Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Worthy of better than the negative reviews., April 24, 2006
I'm sorry, but I just don't get the detractors to this text. With apologies to Pimsleur, learning a language is hard work. OK, if you want to learn how to say, "Hello," or, "Where is the bathroom," try one of the quickie methods, but if you want to be fluent in a conversation, live in Italy, or study there, there is no substitute for struggling with the pedagogy. Maybe there are some of us that can pick up a language effortlessly, but I'm not one of them. I was raised in an Italian family and heard it every day when I was a child, but when it came to really learning Italian, I had to sit down and work on it ... hard. This is a fine basic text, covering all the tenses, grammatical forms and basic vocabulary. It also nicely covers pronunciation and culture, which are often neglected in basic language texts. The material is presented in a traditional, logical manner. Yes, every now and then there is a word that is not in the glossary, but that is part of language ... sometimes someone says a word you just don't know. I guess that is what a dictionary is for. To use this text effectively, I would recommend buying a dictionary and a guide to common verbs, whoich are, frankly, necessary no matter what method you use. The workbook is recommended but not necessary. If you have someone around who is fluent, so much the better, but you can do almost as well by listening to the news at night from Italy on the Internet, buying an Italian movie or two, and struggling through an Italian novel a few sentances at a time. Work your way through this book and you will have passable conversational Italian, and be able to work your way through a newspaper as well. If you don't want to put in the sweat equity to learn Italian, sign up for a brain transplant, but otherwise, go out and buy a book like this one and plan on some hard work. Your effort will not dissapoint you if you do.
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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Benissimo, March 31, 2000
By A Customer
Well worth the wait. This edition is the best of the Oggi in Italia texts. In the later editions, Merlonghi changes the format to some extent, making the book less attractive and the exercises less enjoyable. In Oggi in Italia, the author puts together everything you ever need to know about reading and speaking italian. It contains dialogues at very realistic and helpful places, such as il mercato, l'aeroporto, e l'universita, and takes you through all tenses and voices of grammar -- even passato romoto, the historical past used in writing. A must for anyone going to the best country in the world or anyone else interested in learning the language.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Good Textbook, August 22, 2005
This textbook has a few features that are good for the first year student. First, the beginning chapters are mostly in English, introducing only a few Italian words at a time until the student builds up a vocabulary, and then, the lessons are gradually presented entirely in Italian. The supplement and appendix provides a quick reference to noun and adjective suffixes, indefinite adjectives and pronouns, possessive pronouns, and verb conjugations. The vignettes tell little cultural stories that make learning and remembering the material more meaningful. There are also Italian proverbs throughout the chapters that are fun to practice. This textbook is very good to use for refreshing on material. However, like many foreign language textbooks, all instructions eventually are presented entirely in Italian. Without a translated explanation of the assignment, students may not fully understand the exercise. Another problem is that there are many group exercises, so teachers have to watch students to make certain that the students are correctly doing the practice. There is no answer key for students on the exercises. There is also a lot of material covered in the book and it is nearly impossible to complete the entire book within the first year, so teachers need to plan well what types of exercises to do within the classroom and to carefully decide which exercises can later be assigned for outside homework.
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