Listen & Learn Italian

Rating:
Summary: An old recording but not a bad one, useful for the traveler
Review: I came across this old program at the library... The format is almost the same as the modern "Learn in your Car" series where you hear a sentence once in English then in Italian for the entire duration of the recording and comes with a booklet containing the complete transcipts. The only difference is on this tape, the Italian is spoken only once instead of twice like on the "Learn in your Car" series. And of course, this isn't meant to really "teach" the language, but instead to present the right phrases a traveler would find useful to get by on a trip.

Since this is a much older program and recording (from the 50's), it's only natural that a few phrases will be outdated, overly-formal or simply not applicable in today's world. But I gave it 4 stars because personally I found that aspect very interesting compared to today's programs which I usually find boring and repetitive. And another big reason for the rating is the slow and very accentuated enunciation of the Italian speakers. It really makes the phrases "stick" more than other programs I heard, and of course many beginning students need a solid foundation in the right pronunciation and inflection (often very overlooked by people).

The only negative is that the Italian speakers in the recording for some strange reason pronounce the s the same exact way throughout. Anyone who knows Italian will tell you the s changes
from the "s" sound we know to a "z" sound when it's between 2 vowels... so the word "Inglese" is pronounced "een-gleh-zeh" and NOT "een-gleh-seh". As a matter of fact, the transcript which shows the written pronunciation for every word of every sentence does correctly indicate the "z" pronunciation when called for.

Also related to the first problem, the speakers pronounce certain "ce" sounds as "sheh" instead of "cheh" which is how it's supposed to be, like in the word "piacere" (pee-ah-cheh-reh.. NOT pee-ah-sheh-reh). Could it be the speakers have a reagional accent that uses a slightly different pronunciation?

I'm sure some people will be immediately turned off by some of the outdated phrases and production and assume that means the entire program is useless. But while it's true that in Italy you may not ever need to say to a dentist "I've lost a filling", if you really love the language and want to learn new words not used in most other programs then definately give this one a try.

Rating:
Summary: Look Elsewhere
Review: I would be surprised if there is a worse Italian language learning tape on the market. A phrase is said in English, then once in Italian. Some are long and complex, and some are obsolete. The tape was originally recorded in 1958 or thereabouts, and includes vocabulary for such items as the milliner's shop and brushless shaving cream.