Italian Language Learning Reviews

Score: 5/10

Pros:
a selection of funny (but few potentially relevant) Italian phrases for travelers; some amusing remarks about the cuisine, culture, and people of Italy; good for a laugh in Italian; ad hoc pronunciation given with every entry; very inexpensive

Cons:
limited selection of phrases compared to robust travel phrasebooks; nearly all phrases included are too over-the-top for daily use; more of a joke book than a resource that helps you learn Italian

In its organization and presentation, this thin, pocket-sized, 64-page book doesn’t stand out among other phrasebooks for foreign travelers to Italy. Its content is what sets Wicked Italian apart. The illustrations and spicy, parody-driven humor place it alongside books like Dirty Italian: Everyday Slang and Berlitz Hide This Italian Book.

Eight sections cover humorous words and phrases allowing you to curse, romance, lie to policemen, complain about taxi drivers, even confess to an Italian priest. Most phrases are akin to “tuo padre è un pollo” (Tomb’s translation of “your father is as smart as a chicken”) or “Lui si è attaccato alla bottiglia dell’olio d’oliva” (“he started drinking the olive oil straight”). A relative few of the book’s phrases are practical to the extent that you’ll actually consider using them in a conversation.

Wicked Italian includes snippets about Italian culture, but these are equally light, sarcastic and fail to take their information seriously. This attitude is highlighted by cartoon drawings scattered throughout the book’s pages.

stands out as a fun little phrase booklet that gives readers a good chuckle, perhaps something to share with fellow Italian learners. Although it does use real Italian, and reference life events dear to real Italians, the book always focuses on the joke rather than any learning objectives. As such, you won’t be surprised to find it in the humor section of your local bookstore.

Score: 8/10

pros:
fairly well organized; great coverage of wide range of themes & situations; helpfully relevant to Italy; color-coded sections & blue Italian text make searches quick; intro to basic Italian grammar & Italian-English-Italian glossaries; nice extras include sample travel requests to send via e-mail, questions to ask, pics of gestures; although some of the culture notes are generic & boring, others offer useful tips & info

cons:
some of the vocabulary gets too detailed too fast and won’t help many readers; would have liked to see more robust coverage of basic Italian, including more examples in the grammar section cross-referenced with vocabulary lists; glossary could have doubled as an index to quickly find specific words, but page numbers are missing

Barron’s Traveler’s Language Guide: Italian is in many ways a typical phrasebook affair, helping you translate your travel thoughts and needs into Italian. But what it does that is typical, it does well, and even manages to squeeze in some nice extras to make the purchase worth your while.

Like other travel phrase books, this one’s divided into themed sections. Topics include shopping, sightseeing, health, accommodations, on the move, interpersonal matters (thanks, introductions, preferences and small talk) and the all-important “gastronomy (culinary customs)”.

The side tab of each right page is color-coded to one of these topics, and vocabulary list headings share that same color. In other words, it’s easy to locate your desired topic just by flipping the pages.

Vocabulary translations set out the English text in black and Italian in blue. Sample sentences are in bold, with English on top and Italian in blue directly below. Cultural, social and historical notes occur regularly throughout the text, and read as expected.

A brief, approachable introduction to Italian grammar will help beginners make sense of the language. The Italian-English and English-Italian vocab glossaries make for nice, short little dictionaries in a pinch. All of these can be found at the back of the book. The front of the book has a very short pronunciation chart, useful abbreviations and general tips about Italy.

As mentioned, a few extras stand out. The “travel preparations” topic gives sample Italian e-mails you can send to ask Italians about booking a hotel room or renting a car. There are also questions to ask about lodging, what’s included, cost, etc. The “interpersonal matters” includes two pages of color photos demonstrating the basics of Italian body language.

I’ve seen phrasebooks with more vocabulary, or ones that do a better job of organizing topics, or ones that offer an index, or ones that… Sure, in many ways, the Traveler’s Language Guide: Italian is typical. For its extras and its good coverage of the basics, I don’t find it hard to recommend. Travelers looking for more vocabulary could pair this alongside word-building books like Must-Know Italian. These two recommendations together give you an expansive arsenal of topical Italian vocabulary. That’s enough to handle most any situation.

Score: 6/10

pros:
themed lists of thousands upon thousands of Italian words & phrases; good variety of topics; solid organization; can help students beef up vocab & tourists complement their travel phrasebooks; vocabulary lists included are up-to-date and pertinent

cons:
no index, no way to look up specific words!; must-know tips offer stingy and random advice about Italian grammar and culture; not basic enough for a phrase book, yet not organized like a dictionary; some more detail or info about certain entries is needed (such as the way dictionaries use key terms); no pronunciation help & no indication of how to pronounce any of these words

Daniella Gobetti’s Must-Know Italian: 4,000 Words that Give You the Power to Communicate is a compendium of words and phrases sorted by topic. This book’s format almost makes it a large Italian phrasebook, or an extensive themed vocabulary list. With that in mind, let’s see how it might help you learn the language.

The introduction explains how the book functions, and how to read each vocabulary entry. In each list of words, the author marks false friends with FF, includes definite articles with nouns, and gives verbal prepositions in brackets (like “occuparsi [di]“).

The book is divided into twelve chapters. Each chapter has an overarching theme, like “A Place to Live”, “Education” or “People and Relationships”. Within each chapter, sections tackle more specific topics, and these sections are dominated by word/phrase lists. “People and Relationships” has sections like “Physical Descriptions” (listing parts of the body) and “Family Relations” (I’ll let you guess what kind of words you’ll learn there…).

The word lists themselves take up the majority of the book. This is a reference guide with translations of Italian and English vocabulary, and no explanations or handholding.

These lists have two columns – English text on the left, Italian translation on the right. All the Italian words are bold, making them easy to spot. Here’s a sample pulled from page 82:

As you can see, words are the main focus, while phrases using certain words are secondary and given in italics beneath the word used.

Short, gray “Must Know Tip” boxes add some language and even culture advice, but they’re scattered and limited in appearance and scope.

The end of the book has a nice bonus: over 40 pages of exercises. While they’re mostly fill-in-the blank and multiple choice questions, these practice activities are numbered to correspond to the twelve chapters in the book. After that, you’ll find answers to the exercises.

Although the six-page table of contents lists every topic and subtopic in the book, it’s frustrating that this volume lacks any sort of index or cross-referencing of any kind. The back cover proclaims that “your search for the right word in Italian is over”. That’s only true if you can guess which words are organized into which categories/topics. There’s no way to search for specific words here.

If you’re a later beginner or intermediate student looking to expand your base in Italian vocabulary, Must-Know Italian has some word smarts for you. It’s well organized and covers a variety of topics, but it’s not without its faults. You’ll be better off if you come to this book looking to expand your ability to talk about certain topics, rather than searching for specific words and phrases.

A second group to benefit from this book, perhaps unintentionally, is the semi-informed business traveler or leisure tourist. If you’re planning a trip to Italy, and have some basic knowledge of Italian (or plan to buy simpler phrase books to back you up), this vocab builder could act as a great, robust conversation enhancer. It’s organized by theme, just like your average phrasebook, so it’s a worthy recommendation for your travels to Italy as well.

Score: 5/10

pros:
exposure to some simple Italian words & phrases; manages to include a decent number of phrases; audio CD complements phrase book by reading every phrase aloud; some travelers may find the extras mildly useful (intro & pronunciation guide); good reference index allows you to look up key words in a pinch

cons:
only covers absolute basic survival Italian; grammar and culture notes at end are just distractions; not a course, really a phrasebook with audio; pronunciation key is rough, so you’ll need to imitate speakers on audio CD to be better understood; I question the inclusion of certain phrases, as well as others that are missing, with respect to Italy

Although Berlitz’ Language/30 series Italian: Start Speaking Today! markets itself as a language course, it’s really an audio CD and booklet full of basic phrases. In other words, expect to get some exposure to survival sentences here, not a method for learning to speak Italian. For travelers, not for dedicated students.

The small, 50 page phrase book and audio CDs or cassette tapes go hand-in-hand here. You can listen to the phrases as you read along in the booklet.

The booklet starts with a simple introduction to pronunciation. The two-page pronunciation guide lists Italian letters, similar sounds in English (like “ee” for the Italian vowel “i”), and gives a sample Italian word using that letter. This phonetic transcription is key here, since you’ll see it alongside every single phrase in the book. When you learn to say ho fame “I’m hungry”, you’ll be told to pronounce it “oh fa-meh”.

The rest of the book divides phrases into seven topics across forty pages. Every page manages to cover about ten phrases, give or take, with variations. Phrases are divided by horizontal bars, and have three parts (in three columns): English, pronunciation key, and italiano. All of this can clutter pages – practicality outweighs looks, I suppose.

The phrase book and CD include phrases dealing with many helpful topics, from transportation and emergencies to time, seasons, hotels and food & drink. The booklet even lists CD track numbers for each section, making it easier to follow along.

The book ends with two mildly informative pages on Italian culture and social customs, and even throws in a two and a half page summary of Italian grammar. You’ll really need other resources to understand either one.

There’s a vocabulary index in English at the end, with reference page numbers, with allows you to track down words like “ambulance” or “beer” in a hurry.

Language/30 Italian: Start Speaking Today only meets the needs of a tourist looking for the most basic coverage of survival Italian, or curious individuals who want to learn a few phrases in the language. To anyone else, I’d recommend that you keep looking. There must be better travel phrase books out there, for example. The booklet and audio complement each other nicely, but the material they cover is nothing special.