Italian I

Rating:
Summary: Italian I by Pimsleur--a real find
Review: After buying and discarding four other Introductory Italian on tape/CD courses (all disorganized, makeshift products), I'm delighted to report that Pimsleur Italian I is an excellent value. It does exactly what Pimsleur says it does; it teaches Italian using the same learning principles we followed as children learning to speak and communicate.
I'm a psychologist well grounded in learning theory and so I understand how learning occurs. I am impressed with the intelligence and thought that went into this course's design. The Pimsleur people really do know how language is learned.
If you have any kind of ear you will not only learn how to have a conversation in Italian but will pronounce the language correctly.
I would recommend though, that you not buy the abbreviated Pimsleur introductory Italian I course because it is redundantly included in the complete, 15 CD, Italian I course.
I would add that as an addendum learning tool, my wife and I make flash cards for each lesson which allows us to learn not only aurally, but visually. The making of the flash cards also forces us to figure out the correct spelling of the verb forms, nouns, etc. This is, however, not very difficult since every vowel is sounded out in Italian making it easy to look up the words in the Italian dictionary or verb books.
We handled the expense by splitting the cost with another couple. As we conclude each disk we pass them on. To review, we use our flash cards.
In summary, the Pimsleur course is a find. It does what it says it will do. We're almost through Italian I and plan to order Italian II and III (a bit of bonus information--you get a sizable discount from Simon and Schuster when you order them together).

Rating:
Summary: Italian I by Pimsleur--a real find
Review: After buying and discarding four other Introductory Italian on tape/CD courses (all disorganized, makeshift products), I'm delighted to report that Pimsleur Italian I is an excellent value. It does exactly what Pimsleur says it does; it teaches Italian using the same learning principles we followed as children learning to speak and communicate.
I'm a psychologist well grounded in learning theory and so I understand how learning occurs. I am impressed with the intelligence and thought that went into this course's design. The Pimsleur people really do know how language is learned.
If you have any kind of ear you will not only learn how to have a conversation in Italian but will pronounce the language correctly.
I would recommend though, that you not buy the abbreviated Pimsleur introductory Italian I course because it is redundantly included in the complete, 15 CD, Italian I course.
I would add that as an addendum learning tool, my wife and I make flash cards for each lesson which allows us to learn not only aurally, but visually. The making of the flash cards also forces us to figure out the correct spelling of the verb forms, nouns, etc. This is, however, not very difficult since every vowel is sounded out in Italian making it easy to look up the words in the Italian dictionary or verb books.
We handled the expense by splitting the cost with another couple. As we conclude each disk we pass them on. To review, we use our flash cards.
In summary, the Pimsleur course is a find. It does what it says it will do. We're almost through Italian I and plan to order Italian II and III (a bit of bonus information--you get a sizable discount from Simon and Schuster when you order them together).

Rating:
Summary: Non si puo sbagliare! (You can't go wrong!)
Review: Fugeddabout it! The best way to learn to speak Italian. Took these cassettes to Italy with me when I was about a third of the way through them. I had no problem getting around and communicating, even in towns where little or no Inglese was spoken. I couldn't hold a deep conversation, or a lengthy one, but to be able to survive in a foreign language when still completing level I was really gratifying. And recently I bought Ultimate Italian as a supplement. It's good, but nowhere near Pimsleur. Pimsleur is brilliantly designed to lock the learning into your memory. You find yourself thinking in Italian, not translating back and forth in your head. There are, of course, less expensive vendors of Pimsleur to be found on the internet, e.g., languagelovers.com. But the course is worth every Euro. I can't wait to start Level II. If you can afford it, and your interest is chiefly speaking Italian rather than reading and writing it, this is tops. If, on the other hand, you want to read and write in Italian, you should look for a different course or supplement this one.

Rating:
Summary: Tried and True
Review: I also used this system for a few days before leaving for Italy. I was often complemented in Italy on how authentic my accent was. My American friends even felt dependent on me to help them get around the city. You won't become completely fluent from this set but you will understand the building blocks of the language to which you can add your own life experience. After two months in Italy, I found myself having a full conversation in Italian with a native speaker, largely because of Pimsler. You'll also develop the ability to give automatic responses to Italian speakers early on, just like you do in your own language. Perhaps this is the best feature about Pimsler, no more blank stares while you sort through phrases in your head! The Italian on this system is easy to understand and beautiful to listen to. If you plan on spending a lot of time in Italy, it's probably worth the price.

Rating:
Summary: the best!
Review: I can't believe it, I'm only on the 4th lesson, and I've learned more italian than with any other program. This has inspired me to take actual Italian classes, just to learn to read and write it since speaking it is so easy! I was skeptical at first, so I made a small investment, but now, I'm buying the whole program. If I learned this much in a few lessons, imagine with an entire course!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Language Program
Review: I have just completed Pimsleur Italian I, and I must say its worked better than I expected. At 30 minutes a lesson, its easy to stay committed. And with each lesson you really learn something new.

Most of the critisism is valid however. I do recommend getting a book on Italian Verbs. It should help you understand the verbs better than you can just from the tapes.

More work could have been done to make it better for tourists, although I suspect its aimed more at the buisness traveler than American vacationers.

I would have also liked more nouns in the lessons. I have only bought hats a few times in my life. I can think of many nouns which are more useful. A suppliment CD with nouns presented in their Graduated Interval Recall technique would have been a really nice touch.

Still, I think this Pimsleur course has given me the confidence to use Italian (unlike my Chinese classes in school.) And I highly recommend them. They are expensive however. If you are doing it for buisness, have the buisness pay for it. If you are doing it for fun, check your local library. You could save a lot of money.

If you just want to play around with the language, I would recommend doing the Italian Steps program from the BBC. You won't learn nearly as much, but you won't spend as much either.

Rating:
Summary: Ridiculously expensive to teach a minimum of Italian.
Review: I have never understood why someone would pay $150.00 bucks to buy Pimsleur when the Teach Yourself Italian or Colloquial Italian series or Language 30 series for that matter would teach you more for $10 to $30 dollars. I guarantee that if you bought all three Pimsleur courses for $500 or so and learned all the material, you couldn't begin to carry on anything even approaching a very basic level of fluency. That's the illusion the "Pimsleur method" promises. It seems easy because it is. And why is it easy? Because it introduces minimum vocabulary, minimum grammar - in effect you avoid all the meaty stuff that you will need to speak the language beyond the most basic words and concepts. If you are a serious student, don't waste your money and get something that challenges you to learn what you need to learn. And if you just want to learn some simple phrases and touristy kind of stuff, buy something for $10 and save yourself a fistful of money.

Rating:
Summary: Most Language You Can Buy
Review: I was really surprised to see a negative review pulling down the rating for what I consider and excellent product. I felt the need to point our a few facts about the Pimsleur course, and why I consider it an excellent value.

One point which is immediately obvious, this product IS very expensive. However, I'd like to point out that this product maintains an excellent resale value, and unless you really want to keep it for continued use, you can regain most of your money later.

The second point, is simply that these CD's are worth the money, as offer more actual verbal practice than any program I've seen. Compare the 15 hours of conversation on Pimsleur with the 3 or so hours Living Language, you can see the benefit of this program. There is no better way to learn a language than speaking.

A third point is that the Pimsleur program is completely auditory. Although there are programs with similar ideas, again Pimsleur simply has more. This means you can actually do the program in your can without any books or visual aids.

As has been pointed out previously, there is almost no visual component to Pimsleur, and I highly recommend getting Living Language (which has a course book and dictionary) or another supplemental program like the Dummy's or Idiot's programs.

Good luck learning Italian!!

Rating:
Summary: Expensive, but superior to all others
Review: I've spend thousands of dollars on language learning aides over the years, and I have found that Pimsleur is the best by far. I'm amazed that the other programs I wasted money on even sell since they are so ineffective. I've purchased Spanish II,III, French I-III and Italian I-III and they are all equally good. I've bought almost every other advertised product out there, but none of those lessons are structured like these. The Pimsleur method focuses on speech, not reading or writing, however.

If you can afford them, you will find they work better than any other system you can buy for learning to speak a new language.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent series for learning languages
Review: Like most folks here who are serious about becoming fairly fluent in a foreign language, I spent many years in classrooms learning Spanish and still am not comfortable enough to hold a conversation with a native speaker nor can I understand it when spoken to, unless it's spoken very slowly. Thanks to books and the classroom, I'm very good at reading it, though. However, I'm only half way through the Pimsleur Italian 1 and feel I can already speak and understand it far better than Spanish! Yes, I plan on polishing my Spanish with Pimsleur too!

In order to prepare for an upcoming trip to Italy, I bought these CD's from a friend and spend the 30 minutes each day on a lesson. I personally feel it is important that when visiting a foreign country it's best to make an attempt to speak their language. You will be better received and hey, when in Rome, do like the Romans do, right? HINT: with the CD's, if you don't catch something (and this does happen), you will have to listen to the whole lesson all over again, so you might want to consider cassettes for greater flexibility. I hit "pause" when instructed to answer a question so I can construct my reply before the speaker blurbs out the answer.

I like Pimsleur's approach to learning a lesson by hearing it. We didn't learn our first words by reading books, did we? However, there is a downside to this approach if your hearing is as bad as mine! I would find it more helpful if any new vocabulary introduced in the verbal lesson was included in the reading part at the end of each lesson. As it stands now, the reading is only a list of words or phrases and are not translated so you don't know what you are saying, and they are not related to the material in the lesson. I'm sure this is done this way just to loosen your tongue, but there are words spoken in the verbal part of the lesson that I still have yet to comprehend. It took me 2 or 3 lessons to figure out that the word for "I" was io. I kept imagining that they were saying "eel" or "ee-ohw." It wasn't until I saw it on the reading for a later lesson that I figured it out. Now, I'm still trying to comprehend the word for "you would like." I can't find it anywhere. Guess I'll have to by a book on Italian verbs!