Rating: 
Summary: Superior Product and Company--Bravo!
Review: This program--9 CD's, 3 each for levels 1-3 of basic Italian--is the best I've tried so far for learn-it-yourself language programs. (I've tried several, both audio and CD-rom.) I keep the CD's in my car, and, listening to them as I commute each day, have managed not only to refresh the Italian I studied in college, but also to add to my vocabulary. The focus is a bit travel-intensive for my particular tastes, but would be perfect for someone wanting to prepare for a trip. The lessons are sensibly laid out in a way that allows you to build confidence as you go (*and* they come with a travel case so you can brush up easily on the plane!). I recommend listening to one level all the way through a couple of times before moving on to the next one, as the dialogue tends to pick up speed substantially as you progress. ALSO, the manufacturing company's customer service is outstanding: I ended up with the same CD twice in my set, and they sent me the correct replacement CD with no problem or charges. Big cheer for Penton, Inc!
Rating:
Summary: Superior Product and Company--Bravo!
Review: This program--9 CD's, 3 each for levels 1-3 of basic Italian--is the best I've tried so far for learn-it-yourself language programs. (I've tried several, both audio and CD-rom.) I keep the CD's in my car, and, listening to them as I commute each day, have managed not only to refresh the Italian I studied in college, but also to add to my vocabulary. The focus is a bit travel-intensive for my particular tastes, but would be perfect for someone wanting to prepare for a trip. The lessons are sensibly laid out in a way that allows you to build confidence as you go (*and* they come with a travel case so you can brush up easily on the plane!). I recommend listening to one level all the way through a couple of times before moving on to the next one, as the dialogue tends to pick up speed substantially as you progress. ALSO, the manufacturing company's customer service is outstanding: I ended up with the same CD twice in my set, and they sent me the correct replacement CD with no problem or charges. Big cheer for Penton, Inc!
Rating: 
Summary: This was what I wanted
Review: This was exactly what I was looking for. None of that cutesy, irrelevant stuff found in some of the other audio courses. They say it in English, give you a chance to say it, then say it in Italian and give you a chance to repeat it, twice. The words and phrases are things you might actually want to say, with an emphasis on travel-related vocabulary. The only drawback is that the English is spoken by a man whose voice is more clear than the woman who speaks the Italian. There are times when she speaks too quickly or too softly. They should have traded places. Overall, though, this is very helpful. I have it running in my car everywhere I go.
Rating: 
Summary: unexpected problem
Review: This will not pertain to most people, but I'd purchased this hoping to listen on headphones while walking to work. Unfortunately I can't do this, since the English speech comes out of the left channel and Italian comes out of the right. Not normally a problem, but I'm deaf in my left ear. It's an unusual case, but makes the product totally unusable for me...
Rating:
Summary: unexpected problem
Review: This will not pertain to most people, but I'd purchased this hoping to listen on headphones while walking to work. Unfortunately I can't do this, since the English speech comes out of the left channel and Italian comes out of the right. Not normally a problem, but I'm deaf in my left ear. It's an unusual case, but makes the product totally unusable for me...
Rating: 
Summary: Cosi Cosi (So-So)
Review: Well, it definitely isn't as good as the Pimsleur language programs. I was amused to see the advertisement on some of the packages that showed Pimsleur more expensive when cost per word was compared. Yep, Pimsleur costs maybe nine times more and is worth every penny.
The differences are many. The design of the Pimsleur series is superior to this one. It does take longer to learn the same amount of material because Pimsleur repeats it over and over. They use conversations and the concepts of "Graduated Interval Recall" and the "Principle of Anticipation". The first concept just means that the time between repetitions is increased as you learn. If the item is repeated before the memory decays, the length of time you remember increases. Then, before it is forgotten, the item is repeated again, thus shifting the word or phrase from short term into long term memory. They've timed the average memory decay time to ensure the repetition occurs prior to the loss of the target word or phrase. In contrast, each phrase in "Learn in your car" is repeated twice, then you go on to the next word or phrase. In Pimsleur, the repetitions are more frequent, and are found in the context of various conversations.
The quality of Pimsleurs recordings are superior. The recording equipment was better. Furthermore, I dislike having the speakers on "Learn in your car" in only one ear or the other. This seems to be an odd use of stereo recording, and not conducive to clarity. Also, the Italian speakers in "Learn in your car" don't speak as clearly as they should.
Can you learn some Italian from these recordings? Certainly. I guess you'd just have to make up your own conversations and turn the non sequiturs into something meaningful. You'd also need to play them over and over and over...
I would not have minded seeing the transcript of the Pimsleur lessons in a book. But, as Pimsleur reminds us, their method was especially designed to learn to speak without the necessity for a book. They succeed at their goal completely. I can't say the same for "Learn in your car".
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