Italian Language Learning Reviews

Score: 7/10

Pros:
audio exposure to spoken Italian with good number of dialogues & activities; grammar focuses on specific conversational structures & phrases relevant to lesson’s topic; involves you in conversation by asking you to think & participate; plenty of Italian to read without wordy explanations; pronunciation taught in an integrated way (as you listen to speakers); cultural notes; low price

Cons:
limited focus on pronunciation (for example, in the form of a pronunciation guide); pacing & organization of grammar topics is uneven; only rarely teaches general backbones of grammar, but when it does, expects you to memorize charts without much explanation; missing some beginning grammar (like the subjunctive)

For self-taught students learning to speak Italian on your own, Teach Yourself offers some of the least expensive book-audio “complete courses” you can buy. Teach Yourself Italian book and 2 CD set divides beginner’s Italian conversation and grammar into 25 themed lessons.

The lessons follow a standard format and organization for Teach Yourself courses (or, for that matter, most any book+audio conversational language course). Courses open with a dialogue (or three), usually accompanied by simple observation questions or certain remarks to help you understand each dialogue. Short-to-medium vocabulary lists also give English translations for new Italian vocabulary introduced in the dialogue.

After the dialogues, you’ll find explanations of grammar, which take up multiple pages and typically explain a specific conversational phrase or structure in Italian. Sometimes, the author takes on less specific topics such as verb conjugation in Italian (including verb tables). These explanations stay on topic and give a few examples, but there’s rarely a sense of flow, continuity, or building a linguistic skill set from one explanation to the next.

Practice exercises and a cultural note peppered with Italian words end each lesson. The exercises stay simple throughout the course: matching, fill in the blanks, answer observation questions.

The end of the book includes an appendix with answers to the activities, a short Italian-English and English-Italian glossary and a brief index.

The book lacks the typical Italian pronunciation guide in its opening pages. Also, although the themes of each lesson are well represented in the conversations, vocabulary and even grammar topics, some themes come across as generic for Italy, while other potentially viable ones are left out.

It’s hard to find a decent conversational Italian course at this price, and, for many, Teach Yourself Italian will get the job done for a low cost. I recommend that you spend some time considering more thorough courses, but this lesson book represents a strong (but imperfect) intersection of quality and price.

Score: 8/10

Pros:
plenty of exposure to Italian in the form of dialogues & conversational sentences; audio CD contains sounds for ALL Italian words & phrases in the course; teaches you to speak and write a good amount of beginner’s Italian; structure of the lessons keeps them short & focused; good pacing of increasingly difficult material; introduces grammar & pronunciation in context of conversation; audio made paramount with book following & accompanying the CD

Cons:
often learn phrases that aren’t part of basic daily conversation, especially in the beginning; have to stick with the program to see serious results; not a thorough approach to grammar & language structure; assimilating requires listen & repeat approach

Assimil Language Course: Italian With Ease introduces the Italian language to beginners in an audio-intensive course full of short lessons. Assimil is already well known in France for their language materials, and these lessons stand as an English adaptation of their earlier efforts. With this product, you purchase a book & 4 CDs intended to be used together throughout the course.

The course begins with a short introduction to pronunciation, with sections focusing on specific sounds and listing Italian words with that sound (words are always translated). All of these words are read aloud on the first CD.

After learning to pronounce basic Italian, you quickly move on to a series of lessons. Their structure is brief and consistent. The pages offer parallel text the whole way through, with Italian on the left page and translations on the right. The audio CD reads all of the Italian (everything on the left pages).

Each lesson focuses on a dialogue (or some sort of conversational text), which doesn’t always mimic the basic conversational language you expect to learn. Rather, you begin as a “passive” learner, listening to a half dozen or so simple sentences and reading very short notes. After this dialogue, you’ll complete very simple exercises (fill in the missing word, translate, or change the form of one word). Over time, the dialogues grow longer, and you’ll be exposed to more specifics, particularly with respect to grammar. Still, the focus always remains on the dialogues.

Hand-drawn cartoons with smart remarks in Italian appear every so often, adding a little spice to your study of the language. Appendix includes a bit of extra information, not much of interest (not answers to the exercises, which are found within the lessons). A short index of language topics helps you navigate the course, but there’s little to help you go back through the book and look up more specific information.

As a way to start speaking Italian, Assimil Italian with Ease builds a good base without letting explanations, cultural notes or grammar charts get in the way. The course maps out a series of dialogue-driven lessons that exposes you to the spoken language and maintains a consistent learning curve. You’ll need other books to study the nuts and bolts of grammar, and you’ll need something else if you’re looking to simulate real-life conversation.

Score: 8/10

Pros:
covers every major topic of beginner-intermediate Italian grammar; keeps explanations short & relevant; examples are easy to read, understand & correlate to the topics they highlight; typical but relevant exercises in each lesson; chapter theme ties dialogues, examples & vocabulary together; one set of audio CD/cassettes complements the book as you read, while another allows you to listen to lessons without the book; lots of audio exposure allowing you to hear nearly all the Italian in the book read out loud

Cons:
some lengthy vocabulary lists can burden the memory; course spends time on one-off topics (as specific as the present tense of bere) rather than covering top-level linguistic rules; especially on the audio-only set of CDs/tapes, you’ll have to rewind to give yourself time to process some info

With Ultimate Italian: Basic-Intermediate, Living Language offers a book and CD set to potential Italian learners. In 40 lessons, the course tackles Italian grammar, pronunciation, and conversation skills.

The course begins with an Italian pronunciation guide. This guide lists letters, gives an ad hoc English equivalent, and transliterates Italian examples (such as “neutro NEHOO-troh”). I found it fortunate and atypical that this transliteration system stays in the guide and doesn’t clutter the lessons. The CDs/cassettes do a more graceful job of guiding you to pronounce Italian natively.

The bulk of the book is made up of 40 lessons. Each lesson follows a set pattern: dialogo (dialogue), grammatica e suoi usi (grammar and its uses), vocabolario (vocabulary), esercizi (exercises), nota culturale (cultural note), chiave per gli esercizi (key to the exercises). Earlier chapters also include pronuncia (pronunciation) sections after the dialogues to teach you the intricacies of pronouncing Italian.

The dialogues involve roughly a dozen lines of conversational exchange between unknown individuals in expected social situations. Each dialogue appears in Italian first, then is translated into English.

The grammar sections that follow the dialogues tackle potentially difficult topics with short explanations and clear examples. This method supports inductive learners who will easily understand what’s going on and apply that knowledge to other situations. Boxes and tables also highlight key grammar patterns and paradigms. Most of these sections stick to grammar topics: verb tenses, pronoun cases, etc. Sometimes, grammar sections cover more functional topics like telling time or using certain idiomatic expressions.

As the course promises, you will cover a wide range of grammar and language use – including topics like superlatives, double object pronouns and the present & imperfect subjunctive.

After studying grammar, you’ll find a vocabulary list of about a page in length. I rarely recommend studying such lists out of context, but these lists at least repeat words found in the dialogue and grammar examples, which make for good reference.

Exercises are of the unimpressive but practical type. You’ll fill in the blanks, rewrite sentences with small changes, and translate into Italian. Although you’ll find these practice activities short (too short?), there’s often a strong connection between the material discussed in each chapter and the exercises.

Lessons end with a paragraph-long “nota culturale” (cultural note) along with answers to that lesson’s exercises. Cultural notes give typical travel-book-style snippets of info about Italian culture, society, history, regions of Italy. I found those that focus on practical institutions and daily life (like going to the grocery store or caffè) to be more helpful, but all merely scratch the surface.

A few appendixes round out the book’s offerings. The first presents two pages of vocabulary for countries, cities and languages. The second appendix summarizes Italian grammar, focusing on nouns, pronouns and adjectives. The third presents a fairly robust selection of regular and irregular verb charts, along with the auxiliary verbs “essere” and “avere”. The last appendix gives examples of letter writing to help with your formal written Italian.

A typical Italian-English & English-Italian vocabulary glossary ends the book. There’s a short reference index listing mostly grammar topics on the very last page, and, more important, a lengthy, detailed table of contents at the beginning. While not the most thoroughly cross-referenced manual, it helps you find what you’re after.

Living Language’s Ultimate Italian offers a compelling compromise between conversation-driven programs, replete with dialogues, exercises & examples, and a serious study of Italian grammar. The extensive audio accompaniment and reasonable price only serve to sweeten my recommendation.

Score: 8/10

Pros:
plentiful advanced readings in Italian; Italian language used for all instructions & examples; themed by region of Italy for a fuller picture of the country and the Italian language; plenty of exercises & activities related to the texts; can listen to “ascoltiamo!” sections online; grammar appendix does a great job of relating to readings & offering further exercises; uniquely, suggests further Italian internet resources in each chapter; glossary

Cons:
for later intermediate & advanced learners; primarily helps with reading & writing without making this focus clear; intended for classroom use (still mostly useful to individual learners); no index; price

Parola a te! presents itself as a journey through Italy’s multifarious regions in textbook form. At its heart, though, it’s an intermediate/advanced language reader, with reading comprehension selections along with questions and exercises that complement those readings.

In each chapter, you will learn about a different region of Italy. Readings – all in Italian – range from overviews of the society and culture of a region to perspectives on specific cities, people or aspects of Italian life (like cars). The depth of regional Italian culture gives the course a lot to draw from, but expect the readings to sound a bit “standard” (stale?) and newspaper/textbookish.

The interspersed exercises support students well as you read through the book. Some test your reading skills, others listening comprehension, some build vocabulary, and still others give you a sense of Italy’s immense diversity. From instructions to answers, these are all in Italian. Consistent prompts to work “in gruppi” suggest a classroom situation, whereas many of us are learning da solo.

An exceptional grammar appendix, the “appunti grammaticali”, links Italian grammar topics to each chapter, includes verb & pronoun tables, and offers additional exercises to test your understanding of each grammar point.

Unfortunately, you’ll find no index, but the table of contents is detailed enough to help you find specific readings. A short Italian-English vocabulary glossary will help with the readings, but you’re probably working with a good Italian dictionary at this point, right?

To be frank, the best way to learn (and conquer!) advanced Italian is to get out there, read and listen to things on your own. Still, for a structured, themed reading experience with activities and well-organized support, Parola a te! provides a good way to continue your Italian studies.

Score: 4/10

Pros:
modular formatting makes the structure of each lesson clear to students; at its best, presents acceptable dialogues, vocabulary & grammar topics; decent – albeit short and unenlightened – exercises, with an exercise key at the back; 20+ pages of cultural & tourist info regarding Italy in the book’s introduction; appendix with irregular verb charts (although missing some verb forms & even some common irregular verbs altogether); Italian-to-English glossary

Cons:
lack of an audio component limits the use of this kind of dialogue and vocabulary-driven course for beginners; long vocabulary lists; no index & uninformative table of contents; very uneven pacing of vocabulary & grammar material; missing essential grammar topics, conversational phrases & language functions more vital to a beginner’s success; dialogues not always relevant; explanations and examples don’t tie lessons together, often leaving learners in the dark; much better conversational courses with audio component available for purchase at only a slightly higher price

There are many Italian language lesson books crying out from the bookshelf, pleading with you to buy them. For the most part, you may notice that such coursebooks follow a standard formula: dialogue, vocabulary list, explanations of grammar & language topics, exercises. Few resources adhere to that more clearly than Hippocrene Beginners Series: Beginner’s Italian.

Uniquely, the author prefaces these lessons with more than twenty pages on Italian culture, history, art, economy, and practical information about travel to and around Italy. Then, after a very short introduction to pronunciation with an ad hoc transliteration system, the book turns its attention to the Italian language in ten routine lessons.

Every lesson begins with a one page dialogue in Italian. The next page, opposite the Italian, repeats the same dialogue in English. Turn the page, and you’ll find a two-column vocabulary list, usually a couple pages long. This is followed by a list of “locuzioni” (expressions, or phrases). Then there are exercises on the dialogue and vocabulary. Then, explanations of grammar and language functions. Finally, exercises dealing with the grammar and language topics. Note that each of these sections begins on a new page, which is among the cleanest formatting choices I’ve seen for this type of modular course.

The dialogues are fairly standard, ranging from stiffly informal to stuffily formal. While they manage to focus on material that is culturally relevant to Italy, you’ll often find yourself reading material you can’t imagine yourself hearing or saying in place of more crucial, basic language fundamental to everyday conversations. The accompanying vocabulary lists run long, making them hard to memorize for any particular purpose. What’s more, there are mistakes in the text of the dialogues. Further, the book comes with no CD or cassettes to perfect your pronunciation.

Explanations stay short and to the point. You’ll learn grammar topics randomly, and with no clear connection to the other material in the lesson, but you sometimes build on previous topics. Each topic gives a few explanatory sentences, interspersed with short Italian examples (with translations). You may find further vocabulary lists in the grammar sections, adding to the burden on your memory.

As you progress through the lessons, you cover fairly basic grammar material. You’ll deal with subject and object pronouns, nouns, present tense verbs, reflexive verbs, numbers, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions. Curiously, the tenth lesson panics, and throws pages of verb charts, along with information about irregular verbs, at you. Along the way, you’re offered minimal advice, sometimes even confusing advice, and left to figure a lot out for yourself.

The activities come in two types. The first reviews the dialogue material, asking you to “copy the text, read it aloud and translate it”, to make up Italian sentences using certain expressions, to translate a handful of phrases, and to memorize some phrases. The second set of exercises follows the grammar, and involves translating about ten sentences from English to Italian. All in all, the practice is conventional and short, but not bad.

There’s a key with answers to the exercises in the back, along with an appendix of some forms (often just the present indicative and preterite) of twenty irregular verbs, in lists with forms separated by commas and irregular forms underlined. The author also includes a ten page Italian-English vocabulary glossary.

The lack of an index and the meager table of contents means that you’ll have to flip through the book to deliberately find missing information.

Clearly, I’ve pointed out drawbacks to even the most positive components of these ten Italian lessons. That leads me to wrap up this review with a simple suggestion: self-taught students starting to learn to speak Italian should avoid Beginner’s Italian. It’s not a dire warning – this course isn’t that horrible, it’s just on the sour end of mediocre. Spend a bit more for a more favorable experience.

Score: 6/10

Pros:
deals with nearly every major grammar topic in beginning-intermediate Italian; engaging, informal, even funny text; explanations can be verbose, but rarely wander or distract – they stay focused; author intersperses Italian words in her explanations to ease transition to your new language; chapters combine grammar topics with everyday themes; extra notes give tips & info; multiple useful appendixes; glossary & index

Cons:
modest number of practice exercises in view of bulk of material presented; no audio CDs, tapes or sound files to help you pronounce the language; no dialogues, readings, or language immersion – focus on snippets of vocabulary and sentences; students looking for a conversation-based methods should consider this only as a supplement; long vocabulary lists without much context strain the memory; pronunciation key (transliteration) is the only pronunciation help you’ll get, and it’s mediocre

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Learning Italian approaches the Italian language with the series’ trademark casual humor, extensive musings & hand-holding, and scattered note boxes with tips and information. In many ways, the book is a standard, themed course in Italian grammar, but done in the Idiot’s style.

The first few chapters give you helpful tips for learning the language, understanding a bit more about Italian and Italy, an intro to the Italian alphabet, and cognates (words in common) between Italian and English. The ad hoc pronunciation key taught with the alphabet accompanies all new vocabulary words in the rest of the lessons. While it’s not too accurate, you will learn to pronounce, say, “abbastanza bene” as ah-bah-stahn-zah beh-neh.

That brings us to chapter five. From here on out, chapters are structured around grammar topics, paired with real-life themes (hence titles like “Using the Modal Verbs at l’Hotel“, “Buon Viaggio: Travel Terms and the Imperative”, and “Made in Italia: Using Object Pronouns and Shopping”).

Sections within chapters introduce concepts in explanatory paragraphs. Tables of vocabulary lists or grammatical forms are mixed with these explanations, and some explanations are highlighted by example sentences. The author peppers her lighthearted explanations with Italian words, which, like the example sentences, are in italics.

Simple exercises follow some sections, often involving filling in blanks with the correct form, although you’ll probably wish the book offered more chances to practice along the way. Answers to the exercises are found in the first appendix.

As well as skimping on the exercises, these lessons contain less in the way of conversational material. Dialogues are nonexistent, vocabulary lists are often presented without much context and with the expectation that you memorize lists of terms. In fact, the only fluent Italian you’ll read that’s relevant to the chapter themes is found in the sample sentences that complement grammar and language explanations.

The consistent use of notes is helpful, although some provide mild distractions when they stray from the topic at hand. Notes clarify or emphasize important language topics, offer further guidance or simply share musings about Italian.

One appendix lists regular and irregular verbs in a slightly crowded but fully-formed table. Another gives four pages of idiomatic expressions in Italian, and even some tongue twisters for fun. A third appendix summarizes non-verb grammar topics in charts, and the fourth lists pages of Italian synonyms.

At the very end, you’ll find a somewhat lengthy English-Italian and Italian-English vocabulary glossary, and a useful index of grammar, language and thematic topics (so you can look up things like verb tenses, idiomatic expressions or banking). The table of contents also fully spells out chapters, sections and subsections with their titles and page numbers. The only thing missing, especially for such a comparatively long Idiot’s Guide, is page numbers next to vocabulary words in the glossary.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Learning Italian certainly has some notable features, and a semi-unique style that characterizes the course. If you’re looking for a way to study Italian grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary, this isn’t a bad way to go. True beginners might find the course demanding at times and soft at others (unevenly paced), overabundant in vocabulary lists, and lacking in practice exercises, pronunciation, and conversation drills. Students more comfortable with more conversation-driven methods should look elsewhere.

Score: 7/10

Pros:
ten themed lessons introduce a good – but not overwhelming – selection of everyday, casual Italian slang; not too bawdy or over-the-top, keeping it useful & realistic; dialogues showcase both the idiomatic & literal translations of Italian slang; routine exercises allow you to practice words you learn; glossary lists vocab words with example sentences & Italian synonyms

Cons:
not for beginners – you’ll learn vocabulary, but dialogues & exercises expect you to have a working knowledge of the language; since Italian slang is very region specific, it’s hard to study the Italian slang; no index; extended lessons in vocabulary only; no hand holding for those who need explanations or insights; you have to send away separately for the cassettes

There’s a seedier, mischievous side to Italian language learning books – the kind of book that teaches you slang, street lingo and naughty words. Street Italian 1 falls in that camp, teaching you Italian slang vocabulary in a way that’s more readable than vocabulary lists, and still “cleaner”, less outrageous and more useful than other slang guides and phrasebooks available.

In ten lezioni (lessons), you’ll encounter a range of everyday dialogues, vocabulary explanations and practice exercises. I can’t emphasize enough that vocabulary is the whole focus here. You won’t read explanations of grammar or structure, only learn slang ways of saying things in Italian. Because of this focus, the book cannot be used as a beginner’s course in Italian.

Lessons start with a comical drawing, theme in slang (like Francesca ha una cotta per Giovanni) and a dialogue. Dialogues are repeated three times on three pages. The first page gives the dialogue in Italian, with slang words & phrases conveniently bold (like ha una cotta). The second page sets out a translation of the dialogue, with the bold words in colloquial English (so “ha una cotta” is rendered has a crush). The third translates the bold terms literally (in the above case, the Italian literally means has a baking).

The next section, at the heart of the lesson, lists the slang vocabulary terms & expressions in dictionary-style entries. These include part of speech info, example sentences with translations, Italian synonyms, and other ways to use the word in question.

Finally, lessons end with practice exercises. These have you fill in blanks, match, and choose the right word, and even complete crosswords and word searches. It’s nothing new, but the activities help reinforce the vocab from each lesson as you learn. There are also two review exams (for lessons 1-5 and 6-10).

The end of the book has answers to the activities and an Italian slang glossary. The glossary is formatted like the vocabulary sections in each lesson, including sample sentences, synonyms and notes. Unfortunately, page or, at the very least, lesson numbers aren’t referenced, which could have made for a good index.

If you already have some experience in formal Italian, Street Italian 1 will supplement your core vocabulary with some colorful, useful slang. On top of that, its way of presenting vocabulary in dialogues and examples places it among the better vocabulary-building recommendations I’ve come across.

Score: 8/10

Pros:
good pacing& use of old material to build understanding of new; lots of exposure to Italian through dialogues, readings & examples; solid coverage of most all beginner/intermediate Italian grammar; culture notes are relevant, focusing on language in context; well organized, methodical workbook & cassette tapes match the course text; extras include great introduction to Italian pronunciation, easy-to read regular & irregular verb tables; among the clearest and most approachable Italian language lesson books available to new students; very helpful, searchable table of contents & index

Cons:
intended for classroom use, so many readings don’t offer translation help; later instructions only in Italian; no answers to exercises (at least in this student edition); chapter/unit themes are mostly generic, sometimes failing to tie chapters together; modular presentation tough on students who get bogged down in parts; price

Basic Italian is one of those hardcover textbooks you might expect to see students use in an Italian language class. Since this site leans towards self-taught learners, keep in mind that you’re not this book’s intended audience. That said, as far as introductory Italian courses go, this one’s worth your consideration.

Over 400 pages hold thirty lessons covering a range of conversational topics. Each unit, and every section within units, has large-print titles and headers in blue, clear formatting throughout the body of the text, and pictures scattered across the pages to add visual appeal to the topics.

Units begin with dialogues or readings. These fit well with the generic nature of chapter themes. After reading, you’ll find a vocabulary list to study, compiled from words in the dialogues. “Note linguistiche e culturali” shed some light on Italian culture in a way that’s relevant to your language learning.

In each unit, a few pages treating grammar follow the reading/dialogue. Grammar topics are arranged into short, bullet-point-like paragraphs. A couple of sentences explain each point in English; below that are few Italian examples of the feature in use. The outline format reads clearly, but might prove too rigid for certain learners. Still, it’s fundamentally tied to the vocabulary and theme of each unit, giving some sense of a uniting thread.

Then, practice exercises (“esercizi”) put your skills to the test. Questions ask you to fill in blanks, translate, or arrange sentences to make sense. A second practice section, called “Come si dice?”, helps you express ideas in Italian, then apply those expressions to a variety of situations. Every few chapters, you’ll run into a review test, which works a lot like the exercises, as well as a longer prose reading with questions.

One appendix fully conjugates regular verbs, the auxiliary (“helping”) verbs avere & essere, and 50 irregular verbs in nine-column charts. A two way glossary of vocabulary words from the course and a clear index of grammar and conversation topics ends the book. A detailed table of contents, coupled with the index, makes the book a useful at-hand resource even after completion.

The thirteen page pronunciation guide in the introductory lesson is among the most descriptive and thorough I’ve found in any beginner’s Italian course book. Further, every irregularly stressed word in Italian has a small dot under the stressed vowel – and that’s true of all words in the book, from cover to cover.

I can find reasons for self-taught Italian students to choose another course: no answers to exercises, much use of Italian with few full translations, cost compared to cheaper Italian books. Still, if you’re looking to learn Italian with a book-and-audio method that deals with grammar and conversation, consider this highly recommended. If you can keep up with this book, and finish, you will “not only be able to survive in an Italian-speaking environment, but will also be able to understand and appreciate Italian culture and traditions” (from the preface).

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).

Score: 8/10

pros:
thematic, organized approach to conversation topics; the topics cover everyday life and travel; grammar presented in conversational context; plenty of exercises; formatting & style makes relevant text stand out; audio CDs (assuming you can find them!) offer chance to hear native speakers; explanations kept short, with focus on Italian words, dialogues & activities

cons:
spotty coverage of grammar, which only covers basics (especially of verbs); conversational approach requires you to listen & repeat what’s on the audio CDs – only written activities are at all interactive

Barron’s Learn Italian the Fast and Fun Way is a lesson course and workbook with eight themed units. All along the way, this book tries to engage you with writing activities, colorful drawings, learner-friendly highlighting and pronunciation help. You’ll tackle conversations, readings, explanations of grammar and exercises, you’ll listen to native Italian speakers on the audio CDs (or cassettes) that accompany the course, and you’ll even get a few extras.

This course describes itself as an activity kit, and each of the 29 lessons, spread across eight units, lives up to that description. Explanations are kept to a minimum. Italian words are clearly written in bold text, with boxes, lines and yellow highlights drawing your attention to key words and phrases.

Most of your new learning is done in dialogues (with new words highlighted yellow) or vocabulary lists (where words are accompanied by color cartoon illustrations). You’ll also find blue-tinted tables with grammar summaries, but these don’t get bogged down or lengthy. Every new Italian word has English-friendly pronunciation key written near it, like dieci DYEH-chee “ten”.

Apart from the vocabulary, dialogs and grammar, you’ll be completing activities. These will have you filling in blanks, matching words and even completing a few crossword puzzles. The nearly constant flow of exercises keeps the course fresh and engaging, even if it’s never innovative or immersive.

Now, how much Italian can you expect to learn? You’ll definitely cover a fair share of vocabulary – numbers, greetings, weather, time, as well as loads of phrases related to people, places and events. You’ll learn to talk about everyday activities like going to the store, the bank, ordering food, finding your way around town, and hotels and lodging. The situations are generic, and not overtly specific to Italy (apart from the inclusion of some city maps).

You’ll also learn a good deal of beginner grammar – nouns, articles, pronouns, adjectives and adverbs, and sentence structure. You’ll learn the present tense (‘does’) of regular and irregular Italian verbs, and the future (‘will do’) and conditional (‘would do’) of a few verbs. It’s a good foundation for further studies, but, since all of these are brought up at random moments in a conversational context, you won’t find the treatment of grammar routine or too methodical.

A final multiple choice review exam tests your knowledge of the language before you leave, and a set of yellow index cards with Italian vocab words on one side and translations on the other serve as a decent memory aide.

To top it off, you’ll get a short “dictionary” with the book, which is really just an Italian-English and English-Italian vocabulary glossary. You’ll also find the perforated yellow index cards I mentioned above as extras in the back of the book. It’s a shame there’s no vocabulary, phrase, or grammar index by topic, which would make it easier to come back to these lessons later. Still, the table of contents and your memory should help you reference what you need to here.

Make sure to look for a copy with the CD, and not the book alone, especially if you’re learning on your own. It helps you practice as you pronounce Italian out loud along with native speakers.

Learn Italian the Fast and Fun Way provides an active romp through beginning Italian. If you enjoy a conversational approach with a cartoony style and plenty of simple written activities along the way, this may be the Italian course for you.