Italian Language Learning Reviews

Score: 8/10

Pros:
lots of time with a teacher who explains the Italian language in English; plenty of audio snippets from various native Italian speakers help you pronounce phrases; solid pacing & organization of material in each lesson, as well as across lessons; spoken dialogues highlight phrases used in practical situations in Italy; focuses on the kind of language spoken in daily conversation; in grammar & structure presented in context; exercises refresh the phrases you learn in each lesson; cultural info integrated into lessons; extra audio exposure with CDs & MP3 files

Cons:
fairly passive apart from the simplistic fill-in-the-blank exercises & short speaking activities; too much face time with the onscreen tutor if you’re looking for an immersion program; lengthy English explanations of words, phrases & language use won’t work for all students; demands a good amount of memorization; price tag

Dissatisfied with other available language courses, the creators of Fluenz Italian offer a software product with on-screen instructor led video lessons, conversational phrases & dialogues, and typing & speaking activities.

The main feature of this Italian lesson course is its focus on one-on-one instruction. You’ll spend time wearing a headset or turning up your speakers as you first listen to everyday, believable Italian dialogues/street conversations. Then, you’ll watch a woman talk you through Italian words, phrases and language functions. These tutoring sessions focus on the sentences you hear in each dialogue, but do a solid job of integrating that material into a broader understanding of the language.

The lessons present Italian grammar in conversational context without shirking the structural foundation of the language. You’ll learn to ask useful questions, give meaningful answers and use real-life phrases from the outset. The course stays determinedly focused on its goal of teaching you the kind of Italian you’ll need for participating in everyday conversations. You’ll also learn relevant facts about life, culture and society in Italy, which, in the best cases, manages to parallel and even integrate the linguistic elements you’re learning.

Practice exercises involve various types of type-in-the-blank activities. You’ll do things like match English words and phrases with Italian vocabulary or type the Italian translation of an English phrase or listen to an audio file and type what it says in Italian. These work as well as they ever do, but they certainly can’t be called innovative or, I would argue, highly effective. Sometimes, you’ll have the opportunity to use your microphone as you record lines from a dialogue in your own voice, allowing you to compare your pronunciation to a fluent speakers’.

The entire package, in how it looks and how it works, shows a degree of polish. The smooth interface, stand-out videos and images, and even interaction between your tutor and the Italian words on the screen all testify to a tight performance. The modular organization of the lessons sets the learner’s expectations from the beginning, and the software adheres to this organization, keeping the course evenly paced.

Although some of my comments above sound like a mixed review, my experience of Fluenz Italian was mainly positive. Students who learn well with audio lessons like Pimsleur Italian or even the less thorough Michel Thomas Method Italian might benefit from the Fluenz way of learning to speak Italian.

Score: 8/10

Pros:
good coverage of basic phrases & conversational language; image-rich and multimedia-rich presentation; hear words and phrases spoken aloud, with a sense of how far you are from a native accent with speech recognition; helpful exercises connect ideas with words well, particularly for visual learners

Cons:
not quite the be-all-end-all of language learning; vocabulary-heavy; Italian grammar still left unclear; price

As I noticed when I reviewed this course for other languages, it’s hard to evaluate this product without reviewing the entire Rosetta Stone program, since Rosetta Stone: Italian is in some ways a copy of the same product for other languages.

Unlike audio-only methods, this course introduces writing (or reading) and speaking (or listening) simultaneously. It does this by associating written vocabulary words with their sound and with a variety of images. Exercises push Italian learners to complete those associations by choosing the picture that best answers a question in Italian, for instance. The program then attempts to seamlessly transition learners to grammar and sentence structure by incorporating vocabulary items into a larger framework without too much extra explanation that bogs down traditional grammar books.

The heavy reliance on vocabulary learning and secondary treatment of grammar leaves some tricky concepts unexplained. Image and phrase association/repetition works great for some types of visual learners, but auditory learners might prefer CD/cassette courses with less distractions. On the other hand, the speech recognition allows for better mimicking of repeated words and phrases, even though it fails to simulate interaction with a native Italian speaker.

Rosetta Stone has its share of followers and detractors. The method is heavily marketed and touted as highly acclaimed, which draws plenty of feedback and criticism. Many users and reviewers, myself included, don’t feel that the course is as perfect as it advertises. I have spent most of my life using language learning courses of all stripes, and this one isn’t the magic bullet.

Does this mean that the course isn’t worth the money? It certainly has a high price tag, but no higher than other immersion courses like Pimsleur Comprehensive Italian I, also rated and reviewed on this site. If you benefit from a colorful, multimedia-rich software package that teaches vocabulary and basic conversational skills, especially for learners with solid visual memory, you’ll find that the course offers a great language learning experience.

This course ultimately can’t do justice to the kind of realistic interaction and linguistic problem solving that best activate those language centers in your brain. But, in the end, it can do better than most at advancing beginning learners dedicated to progressing through the course to a solid understanding of Italian.

Score: 8/10

Pros:
this shortened version of the all-audio Pimsleur Italian lessons introduces the basics of spoken Italian directly; the strengths of the complete Pimsleur course are still relevant to this version

Cons:
audio only; in many ways starts you off & leaves you at the beginner level; drawbacks of full Pimsleur course apply here

Pimsleur Conversational Italian: Learn to Speak and Understand Italian repackages the first 16 lessons of their full course, Comprehensive Italian I. Over the course of several hours, you’ll immerse your ear in Italian with this program spanning 8 CDs worth of audio files.

The bulk of what I can say here about the audio explanations, examples and practice exercises you’ll be exposed to simply repeats my review of the full course. Read that review for a better sense of how the Pimsleur method works, as well as what kind of Italian language learning experience you can expect to get out of these “sessions” (lessons).

For students looking to speak a bit of Italian and get a sense of how words, phrases and basic sentences work, Conversational Italian offers a great audio introduction to the language. If you learn well with this highly acclaimed method, move on to the much more robust full version. I still recommend this shorter course for travelers, language enthusiasts and curious learners, as well as those not convinced that “the Pimsleur way” is the preferred way to learn Italian.

Score: 7/10

Pros:
the positive points about Pimsleur are relevant to this course; you get a sample of the Pimsleur method in eight lessons; you’ll learn some basic words and phrases for everyday use; the package comes MP3 files to play as you go as well as the standard audio CDs; a booklet helps you keep track of vocabulary and phrases as you learn

Cons:
any cons about Pimsluer apply here; these eight audio lessons are fairly basic; if you really want to learn to speak Italian through audio CDs, move up to the more complete Pimsleur courses

Pimsleur’s goItalian borrows the first 8 lessons from its comprehensive set, allowing beginning learners to get a taste of this audio-only program. Pimsleur has a history of paring down its full course into less expensive packages. The full course, Comprehensive Italian I, contains 32 lessons, and some of its lessons have been repackaged as the 16-lesson Conversational Italian and the 10-lesson Basic Italian. All of these courses start with the same lessons, the difference is how many lessons you get with your purchase.

Clearly, this eight-lesson program is the skimpiest offering yet – but a simple taste of Italian could be exactly what you’re after. If you’re new to the much-touted Pimsleur method, you’ll have a chance to see what it’s like. If you’re traveling and looking to learn just a bit of Italian, you can do that here. The MP3 files make on-the-go study a bit easier. Keep in mind that you’ll be pushed to speak and listen to Italian rather than read or write the language – it’s worth visiting my review of Pimsleur Comprehensive Italian I to learn more.

Score: 9/10

Pros:
solid way to get immersion-style exposure to the Italian language from native Italian speakers; the conversations are presented in short chunks for you to digest and make associations between words; lots of cues allow you to respond to questions directed at you; plenty of audio practice activities interspersed throughout each lesson; entirely devoted to teaching you how to speak and understand spoken Italian; lessons are really more like long audio exercises, consistently prompting you to think and participate in the language

Cons:
leaves a set amount of time for you to answer questions, which is crucial for the exercises, but those pauses won’t be long enough for some students; you won’t learn to read or write the language; if you’ve already had exposure to beginner Italian, best move up to Italian level II

Over the course of 30 lessons, Pimsleur’s Comprehensive Italian covers a lot of ground – from the meaning of words to the structure and grammar of the language – all in context of everyday Italian conversations. If you’re new to Pimsleur, you’ll notice that the method is entirely audio. I’ll explain what that means for you as a language learner.

Pimsleur provides a highly regarded method that’s somewhat different from the other language guides sitting on bookstore shelves. The biggest difference is the audio-only format of these Italian. The course includes a number of CDs, but no course book to complement them.

Books and writings aren’t something the Pimsleur method lacks, since its main goal is to teach you to speak and understand spoken Italian. Writing, both historically and linguistically, is secondary to spoken language. On those grounds, Pimsleur argues that their auditory course isn’t missing written text – if anything, it’s a more natural way to learn Italian.

The lessons engage Italian students directly. In many ways, they’re like one long audio exercise, and the narrator advises you to finish one each day. Every new lesson presents you with new words and phrases, while building on older ones. The lessons don’t go quickly, but spend time dealing with elements of the language. You’ll be consistently prompted with “How do you say …?” or “How do you ask…?”, instead of simply reading through dialogues and expecting you to follow along.

The speakers on the audio CD take the time to repeat new words and phrases. The speakers even break down tougher words and pronunciation points until you can pronounce words together to form longer sentences. You’ll find many pauses that give you time to repeat along and answer questions. Still, if you need time to think, you’ll have to backtrack by rewinding the CDs or tapes. That need is especially acute if you’re a slower auditory learner, or plan to multitask by listening to the course while driving or exercising.

By the end of Pimsleur Comprehensive Italian I, you’ll listen to longer conversations and participate in more complicated exercise drills. If you would like even more practice, Pimsleur offers you the opportunity to move up to Italian level 2 and level 3 courses.

Pimsleur also cuts these thirty lessons down to the first ten in Basic Italian and the first sixteen in Conversational Italian. Comprehensive Italian (don’t get confused – it’s the one reviewed on this page) allows you to progress more smoothly throughout all thirty lessons, and to build progressively and evenly on earlier material. You’ll tackle a wide range of conversations on dozens of everyday topics. More importantly, you’ll have many hours of exposure to spoken Italian under your belt – a huge head start wherever you plan to go from here.

It’s not easy to find such an immersive Italian course, especially if you’re an auditory learner, and you want to learn to speak Italian. At first, the price might seem too high. But know that this program is among the most effective approaches to speaking Italian available. If you’re looking to read and write the language, you can supplement this course with books about grammar, writing and pronunciation.