Score: 7/10

pros:
rather natural presentation of vocabulary, conversation and grammar; warm, inviting style & tone; covers a lot of beginning grammar; can hear dialogues read out loud on the compact disc; exercises complement the dialogues & explanations; space to write answers to exercises in the book, allowing it to double as a workbook; good pacing & sense of progression; price

cons:
some students will find the constant presence of author’s explanations too long and distracting; dialogs & sentences aren’t always translated, making it hard to follow at times; grammar buffs will complain that this course doesn’t touch on some intermediate grammar points (like subjunctive verbs); audio just good for dialogues

Living Language’s 30 Days to Great Italian is one of many crash courses in beginner’s Italian conversation, vocabulary and grammar sitting on the reference shelf of your local bookstore. It takes a warm, quirky tone as it talks you through beginning and early intermediate points of the language. So, if you have thirty days or more to learn Italian, what will this course do for you?

The introduction clearly explains how to use the course, and what to expect from each lesson. It helps you pace yourself, and then moves on to pronunciation.

The pronunciation guide presents Italian vowels and consonants in the context of Italian words. You’re given English “sound-alikes” for each word (so you’re asked to pronounce calzolaio as “kahl-tsoh-LAH-yoh”), but, fortunately, this typical – yet cumbersome – transcription system doesn’t leak into the main lessons.

Lessons have bullet points that list what you’ll learn in the chapter, warm-up activities, “HEAR…SAY” dialogues, and a back-and-forth interplay between 1) explanations of grammar and language functions (including many examples) and 2) practice activities. The practice exercises match the material you find in the dialogues and explanations, and are typically of the ‘question & answer’ or ‘fill in the blank’ variety.

Explanations may be too long-winded or intentionally cheeky for some learners. The attempted (or, at times, genuine) wittiness is reminiscent of the Idiot’s Guides or For Dummies series in its lighthearted informality. Explanations are plentiful – in stark contrast to a course I just reviewed & recommended the other day. Notes about Italy, Italians or Italian culture, about grammar, dialect differences, or everyday lingo take up as much space as Italian language material – verb charts, words and sample sentences.

The formatting is clear and comes off as polished and organized. Chapter and section titles stand out bold and clear. Tables with grammatical info read easily. Italian examples are given in bold italic text with English translations below or beside them (but not all words & phrases are translated!). The order of presentation of themes and topics could be called into question, but they at least struck me as relevant to Italy.

The end of each lesson lists answers to exercises in “crib notes”. The lively chapter and section titles don’t always clarify what you’ll find in a given lesson, but a nice index of grammar and conversation topics at the back of the book makes up for it.

The book ends with an appendix of Italian grammar and verb charts, which are quick and handy refreshers or shortcuts when you need them. You’ll also see a few pages with useful phrases and genuine “sound like an Italian” filler words.

30 Days to Great Italian fails to offer much that’s not found in other conversational language course books. Still, its thorough coverage, good organization, light tone and overall balance should appeal to self-taught learners looking for a good Italian lesson book at a low price. However, I do NOT recommend this book and CD package if you can’t handle lengthy, casual explanations that talk you through the language (as if your own informal tutor or teacher wrote the book).