Rating: 
Summary: Baby steps
Review: After reading a very favorable review of Barron's Mastering Spanish I decided to give this one a try. Unfortunately the bookstore I went to didn't have it so I bought one that seemed similar, I got through about two lessons before I gave up. It was too hard! Finally I broke down and bought this course and it was worth it. The course takes you through the tiniest steps so it doesn't seem like much work at all, but by the time you're done you've got a lot of knowledge of the language.
Rating:
Summary: Baby steps
Review: After reading a very favorable review of Barron's Mastering Spanish I decided to give this one a try. Unfortunately the bookstore I went to didn't have it so I bought one that seemed similar, I got through about two lessons before I gave up. It was too hard! Finally I broke down and bought this course and it was worth it. The course takes you through the tiniest steps so it doesn't seem like much work at all, but by the time you're done you've got a lot of knowledge of the language.
Rating: 
Summary: The Worst Language Course I've Ever Partially Gotten Through
Review: As other reviewers have described, this course is absolutely nonsensical. Neverending drill of obscure distinctions of pronunciation seems to be the point. I was about to throw the course away, when I gave it instead to my daughter to take to her school's used book sale. I later felt sorry for the poor fool who got stuck with it. Also, the accompanying book is poorly produced. Buy Pimsleur instead of this bomb, and actually learn to speak Italian. Buona fortuna!
Rating: 
Summary: solid introduction to spoken Italian
Review: Having been through much of this course, I was surprised to read some of the negative comments. I suspect these opinions may relate to wanting a quick result easily, rather than building an in depth comfort with the language. Much of the course is built around pronunciation, as it should be. Too many courses give only grammar or vocabulary. This one forces you to evaluate your speech and pronunciation of the sound, resulting in more accurate responses. You actually learn to know how to spell unknown words in Italian and to hear subtle differences which change the meanings of words. While this course does not go far enough with the language (I gave 4 stars because there is no level 2 or 3), it does provide the solid base you need to proceed in Italian. Italian is not that easy to pronounce correctly. As I continue to study Italian, I have no doubt that I do so with a much better foundation than other courses offer. Without a live teacher to correct your errors, attention to these details and much repetition are essential. You may then move on to courses with more of the vocabulary and grammar desired with less concern over the basics of pronunciation.
Rating: 
Summary: A good course if you have never studied any foreign language
Review: I read the other review, and would agree with it in priniciple. I have studied 7 languages and am fairly adept at figuring out how to pronounce letters and variant sounds in another language. My wife on the other hand is a novice. We are taking the course together, just so we will progress at the same level. She needs all the pronounciation drills to hear and say the nuances of Italian. So for the absolute beginner, with no experience in the field, this approach is likely just what you need. By the way, we are in our mid 40's, if younger, we could probably use another method better. I like to learn with grammar and vocabulary lists as a basis myself, but that is how I have always learned languages.
Rating:
Summary: Look elsewhere for Italian instruction.
Review: I took this course and I found it virtually worthless as an instructional tool. The author seems solely bent upon teaching pronunciation alone and goes really overboard when explaining how this or that is pronounced. Hundreds of pages and many tapes are spent drilling in the ideosyncracies of the Italian language as it is pronounced. These are things one would digest as a natural part of the learning process. Italian is one of the easiest languages to pronounce anyway. The course doesn't have many drills or repetitive exercises nor does it offer extensive grammer information. Everything a beginning speaker would need to have just a basic conversational level by the end of the course is missing. Incidentally, both the German and French versions of this series are excellent. I don't know how they could have missed the boat on this one.
Rating:
Summary: Arg! Pronunciation will drive you crazy.
Review: I will sell you mine for 1/2 price.Even if you are just at a beginner in italian, this course will drive you insane. If you make it though the first 2 tapes you are a saint. Save your money (or buy my copy), get Michel Thomas's CDs or Pimsleur (if you are serious about learning italian). This goes way beyond what is needed in pronunciation...unless you want to specialize in only pronunciation :-)
Rating:
Summary: A Horrible Italian book
Review: Out of all the Italian books I got this one is the worst. It only focuses mainly on Italian pronunciation, which besides Spanish and Esperanto, is the easiest language to pronounce. Almost the whole book is dedicated to perfecting your Italian pronunciation to no help. The book has too many symbols for pronouncing every word just as a native would when real pronunciation is natural and flows in to place. Some books do a better job with pronunciation on two pages rather than hundreds. Grammar is poorly shown and explained and rather based on memorizing sentences. If you want to learn a Italian, which is a fairly simple language, buy living language books or hugo. ... If you can visit Italy and immerse yourself in Italian studies. Good Luck!!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: This is a best begginer's course you can buy.
Review: The most fundamental aspect of verbal communication is pronouncing the words correctly. This sounds like it should go without saying, but it doesn't. Try walking around less touristed areas of Italy incorrectly pronouncing your phrasebook Italian. You might as well be talking Chinese. Believe me I have been there. This course is a bit tedious at times and it is hard. But guess what? So is learning a foreign language as an adult. This course is the best I have ever used and I have used alot. It teaches the begginer what he or she absolutely has to know to learn to really communicate verbally in Italian. You will not finish this course speaking like a native, but it gives you the foundation you must have to improve your Italian.
Rating:
Summary: Promising concept, but should be revised and updated...
Review: There are 2 major drawbacks to this course... Firstly, a large part of the course revolves around the learning and recognition of pronunciation-related technical terms (accents, inflections, tones, ect.) which can be tedious to some. Secondly, the actual language instruction (grammer, vocabulary, ect.) really doesn't go beyond a certain beginner's level despite the size of the book and large amount of recorded material on the cassetts. While the premise behind this type of instruction is unique and forseeably effective, I wish this course could have been designed in a better way. Most language courses begin with a general pronunciation guide then devote the rest to learning new phrases or grammer rules as well as hearing the target language spoken. This course instead begins with a foundation of phonetic sounds and learing their technical terms... and then being tested on them until later in the course when those same terms are used to teach Italian words and phrases and to recognize their meaning. A typical sequence in this course is to listen to an Italian phrase and then to answer which type of inflection was used, and in turn, to deduce the meaning of the phrase based on this. Like I said, this is a unique way of approaching language instruction, but in this case the langauge instruction doesn't go far enough. The drills in the book and on the tapes can be useful to beginners, but I don't see them being too useful for the intermediate or advanced student. A note about the pronunciation drills presented early on: a previous review stated that Italian is very easy to learn to pronounce and therefore the pronunciation drills shouldn't have been as long or tedious. This may be true for some people who have a good ear for picking up new sounds in a language and easlity reproducing them exactly. But in my experience, Italian is the language most people think they can pronounce perfectly but actually can't. This is because on the surface it doesn't look as difficult as many other more complex languages, but slight variations in tone and accent can really lead to miscommunication. I've found this to be true especially with travelers relying solely on phrase books and tapes (as well speakers of other romance languages who use the pronunciation and inflection from that language for Italian words), many times they still aren't understood when traveling to Italian cities despite using the correct phrases. Non-native speakers usually don't pick up the subleties, but the locals will. Attention to these little details in sounds DO make a huge difference. For the most part, being understood in a general sense isn't difficult to achieve. But if the goal is total fluency with no accent, then that takes specific practice and knowledge of the phonetic sounds like the ones presented in this course (however boring it may be). So the tedious pronunciation drills are a necessary evil for many beginners and should not be underestimated. Although the later drills can serve as a refresher course to keep sharp, the end result falls short of expectations.
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