Customer Reviews

Mastering Italian: Book and 12 Cassettes (The Foreign Service Institute Language Series)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

There are 2 major drawbacks to this course... Firstly, a large part of the course revolves around the learning and recognition of pronunciation-related technical terms (accents, inflections, tones, ect.) which can be tedious to some. Secondly, the actual language instruction (grammer, vocabulary, ect.) really doesn't go beyond a certain beginner's level despite the size of the book and large amount of recorded material on the cassetts. While the premise behind this type of instruction is unique and forseeably effective, I wish this course could have been designed in a better way.

Most language courses begin with a general pronunciation guide then devote the rest to learning new phrases or grammer rules as well as hearing the target language spoken. This course instead begins with a foundation of phonetic sounds and learing their technical terms... and then being tested on them until later in the course when those same terms are used to teach Italian words and phrases and to recognize their meaning. A typical sequence in this course is to listen to an Italian phrase and then to answer which type of inflection was used, and in turn, to deduce the meaning of the phrase based on this. Like I said, this is a unique way of approaching language instruction, but in this case the langauge instruction doesn't go far enough. The drills in the book and on the tapes can be useful to beginners, but I don't see them being too useful for the intermediate or advanced student.

A note about the pronunciation drills presented early on: a previous review stated that Italian is very easy to learn to pronounce and therefore the pronunciation drills shouldn't have been as long or tedious. This may be true for some people who have a good ear for picking up new sounds in a language and easlity reproducing them exactly. But in my experience, Italian is the language most people think they can pronounce perfectly but actually can't. This is because on the surface it doesn't look as difficult as many other more complex languages, but slight variations in tone and accent can really lead to miscommunication. I've found this to be true especially with travelers relying solely on phrase books and tapes (as well speakers of other romance languages who use the pronunciation and inflection from that language for Italian words), many times they still aren't understood when traveling to Italian cities despite using the correct phrases. Non-native speakers usually don't pick up the subleties, but the locals will. Attention to these little details in sounds DO make a huge difference.

For the most part, being understood in a general sense isn't difficult to achieve. But if the goal is total fluency with no accent, then that takes specific practice and knowledge of the phonetic sounds like the ones presented in this course (however boring it may be). So the tedious pronunciation drills are a necessary evil for many beginners and should not be underestimated. Although the later drills can serve as a refresher course to keep sharp, the end result falls short of expectations.

I took this course and I found it virtually worthless as an instructional tool. The author seems solely bent upon teaching pronunciation alone and goes really overboard when explaining how this or that is pronounced. Hundreds of pages and many tapes are spent drilling in the ideosyncracies of the Italian language as it is pronounced. These are things one would digest as a natural part of the learning process. Italian is one of the easiest languages to pronounce anyway. The course doesn't have many drills or repetitive exercises nor does it offer extensive grammer information. Everything a beginning speaker would need to have just a basic conversational level by the end of the course is missing. Incidentally, both the German and French versions of this series are excellent. I don't know how they could have missed the boat on this one.

I was truly disappointed with this course. After listening to the first few CDs, I realized that I had wasted over $75.00 on nothing more than one heck of a boring course on countless pronunciation drills--one cd after another. After the fourth CD, I did not want to pursue this nonesense any further. I wanted to get a reimbursement right then and there, if only it wasn't too late. I'll know better next time to read these reviews first.

I learned French at home, minored in Spanish in college and taught myself Portuguese. So, I consider myself a serious student of the romance languages. And after taking a basic course in Italian, which was truly a lot of fun, I figured I was rest ready to do the rest on my own. But contrary to the hyped blurb, this Barrons course was truly a flop. Save your dollars!!

In general, I think that the Barron's Mastering series of language courses is one of if not the best selection of language courses in their price-range. I have experience with the Spanish 1&2, German, and French 1 courses and I fully expected the Italian course to be of the same quality. Sadly, it's a dud, and I hope that this course won't turn anyone off using this series for a different language than Italian.

While pronunciation is important, there's a difference between teaching learners how to pronounce a language correctly, and teaching pronunciation for 5 whole units *before* introducing any real vocabulary. I believe that by Unit 6 you will have learned two whole sentences with this course.

There are so many things in this course that desperately need revision. Do we really need to spend a whole two pages explaining the difference between a yes-no question and a multi-choice question to language learners? If this course were to be streamlined so that vocabulary and pronunciation were taught as a unit, and the English speaking portions of the audio trimmed (almost all the English text in the book is read by the narrator, which, if the prospective language learner can read, is completely unnecessary), I'd estimate that the course would be 300 pages and 7 CDs shorter. Perhaps Barrons could replace the deleted material with real content.

I dislike the phonetic spelling which is used throughout the course in lieu of standard written Italian. I think this is a huge weakness in a course that claims to be able to teach one how to read in the target language. (Note that the Spanish course has a phonetic system *and* the standard writing used throughout, which can actually be useful to learners)

I am also disappointed in the scope of the course. In more than 500 pages and 15 CDs, a course should definitely cover both more vocabulary, and more than one or two tenses. Indeed, all of the other courses in this series that I have experience with *do*.

Even with all that said, this course is not completely useless if you have the patience to stick with it all the way through. You'll definitely learn some Italian, and your pronunciation should be beyond excellent. You'll just need more supplemental material than the advertising blurb on the box would suggest.

The most fundamental aspect of verbal communication is pronouncing the words correctly. This sounds like it should go without saying, but it doesn't. Try walking around less touristed areas of Italy incorrectly pronouncing your phrasebook Italian. You might as well be talking Chinese. Believe me I have been there. This course is a bit tedious at times and it is hard. But guess what? So is learning a foreign language as an adult. This course is the best I have ever used and I have used alot. It teaches the begginer what he or she absolutely has to know to learn to really communicate verbally in Italian.

You will not finish this course speaking like a native, but it gives you the foundation you must have to improve your Italian.

This must have been developed for bureaucrats who enjoy rote learning without a shred of stimulation. Whenever I listen to it, the advancement from question to question is so miniscule that I am bored stiff after three pages. I have no idea how anyone could make it through all the cds (or tapes). Do you really need to know the syntactical name of the sounds you're learning to learn them (semi-vowels, etc.). You'd better be a nit-picking linguist to care even one bit about these lessons.

The tapes and book are interdependent. You can't take a break from the book and just listen to the tapes, and you can't take a break from the tapes and just read the book.

Worst of all, the use of the kit is utterly non-sensical. Fact after fact is recited for hundreds of pages. You just sit there staring at the book while schoolmarms recite the identical sentences you're reading. This might have been a good way to gain word recognition but all the Italian words are spelled out phonetically. (?!) With little warning as you're following along, a question is asked and the answer is alway sitting right in front of you. It's like team A in New York wrote the book and Team B (um... Alaska?) produced the tapes with no consideration for how one would enhance the other. Beyond that, the aesthetics of the book are a hoot! It's probably been 50 years since a book this ugly has been published in the U.S.. It has a font that could only be called "Utilitarian." Accents and punctuation marks are hand-drawn on the original manuscript.

You could maybe get through this course if it was the only activity you brought with you into a bomb-shelter before a very long war.

I regretted this purchase almost immediately and each successive attempt to get some value out of it has been exasperating. Spend eighty bucks on anything but this. This is teaching from a hundred unimaginative years ago. It's out of print for a very good reason.

All of the FSI courses were produced for *serious* students of the language -- not tourists or one-time travellers who want to be able to order wine and pizza and offer the equivalent of "voulez-vous coucher avec moi?" to local girls/boys. Are they "boring"? Yes, rather. Do they teach fine detail that the serious student needs? Yes, they do. Is this something even ten percent of language students want? No.

There are, to be sure, problems with the design of the courses -- but there's no space here to go into them in detail. The main point is that they are "dry" -- and especially so if you take them as home-study kits. All of them were intended to be presented by a teacher, and a living warm human being -- smiling, encouraging, frowning, demanding, exploding with a delighted "BENE!" when you get it exactly right -- would help tremendously. It is extremely hard to get through this kind of thing unless you have iron discipline and a passion for learning the exact best way.

For more than 19 out of 20 users, then, I would recommend the Pimsleur courses, and perhaps Michel Thomas, about whom I've heard good things. However, if you want to really speak a language with precision and grace, and put behind you the idiot-child-at-a-party feeling of the stammering and constantly self-correcting tourist, FSI courses may, merely may, be for you. They should be supplemented by other materials, but you won't find anything like this level of seriousness in any other home study course.

As far as the expense is concerned, given the number of CD's and the book, fifty bucks is as cheap as it gets. That's maybe two private lessons.

I read the other review, and would agree with it in priniciple. I have studied 7 languages and am fairly adept at figuring out how to pronounce letters and variant sounds in another language. My wife on the other hand is a novice. We are taking the course together, just so we will progress at the same level. She needs all the pronounciation drills to hear and say the nuances of Italian. So for the absolute beginner, with no experience in the field, this approach is likely just what you need. By the way, we are in our mid 40's, if younger, we could probably use another method better. I like to learn with grammar and vocabulary lists as a basis myself, but that is how I have always learned languages.

Having been through much of this course, I was surprised to read some of the negative comments. I suspect these opinions may relate to wanting a quick result easily, rather than building an in depth comfort with the language. Much of the course is built around pronunciation, as it should be. Too many courses give only grammar or vocabulary. This one forces you to evaluate your speech and pronunciation of the sound, resulting in more accurate responses. You actually learn to know how to spell unknown words in Italian and to hear subtle differences which change the meanings of words. While this course does not go far enough with the language (I gave 4 stars because there is no level 2 or 3), it does provide the solid base you need to proceed in Italian. Italian is not that easy to pronounce correctly. As I continue to study Italian, I have no doubt that I do so with a much better foundation than other courses offer. Without a live teacher to correct your errors, attention to these details and much repetition are essential. You may then move on to courses with more of the vocabulary and grammar desired with less concern over the basics of pronunciation.

This course is complete nonsense. You spend hours repeating syllables without any context to meaning, and learning about pronunciation. It's impossible to learn anything about Italian, much less have any fun. I'm angry I was tricked by their "you'll master grammer, pronunciation, vocabulary" blurb on the back of the package. There's no way to develop mastery with this boring, repetetive, overly structured system. It pauses every 30 seconds to say "information unit 576" or some such nonsense. If their were a law against poorly conceived programs being sold for high prices, Barron's would be in jail. Try Pimsleur's complete Italian I -- You'll actually learn Italian if you work through their three courses.