Complete Italian: The Basics

by Living Language Staff, Lorraine-Marie Gatto, Living Language

Learn to speak Italian quickly and easily with Living Language. Complete Italian: The Basics teaches conversational Italian using a simple and effective method, and it includes everything you need to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400021413
• ISBN13: 9781400021413
• Release Date: June 2005
• Publisher: Living Language
• Length: 278 Pages
• Weight: 0.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.3" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful learning resource

This has proven to be a most helpful resource for mastering colloquial Italian. I work as a priest in a parish with many elderly Italian parishiners, many of whom speak little or no English. What a blessing to have a language package that I can listen to in the car and read and review at home. It has helped me communicate with and understand Italians in a way no other audio course has.

Language Starts With Sound

I just migrated my version of "Complete Italian" from cassette to CD, so I pretty much knew what I was getting: the confidence that I would be able to "hear it right" and "say it right" when I return to Italy. I have tried several foreign language products and find that what works for me is one that begins right with saying the alphabet and the basic sounds that are the building blocks of spoken language. I also am more comfortable with the learning approach that requires me to concentrate on listening and seeing the written word at the same time. Learning another language has never been easy for me but I have done well with this series. Travel is my motivator and I am content with acquiring enough phrases to be courteous, book rooms, order a wide variety of foods and trade a few basic observations on what I am finding to be of interest in the country. This book-audio set gives me a fine start. The spoken exercises are clearly presented and I can pick up details of ennunciation of natural conversation. There is a good amount of space for my repetition of the instructor's models. I don't expect mastery from the first go round: spending time with a language is the key to learning some of it for me. It is agreeable to spend that time with these exercises. No one basic course can be "all things" in meeting an individual's language learning needs. I always supplement courses from this provider with more exercises (such as provided in the "...For Dummies" series and I get a Marlings Menu Master or a food dictionary and work out the messages I might want to communicate in advance of leaving. But the whole process begins with a Living Language Product such as this one.

a great start for serious learners

Language learning from zero has never been easy. i am about finish this basic pack. without any knowledge of Italian before, i can pickup some paragraphs in Bell' Italia (a magazine can be found at some newsstands) with some help from the included dictionary. this set is not really for driving-learning. because the CD has no English. for me, who had no idea of Italian before, the learning is not piece of cake. There is no rush hour killing time stuff works for me. By putting effort seriously on this book about 30 minutes everyday, I saw the result at the end of this book. So, I think if you seriously want to learn Italian, this is a great start kit. If throwing out couple of sentences in exotic flavor from time to time is your goal, go for those CD only packages.

Lack of time to take a course in class? Look no further!

I always wanted to speak another language. Although I am bilingual, fluent to Spanish, Italian was my next goal. Since is similar to Spanish, I wasnt too hard for me to learn. But some words in Italian I had no idea what it meant or how to say it, but with this item it made it much easier to learn and to follow. I will take a class next semester, but if you dont have the time to do so, then I stronly recommend this coursebook/cd...All I need is SOMEONE to practice so I can get more confident. Of all course books outhere that I reviewed and actually opened to read them, this one was the best one for me.