Customer Reviews

Italian Made Simple

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

 

 

I found "Italian Made Simple" to be the best Italian workbook for the student studying at home. All study books explain the grammar, but this one also drills you extensively in it. I learned more from this book than any other. After completing this book, I can recommend moving on to Living Language's Ultimate Italian tape courses and also Schaum's Italian Vocabulary book. Also, a good way to get your feet wet learning Italian, is with the book entitled, Italian in 10 minutes a Day. Buona fortuna!

This book is an excellent introduction to the Italian language. Its pronunciation guide is the most thorough I have seen, and pronunciations next to words indicate which syllable to stress, which is not done in the other popular italian books I have used. This is crucial to pronouncing the language correctly. The book is well layed out, pedagogically, if a tad ambitious. It keeps a fairly rapid pace in introducing new grammar rules, and can be overwhelming as a first text. Heavy use of drills really does get the language to "sink" in, however. The reason this book gets four stars, is that the italian it teaches is a bit outdated. Some of the vocabulary it teaches is straight out of 1960, and the pronouns it teaches for "he" and "she", among other words, are not in common current usage in Italy. My friend from Italy explained to me that those works anly used by her grandparents' generation.

By buying this book it really helped me understand the basic-intermediate status of Italian. It does everything in the best way I thought possible, and helped me learn my new language quickly and easily. It takes you step by step so that you don't get confused. Every six chapters there is a brief Quiz to see what you have learned and what you still need to spend some more time on. In the end, you won't be speaking fluently, but very very close to it. I reccommend buying "Living Language: Italian" that will give you an advanced-intermediate status. and finally, buy an advanced book or get a tudor...(TUDORS WORK REALLY WELL!)

HAVE FUN!!!

I have both editions, and both complement each other. Edition 1 lists the phonetic pronunciation next to the Italian word (parola; pawr-o-la) in more chapters than in Edition 2, which is helpful. Edition 1 contains the monetary dominations used in the 60s (lira), whereas in Edition 2, the Euro is discussed. Edition 1 has less exercises than Edition 2, and the latter edition has a story-line. The Chapters are composed of differences that complement each other. I recommend both.

Como se dice..."I love this book!" I would know how to say it but I let a cousin borrow my book and it's never been back in my hands and now she's in love with the Italian language. :) That's a good thing! Well, I found the same edition of this book at the library and 3 months later, I was practically fluent in Italian. It's been a few years since then and my ability to speak Italian is almost non-existent. This book is good for a quick review or if you want to learn to speak a language within no time (but with dedication!). You'll find common phrases, words, but you will also find important grammar lessons in this book--the key element in learning a language.

I was very pleased with the text book, Italian Made Simple. Although used, the book was in mint condition. In fact I presented it as a gift to my cousin whom I am trying to encourage him to learn Italian. I am impressed with Amazon methods of processing orders.

Virginia Dressell