Customer Reviews

Ultimate Italian: Basic-Intermediate Cassette Program (LL(R) Ultimate Basic-Intermed)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have spent an enormous amount of money on materials and lessons in order to learn to speak Italian. Most of the money I spent, unfortunately, was wasted. If I had it to do over, I would simply invest in Ultimate Italian for understanding the mechanics of the language and the Pimsleur program for gaining the verbal skills. Ultimate Italian is systematic in it's approach, which helped me to move steadily through the chapters. I've been through this book three times now. A tremendous value.

I have wasted so much time (and money) trying to locate a good program for learning Italian. The Ultimate Italian: Basic Intermediate is worth every penny.

Pros:

1) The first 4 CD's leave no guesswork as to what is being spoken because the manual has all the dialogue for you to follow along (not so common with book/CD combinations).

2) You can start using the CD's on day one. You don't have to read several "primer" pages before jumping in.

3) The lessons are actually IN ORDER. This may sound strange, but many books jump around in a sequence that confuses the reader. Such as; from verbs to indirect objects THEN to introductions and vocabulary.

4) The CD's are NOT boring...a big plus because you'll find yourself using them OFTEN, especially the last 4 CD's which are designed for "on the go" listening, in the car or wherever.

5) After completing the program (if you apply yourself), you will no doubt be able to carry on a useful conversation and write with grammatical accuracy.

6) The program states that it is "equivalent" to 2 years of Italian college study. This is true.

7) 8 full hours of audio...excellent.

Cons:

1) Not enough vocabulary. However, this is true for every Italian program I've bought. Make sure you have a good, up to date English/Italian dictionary if you buy this program.

2) Lack of computer CD. This would have been an excellent plus to augment vocabulary.

As a language major I have taken many university classes and used numerous audio-visual home-study courses over the past 36 years, and I feel that this is quite simply the very best language set available. After going through the book and home-use set of 4 tapes once, I listened several more times to the set of review tapes for use "on-the-go". I had no problems traveling alone throughout Italy, and even received compliments on my Italian. The lessons cover nearly all the verb tenses, grammar, and syntax of the Italian language and provide a good vocabulary to start speaking, reading, and traveling. If you're serious about learning Italian, you'll find this set to be a real bargain.

Ultimate Italian is a very comprehensive course that is contoured for the serious learner. Each of the 40 lessons has a specific goal in mind, which makes learning both fun and intuitive. This course is not for just anyone, however. If you're looking to just learn some common Italian phrases, this course is not for you. Ultimate Italian (Beginner/Intermediate) will teach you how to speak Italian the way Italians speak Italian. Native speakers on the tapes give proper, articulate pronunciation which is critical to learning any foreign language properly. It's also a great deal for what you get!

I have now completed the first eleven lessons in Ultimate Italian. I enjoy the program of text and CDs, and certainly am learning some Italian -- the pronunciation is excellent, the text is clear and logical [but with errors! attenti!], but I find the Learn on the Go CDs almost useless. The speakers speak too rapidly; the phrases and sentences are too complex; not enough instruction is given in order for the student to reply; and there is little repetition.

This book seems to have helped me more than any others I've tried over the years. The only drawback is there are quite a few typographical errors in the book, if you aren't careful you might learn a wrong thing!

I still highly recommend it though, it just makes you study harder to make sure the stuff written is for sure correct!If it weren't for that, I'd have given it 5 stars for sure!

I've self-learned languages using audiotapes and CD's before. This particular series "Ultimate Italian" has got be one the top three. What's useful is that there are two versions - one for "in the car" and the other for "at home". This program was designed for both separately. It is up-to-date and addresses all daily usage vocbularies. Good one!

This series is excellent for beginner. The emphasis on grammar is heavy. It suits intermediate more than beginner. The "at home" CDs is not similar as the "on the go" version. I wish they were both exactly the same. Much less conversation is presented at the "on the go" version. Only an abbreviated version of conversation. The exercises are simple and short. Overall, it's a very good program and helpful.

After checking various Italian tapes and resources out of the library, I decided to buy the Ultimate Italian set. It is the most comprehensive, academic learn-at-home Italian set I ran across. In my opinion, tapes that rely on memorization of dialogue with no underlying instruction on grammar, verb construction, etc. have *very* limited usefulness if you want to actually learn a language, rather than repeat a few rote phrases on your vacation (and not understand the answers back!). This set requires discipline, it is like a real class with vocabulary and grammar and a quiz at the end of each lesson, but if you commit to it you will be rewarded for that commitment. I crammed as much as I could in seven weeks (a lesson every morning) and felt very confident when I went to Italy by myself--I had no trouble communicating and was able to say everything I wanted. If you're looking for something easy you can just listen to in the car so that you can politely say a few things to show respect to locals, you will not enjoy this set. If you are a serious student of foreign language who wants more than to "get by," put this in your cart. (I just bought the French version, that's how much I liked the Italian.)

Overall this is not a bad book for learning Italian. However, after learning a bit of Italian and looking back at it there are quite a few mistakes. Misspellings, grammar errors and maybe even more annoying; the "cultural notes" are antiquated and more often than not will give you a wrong image of Italy and Italians. By the way I have the second edition so you would think that it should be rid of most mistakes.