Customer Reviews

Italian II - 1st Ed. Rev. (Pimsleur Language Program)

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This is the second Pimsleur tape series I have purchased. I bought the first through Sybervision (the company that advertises in airline inflight magazines). The Sybervision introduction to Italian doesn't appear to exist anymore, although I've tried to find it. This is a pity, because it takes the best of the Pimsleur method and weaves it around a goofy but engaging storyline of a British husband and wife taking an Italian vacation.

Unfortunately, Italian II skips the story and gets right to the learning. The result is that this version is as dry as a summer brushfire in Campania, but it still delivers the best system for learning to speak a foreign language that I have yet encountered (you will learn nothing about how to write or read it, by the way.)

What makes the Pimsleur method special? For my taste, the Pimsleur method of self-learning is far and away the best because of its graduated approach and outstanding use of English and Italian to prompt your answers and confirm your comprehension. Fundamentally, the Pimsleur method introduces vocabulary and then tries to spring a quick quiz on you when you least expect it. Either you know the answer or you don't. When you can't immediately recall the right answer, you know it's time to go back and review.

The Sybervision-Pimsleur Level I program I started learning Italian with had the virtue of being mildly entertaining while it taught. This level II course is all business. It is grunt work slogging through it, but it packs the same rewards as the Sybervision version. If you apply yourself, you will learn a lot of Italian and pronounce it well.

The proof of any language course is in the pudding, and I spent two weeks in Italy this summer after having drilled myself on Italian II. All my practice came during several months on my morning commute on the train to Manhattan. From the moment we arrived in Italy, my ability far exceeded my self-confidence. I was able to speak almost effortlessly to cab drivers, waiters, hotel employees, and most importantly, my wife's relatives. My new Italian friends couldn't believe I learned the language from tapes.

There's no question that buying Pimsleur's Italian II is a significant investment. But I guarantee if you stick with it you'll surprise yourself, your traveling companions, and the wonderful people you'll meet in Italy.

I've been in love with the Pimsleur Method since my first discovery of a four-tape set, and have gone on to master (more or less!) Levels I and II. Not only is this the easiest and most enjoyable method I've discovered, and one which really trains you to listen and respond at a normal conversational rate, but having just come back from nine days in Italy, I can say that it works! I had no difficulty making myself understood and feeling confident in most casual settings, even communicating with people who spoke no English at all, and received many compliments on my accent. In fact, I can hardly wait to progress to Level III - and then to tackle more languages! My only quarrel is with the scarcity of written material, other than a few brief reading exercises not directly related to the lessons. I understand it prevents the student from using written words as a crutch, but there are times when it would be nice to confirm what you're hearing - and not to visualize a word as written one way, only to have to unlearn it later when you find out your mental spelling is all wrong. However, compared to the thrill of mastering a foreign language while having this much fun, it's a minor quibble!

I have used Pimsler for both Italian and French to the II level. The formats are identical. They're easy to listen to driving back and forth to work, especially if your trip happens to be 30 minutes each way. The Pimsler method of repetition and reinforcement seems to work well enough, but it doesn't leave you with a vocabulary suited to tourism. You get a good sense or "feel" for how the language is spoken; you get essential verbs but not a very extensive vocabulary.

I really felt there was an excessive emphasis on "familiar" (use only to friends, relatives, small children) verb forms. Nobody who uses this course will end up "conversational" in the sense that they'll be pleasantly chatting with Italian friends. So the familiar verb forms are not likely to be anything a tourist or businessman will either hear or speak. Those situations will necessarily call for "formal" verb forms.

My daughter is taking advanced level Italian language courses at the University of Colorado, and she states that familiar verb forms are barely mentioned, because they aren't useful to someone at that level of proficiency.

I'm a tourist with foreseeable needs in Italy like making my way around airports, train stations, markets and museums, renting a hotel room or car, ordering in a restaurant and forth. At the end of Italian II, I should have a vocabulary and dialogues at least minimally suited for those kinds of purposes, but I don't. The course has no "tourist" vocabulary or outlook at all. The focus is more on things like playing tennis with "friends" and other improbable "familiar" situations that are essentially useless to someone focused on traveling.

But I'm buying Italian III anyway because I've come this far with the Pimsler system and it seems to work with the above limitations. If you're planning to use this course to prepare for travel in Italy, you should also carry a Rough Guide dictionary phrasebood ("Italian - A Rough Guide Phrasebood," ...) available through Amazon. It contains "dialogues" more relevant to the traveler, which you can readily adopt after completing Pimsler Italian II.

I do a lot of driving around and I feel I am making good use of my time. I don't have experience with other tapes, but the Pimsleur method seems good. One point that I would like to make is that you must listen to the tapes many times to really grasp what you have learned. Some lessons that involve conjugating in the past tense must be repeated over and over to catch the verb tenses. I use 501 Italian verbs as a point of reference, which I think is necessary to get the whole picture of what Pimsluer is teaching. This is the third foreign language that I have learned. At the stage of life I am at (kids, carpools) sitting in a classroom is out of the question. I consider Pimsleur a good way of learning, but I do agree that it lacks tourist situations. However I feel I have gained the tools to figure out what I need to know when I return to Italy.