Customer Reviews

Instant Immersion Italian Pro 7 CD Platinum

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

 

 

I was very excited about this software since I come to Italy alot, and I am starting in a class this summer.

However after using the program for several hours, I found that it is not near beginner level. It has many good features, but I could not find some REALLY basic in the software.

I think this software is a blast after taking a crash course in Italien, and will look forward to that, but do not expect to speak Italien after playing around with this software if you have no experience with the language what so ever.

This software is confusing. For beginners it is difficult to know which direction to go in, as there are many. Clicking on the introduction icon resulted in continuous recording without an exit except the escape key. Also, although the speech was in English, the examples were in French. It was very hard for us to understand the concept of how to use the software, without regard to the language. Our experience with the Learning Company on language is much more straight forward and easier to comprehend.

Italian Pro should be entitled Italian amateur. It is gimmicky and useless whether you already know Italian and want to brush up on it or are new. It is all bells and whistles and no substance.

It took a while to learn how the software works. Also, I don't know any Italian and find that this product is beyond the beginner level! I don't even know where to begin. I thought it would teach you how to pronounce vowels and things like that first and the move to words and finally sentences. This product starts you off with full sentences.

Patience ! That what the peoples here giving this software a 1 star need. Italian Pro come with 4 tools, not to be played with all at once, but to be use in a gradual fashion.

Let me explain, if your new, and pop in the Tell me more Beginner CD in right away, you will go nowhere fast. That why they give you 4 tools, Rosetta Stone, Card game, Tell Me More and the Audio CD.

* I calculated 15 min to 30 min, 5 days a week for my time suggestions.

Here is the order.

1- The card game, basic word/image association games, with proper pronunciation, you play with this, it's all games, if anyone has a hard time with this, you should not own a computer. It's a bunch of easy fun games, and you learn while playing. Play with this CD for 1-2 weeks minimum, or until you past all the test in Gold, and then go to the next step.

2- Rosetta Stone - In here, you move forward, covering all your basics, you should spend here many months (at least 3-4 months), it's very rich, and very easy to use (maybe too easy), It's again, real basic stuff to intermediate, the problem here, is after peoples get's 90-100 good, they past the test once, and then move on. DO NOT. It's too easy to go fast here, pay attention here, pick up the masculine/feminine of thing, the plural difference. You can easily skip fast here, not knowing why sometime it's Blanco and sometime Blanca, it's very rich with many, many, many layers, so do it again and again understanding in the simplest lessons the masculine/feminine and the plurals of everything, do it until you understand why every words are written and sound the way they are, believe me Rosetta Stone is the best feature of this whole package.

3 - Then after 3 months, move to the Tell me more beginner and move up and use the Audio CD around this time, here you should spend 6-8 months minimum with those 3(TMM)+1(Audio) CD's, and there you are, you have your basics, and you can start listening to Italian shows, or go to Italy !

It's the best package out there, it's sad that peoples glance at it for a few days, and fail to realize this.

Ciao !

I've taken 4 semesters of Italian, but it's been years. This program has it all...grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, comprehension...everything! I especially like the video segments.

The program is very challenging, and I'm so glad that I purchased it. It truly does immerse you in the language.

When I tried learning from my old textbook, I found that there was no way to check my answers, pronunciation, or listening comprehension. This CD package does it all, and I'm so glad I finally got it...it's an amazing price for such a complete program.

Had no idea what to do, and I am an experienced computer user. You don't know in what order to start the lessons... if I started at the beginning, then it is MUCH too difficult. I had no idea what anyone was saying and no way to find out. Simply a dreadful program!

Hodgepodge of amateur animation with no beggining progression. When they say Instant Immersion, they mean listening to 400 words/min italian off-the-bat and asking you to make sense of it.
Mediocre products bundled from disparate authors in a Costco-style package.

I've been waiting months for my computer to be set up so I could get to work on learning Italian; something I've wanted to do forever. What a tremendous disapointment it was. They need to just skip over or toss out that "Beginner" fantasy. I've never been moved to review anything before, but this disapointment has got me typing. I just wish I had read the reviews before my impulse purchasing at the store.

If you are a beginner, move along, nothing to see here. Find something a little more beginner friendly. Or a LOT more.

I think people doing the reviews about this product can mislead the opinion of customers when it comes the time to make a decision and buy.

First this product name is ITALIAN PRO, obviously it's not for first time learning italian students, the software has an autorun program, that means that you set the disc in the drive and starts by itself, I don't see many computer knowledge in that. Believe my word I'm already studying the basic italian program, in fact the name is just ITALIAN that's why now I'm looking the PRO version.

Well I think the program is really good, there are audio complementary discs also, so with this you can round very well your learning, finally the discs can be used for english, spanish, english, and I think french speakers too. ARRIVEDERCI