Italian With Michel Thomas

Rating:
Summary: Maximum Fun with Minimum Hassle
Review: When I purchased this set of CD's, I was skeptical. "Yeah, sure I can learn Italian without drills, writing, homework or memorizing," I thought -- buying it mostly to prove the claims wrong. But I have to say, I was most pleasantly surprised. Learning Italian with Michel Thomas is fun, and it has given me the confidence to try to speak when I visit Italy. Thomas focuses on having you USE the language, reasoning out how to say things using the building blocks he gives you, and by doing this you learn the structure of the language. His focus is primarily on verbs, with a few adjectives and very few nouns. He is very encouraging as he helps the students on the CD (and you) think through how to use the language. I have logged on to Italian websites, motivated by what I have learned, and discover that I can make out some of the content even though there is nothing to read in Thomas' system. The CD's won't make you fluent, but will give you a solid basis either for conversing on a trip or delving further into learning the language. The best part is that I am having so much fun, I don't want to stop to do other things I have to do. The only downside I can see is that I would like to have more adjectives and nouns -- but the structure provides a good foundation for learning adjectives and noun in other ways and gives you enough language to make yourself understood now.