The Standard Deviants - Italian, The Basics - Nouns, Verbs & Adjectives

Rating:
Summary: Too much English, too few Italian dialogues
Review: This tape does a good job in thoroughly explaining some of the basic grammatical rules about Italian nouns and adjectives (how the endings must conform and the rest of it). But almost 80% of the time you see and an English speaker explaining the rules in English. There are just two short dialogues between two native Italians in the tape with poor voice quality. Most of the example Italian sentences are read by English speakers, sometimes with noticeable American accent. In short I think you don't learn much by watching the entire tape, one can summerize the vocabulary and the grammatical rules explained in this tape in just 3 or 4 pages.

Rating:
Summary: Helpful With the Details
Review: While this item by itself is unlikely to have you speaking Italian, it does provide quite a bit of important information. It has a lot more detail than "The Basics". For example, I appreciated the very detailed explantions of how to conjugate the various verbs. It's well organized, with a review at the end of each section, and the option of just playing through all the reviews without having to go through everything again. As a supplement to an overall course of study it provides plenty of information and reinforcement.

Rating:
Summary: Helpful With the Details
Review: While this item by itself is unlikely to have you speaking Italian, it does provide quite a bit of important information. It has a lot more detail than "The Basics". For example, I appreciated the very detailed explantions of how to conjugate the various verbs. It's well organized, with a review at the end of each section, and the option of just playing through all the reviews without having to go through everything again. As a supplement to an overall course of study it provides plenty of information and reinforcement.