 with supplemental Audio CD and Podcasts (DVD-ROM)

I thought I would add a comparison of both products as I'm sure people may be confused as to which might fit them better. I have been using Rosetta Stone for quite a while and went through the Fluenz sample session. Fluenz is very much modern academic learning where you are guided through everything with a visual teacher and you are taught as if you had to go to Italy tomorrow and be able to "get around" and function so to speak. Sentences and phrases are broken down and so on. If you want to know what to say "now" and want to be able to know the most common phrases while leaving everything else until later then Fluenz will probably be great for you. And if you like having to see a visual teacher over and over again guiding you in more of a controlled manner the whole way then you will like this. Rosetta Stone is built on the foundation of being thrown in the deep end in some ways, meaning you are forced to figure things out on your own by spoken words and phrases entirely in Italian which are to be matched to pictures. Obviously it starts off at a very basic level and in some ways you are being taught in the same method that a child learns when introduced to the world. And at first things don't seem quite relevant to being able to jump on a plane and head off to Italy. However this method, because of its emphasis on self-sufficiency, really implants a core knowledge of Italian structure inside your head. In other words things are quicker to recall because your memorization is from your own survival learning and not by learning through a teacher. Rosetta Stone teaches you the basics of how, where, when, why, above, behind, with, without and so forth. It also teaches past, present and future tenses. So with that said, Rosetta Stone is more about building a foundational knowledge of which you can add "street smarts" and man on the street conversation to that later on when you're actually in Italy. That has its advantages and disadvantages. With Fluenz you'll know what questions to ask in more of a savvy way, whereas with Rosetta you'll have to conjugate things from your formulated memory. One good thing about Rosetta Stone though is that because everything is learned visually you'll have a much easier time picking up on other people's conversations and not being entirely thrown off because you've learned the same way Italians and everyone else learned when they were children. If you're patient you'll like Rosetta Stone but if you've always learned better by having someone else do the research for you first and show you what they've learned then you'll like Fluenz.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Happier with this product than I've been with any other, January 8, 2010

By 

Laura Smith "justresearch" (justresearch) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fluenz Version F2: Italian 1 with supplemental Audio CD and Podcasts (DVD-ROM)

First I will comment on the service I received from Amazon in conjunction with this company. I live in an area where the post office is notorious for simply not delivering packages. Regular mail is fine, but instead of attempting delivery they just CLAIM to attempt delivery, often not even bothering to leave a slip stating the supposed delivery attempt. A problem that has led most people in my building to rely on more expensive but more reliable delivery services like UPS & Fed Ex.
Well, I didn't realize when I ordered this that it was going to be sent USPS...So I waited and waited and never recieved it. Scheduled a redelivery with the post office & stayed home all day again and they showed up without the package and instead with the slip stating that I missed delivery! I had been through this before with this post office & I knew I would be lucky if I ever got it at all so I contacted Amazon & told them my situation. I expected them to send me a new one AFTER I had gone through hoops to get the post office to return the package to them, but they sent me a new one right away even with the original delivery sitting somewhere in a post office limbo. This time they sent it UPS & I got it fast & w/ no problems. I was very happy with this service. The Fluenz program is packaged so beautifully that it would make a lovely gift. I was excited and very pleased with the program from the very first lesson. There are writing excersises as well as brief lectures, lovely sensual and relaxing music, and you get to hear a few italian speakers instead of just one so you can hear the differences in different people speaking the language. There is also a mic excersise where you record yourself speaking italian and then get to play it back to hear yourself and compare what you hear with the native speakers on the program. The program does not come with a computer microphone so if you don't already have one then you have to buy one. I got a headset mic from RadioShack for $15. Though installation was easy and only took a few minutes on my computer, I had trouble getting the recording part of the lesson to work. I tried figuring out the problem myself, but finally acquiesed to contacting Fluenz. Their customer service is a 10 out of 10! You can contact them by phone, email or via chat through their website. I chose to contact through Chat and immediately was picked up by Chris who patiently guided me through different scenerios as to what might be causing my problem. I also contacted them via email to ask them when the higher levels of Italian were going to be released. They immediately responded with a detailed and personal response that was obviously written by a real person and not computer generated stating honestly that 2010 is mostly devoted to bringing higher levels of French out and that levels 3 & up of italian probably won't come out until 2011. Though I was hoping for sooner I liked their not beating around the bush. Their customer service is wonderful because so many other companies stick you with a rep that appears to know nothing about the product or how to respond to your issue. I always got someone who understood me right away and answered quickly. The best part is that the product actually works! Both the DVD and the Audio CD. The only con I can think of with their program is that the font they use makes both Capilal I's and lower case L's look exactly the same. This is a bit annoying in the writing excersises, but it's a very small con in a sea of pros. I've tried other language programs and they always either seemed painfully boring, or completely illogical in their approach. After taking another italian Language program I was able to say "The ball is yellow." - But if you go up to anyone in the street and say the ball is yellow they'll look at you like you're crazy. Fluenz understands this & instead teaches you more useful phrases right from lesson 1. The first things you learn to say are include: Thank you, Good Morning, I would like this dish on the menu please. I would like a glass of water and he would like a glass of wine etc- all things that you would actually use on your first day in italy. Not "The ball is yellow". They have created a loyal customer and I will always recommend Fluenz for anyone's language needs. I can't wait for them to come out with more of the italian series.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Began speaking italian sooner than I expected, January 23, 2010

By 

It's me "logitechgirl" (LONG ISLAND CITY, NEW YORK USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fluenz Version F2: Italian 1 with supplemental Audio CD and Podcasts (DVD-ROM)

What a great program. I only got the level 1 version and I wish I got both level one and two. There are 30 lessons in all of Level one and within the first couple of lessons you are already learning to say full sentances in italian. Sentances of value that you would actually use! The idea is to do one lesson per day. Sometimes I would come across a lesson that seemed to have so much new stuff I didn't feel like I'd ever remember it, but I was wrong! I was always surprised by how much I was able to remember the next day when going on to the next lesson. Once I even had a language question and I contacted Fluenz not sure if they'd be able to help me. When I contacted them they had one of the italian speakers contact me a few hours later to answer my question! I'm sure it's not something they do often, but I was impressed with how far they were willing to go to give great service. After I learn Italian I'm going to move on to their French series. There's just no better software to buy for your language needs.