Rating: 
Summary: Needs MORE familiar (tu) conjugations
Review: I disagree with the previous reviewer on one point...many people buying this product certainly will be using it to speak with Italian friends, or to spend more than just a few days or weeks in Italy. Even at this rudimentary level, it's important to learn the second personal singular informal forms, which are used more than perhaps you might think in everyday usage. (Believe or not after speaking for a short while with someone in a social situation in Italy, it's not uncommon to ask the equivalent of "can I use the "tu" form with you?".) Italians are also rather forgiving with foreigners trying to learn their native tongue, and I think the situation of having to use the "Lei" form with close friends seems more awkward than using the "tu" form with strangers (who will be impressed you're able to say anything at all). Other than that this is a pretty good way to learn a language (yes, a short grammar guide/word list would have been awesome). I recommend "Italian Verb Drills" and "Teach Yourself Italian"-- which is this cute if antiquated book (replace all the "egli" and "essa" with "lui" and "lei" if you're trying to learn how to speak). For vocabulary, do the Vocabulearn series. Do get a grammar book, it helps with the prepositions etc. which can be tricky.
Rating: 
Summary: A Very Convenient Way to Learn Italian
Review: I do a lot of driving around and I feel I am making good use of my time. I don't have experience with other tapes, but the Pimsleur method seems good. One point that I would like to make is that you must listen to the tapes many times to really grasp what you have learned. Some lessons that involve conjugating in the past tense must be repeated over and over to catch the verb tenses. I use 501 Italian verbs as a point of reference, which I think is necessary to get the whole picture of what Pimsluer is teaching. This is the third foreign language that I have learned. At the stage of life I am at (kids, carpools) sitting in a classroom is out of the question. I consider Pimsleur a good way of learning, but I do agree that it lacks tourist situations. However I feel I have gained the tools to figure out what I need to know when I return to Italy.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Convenient Way to Learn Italian
Review: I do a lot of driving around and I feel I am making good use of my time. I don't have experience with other tapes, but the Pimsleur method seems good. One point that I would like to make is that you must listen to the tapes many times to really grasp what you have learned. Some lessons that involve conjugating in the past tense must be repeated over and over to catch the verb tenses. I use 501 Italian verbs as a point of reference, which I think is necessary to get the whole picture of what Pimsluer is teaching. This is the third foreign language that I have learned. At the stage of life I am at (kids, carpools) sitting in a classroom is out of the question. I consider Pimsleur a good way of learning, but I do agree that it lacks tourist situations. However I feel I have gained the tools to figure out what I need to know when I return to Italy.
Rating:
Summary: Needs MORE familiar (tu) conjugations
Review: I have used Pimsler for both Italian and French to the II level. The formats are identical. They're easy to listen to driving back and forth to work, especially if your trip happens to be 30 minutes each way. The Pimsler method of repetition and reinforcement seems to work well enough, but it doesn't leave you with a vocabulary suited to tourism. You get a good sense or "feel" for how the language is spoken; you get essential verbs but not a very extensive vocabulary. I really felt there was an excessive emphasis on "familiar" (use only to friends, relatives, small children) verb forms. Nobody who uses this course will end up "conversational" in the sense that they'll be pleasantly chatting with Italian friends. So the familiar verb forms are not likely to be anything a tourist or businessman will either hear or speak. Those situations will necessarily call for "formal" verb forms. My daughter is taking advanced level Italian language courses at the University of Colorado, and she states that familiar verb forms are barely mentioned, because they aren't useful to someone at that level of proficiency. I'm a tourist with foreseeable needs in Italy like making my way around airports, train stations, markets and museums, renting a hotel room or car, ordering in a restaurant and forth. At the end of Italian II, I should have a vocabulary and dialogues at least minimally suited for those kinds of purposes, but I don't. The course has no "tourist" vocabulary or outlook at all. The focus is more on things like playing tennis with "friends" and other improbable "familiar" situations that are essentially useless to someone focused on traveling. But I'm buying Italian III anyway because I've come this far with the Pimsler system and it seems to work with the above limitations. If you're planning to use this course to prepare for travel in Italy, you should also carry a Rough Guide dictionary phrasebood ("Italian - A Rough Guide Phrasebood," ...) available through Amazon. It contains "dialogues" more relevant to the traveler, which you can readily adopt after completing Pimsler Italian II.
Rating:
Summary: Needs Better Tourist Orientation
Review: I have used Pimsler for both Italian and French to the II level. The formats are identical. They're easy to listen to driving back and forth to work, especially if your trip happens to be 30 minutes each way. The Pimsler method of repetition and reinforcement seems to work well enough, but it doesn't leave you with a vocabulary suited to tourism. You get a good sense or "feel" for how the language is spoken; you get essential verbs but not a very extensive vocabulary. I really felt there was an excessive emphasis on "familiar" (use only to friends, relatives, small children) verb forms. Nobody who uses this course will end up "conversational" in the sense that they'll be pleasantly chatting with Italian friends. So the familiar verb forms are not likely to be anything a tourist or businessman will either hear or speak. Those situations will necessarily call for "formal" verb forms. My daughter is taking advanced level Italian language courses at the University of Colorado, and she states that familiar verb forms are barely mentioned, because they aren't useful to someone at that level of proficiency. I'm a tourist with foreseeable needs in Italy like making my way around airports, train stations, markets and museums, renting a hotel room or car, ordering in a restaurant and forth. At the end of Italian II, I should have a vocabulary and dialogues at least minimally suited for those kinds of purposes, but I don't. The course has no "tourist" vocabulary or outlook at all. The focus is more on things like playing tennis with "friends" and other improbable "familiar" situations that are essentially useless to someone focused on traveling. But I'm buying Italian III anyway because I've come this far with the Pimsler system and it seems to work with the above limitations. If you're planning to use this course to prepare for travel in Italy, you should also carry a Rough Guide dictionary phrasebood ("Italian - A Rough Guide Phrasebood," ...) available through Amazon. It contains "dialogues" more relevant to the traveler, which you can readily adopt after completing Pimsler Italian II.
Rating:
Summary: fun and easy, and it works!
Review: I just finished my first year in college, and as I had a summer off, I decided I wanted to learn Italian so I can go to Italy next summer. I found Pimsleur to be absolutely perfect for mastering an accent, and making the language come natrually. I can say many things with ease now, and never doubt my accent or usage. I would suggest supplementing it with a grammar book so you will actually be fluent. I used Italian step-by-step by Berlitz. This is the perfect combination if you are SERIOUS about learning Italian. The Berlitz book is hard to stick with, but it is very thorough, and if you are disciplined, the two work together to make you very comfortable in Italian. Since I am a visual learner, it helps a lot to know what words I'm saying with Pimsleur, instead of just memorizing the sounds and having no idea how to write it. I'm just starting level III Italian, and I'm very excited, because I'm learning now in conversation the things I learned from the book a couple weeks ago. This has proved to be a perfect combination for me. I can't wait to start Pimsleur Spanish!
Rating:
Summary: a few tips
Review: I'm currently using Pimsleur to learn Japanese and Cantonese, and I'm thrilled with my progress. Pimsleur has a truly effective system for learning language painlessly and effectively. I've noticed, though, that on many Pimsleur reviews here on Amazon, people say they needed to listen to each tape 2-5 times before they felt they knew the material. Fortunately, that's not necessary. Here's how to make equal progress on just one listening: Each time you're prompted to come up with an answer on your own, *stop the tape* and give yourself time to think before you get interrupted by the soundtrack. If the tape gives you the answer before you've come up with an answer yourself, you haven't learned anything (. . .)
Rating:
Summary: Language Tapes That Really Teach You the Language
Review: I've been in love with the Pimsleur Method since my first discovery of a four-tape set, and have gone on to master (more or less!) Levels I and II. Not only is this the easiest and most enjoyable method I've discovered, and one which really trains you to listen and respond at a normal conversational rate, but having just come back from nine days in Italy, I can say that it works! I had no difficulty making myself understood and feeling confident in most casual settings, even communicating with people who spoke no English at all, and received many compliments on my accent. In fact, I can hardly wait to progress to Level III - and then to tackle more languages! My only quarrel is with the scarcity of written material, other than a few brief reading exercises not directly related to the lessons. I understand it prevents the student from using written words as a crutch, but there are times when it would be nice to confirm what you're hearing - and not to visualize a word as written one way, only to have to unlearn it later when you find out your mental spelling is all wrong. However, compared to the thrill of mastering a foreign language while having this much fun, it's a minor quibble!
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: Ok. Pimsleur II won't get you very far, is expensive as hell, and is somewhat cumbersome to work with. So the rest of this review will be about how in hell did I get to giving it five stars. There are several ways to go about when wanting to learn a language in an audio-only manner. You can get the "Learn in your car" from Penton Overseas. You can get the audio-only course from Living Language. Or you can take Pimsleur. From the lot, Pimsleur would be the ONLY decent answer for the utter beginner, and Pimsleur II will advance you to an intermediate level in the best way. You'll simply remember everything you learned. With the other options, you will find yourself replaying the tapes a couple of times. Does any language course that is a self learning course worth this kind of money? No. That's why we have the next paragraph. Money. First of all, by all means get it used. It is an audio course that I recommend going through only once. So if you're lucky enough to find a CD version used, it will be exactly the same (of course - assuming that the seller is decent enough to sell unscratched CD-s). As for used audio cassettes, well, as much as we want to hear the correct pronounciation, we have to remember - this is not Mozart, it is only recorded speech. However even if you don't find it used, you can buy it, and after completing the course, sell it as used. As this is suitable for first time learning, and is too much for review purposes (perhaps the other audio-only courses will be better for review). One last thing. Usability. I'll talk technology, but it's essential here. When I bought the heavy package, the first thing I've done was to move it to MP3. So then I had the entire audio collection on a single CD. In such a way you take a single disc to your car, play it with a mobile MP3 player, and stock the valuable course in your closet for backup. In that way, when you finish with the course, the originals stay in a good enough state to be sold as used. However, if you won't convert to MP3, the need to each time take another cassette/CD to your car would be a serious drawback, since storing the entire course in your car doesn't sound as a sensible alternative to me. To wrap it up, buy it, MP3 it, learn it, sell it.
Rating:
Summary: Pimsleur II - a continuation of the BEST !!
Review: Pimsleur II will begin to take you beyond the very basics of Italian conversation. By no means will you be fluent; but if forced, you will be able to converse in a manner that natives will begin to understand. While level I introduces you with a solid foundation, Level II begins to add some weight to your Italian language skills. When I completed Level II, I felt much more confident in my approach to Italian conversation. To provide the reader with an English equivalent - Level I brings you to this level of fluency: "Excuse me, my name is Tom. Where is the road to Rome? On the left, and straight ahead? Thanks so much!" Of course there is a bit more fluency than that, but that is about the level of conversation you can expect to be comfortable with. In level II, however, you will be brought to the following level of conversational skill: "Hi Mary! How are you? Do you know what time the department stores close today? I want to buy something for my daughter. I'm leaving Rome in a week. I really like it here in Rome. I went to the Vatican today, and now I need to go buy something for my oldest daughter." Again, that is a sample- you will have more fluency than that. If you're considering Pimsleur II, you probably already know that this method is one that doesn't rely on books, other than some very minor reading, which is less than 5% of the course. The Pimsleur method gets you familiar with the language, and has a unique way of getting you to think in the language. You will find yourself automatically responding to the oral cues, which is truly encouraging! This means you're learning- and not memorizing! I found that spacing my lessons apart helped my comprehension greatly. Instead of repeating a lesson immediately that I did not feel totally comfortable with, I put the Cd away and repated the lesson again the next day. I found in doing this, things came much more naturally and easily (rather than straining to master 1 lesson each day). Some of the lessons are very easy (1 session), while others will require 2, 3, or rarely 4 sessions. The majority took me 2 attempts before I felt satisfied with my progress. I spent about 75-80 days on this level. (Including an occasion day off about every 5-6 days) You certainly pay more for Pimsleur- but I assure you, if you want to be more than a tourist in vocabulary and command of Italian language, this is an enjoyable and rewarding investment. Consider listening to Italian radio on the internet, watching Italian movies subtitled into English, and trying out Italian chat rooms. It is also extremely valuable to learn the basics (the bare basics) of Italian vocabulary before you jump into this Italian language quest. I have found this to be a tremendous advantage in combination with the Pimsleur method. Happy learning!
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