Behind the Wheel Italian (6 CD Course)

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Summary: Thank You for Teaching Me Italian
Review: A word of thanks to a group that really knows how to make foreign language courses for the masses. I'm an average guy with no language background who always wanted to speak Italian.
Behind the Wheel Italian is so intelligently structured that despite my obvious lack of natural language learning experience and talent, I still learned to speak the language reasonably well in a very short period of time.
I would recommend this course to anyone who really wants to be 100% certain that they will learn to speak and to understand a significant amount of practical Italian without the hassle.
I'm telling you that this course is easy to use and hits the bullseye when it comes to using this stuff in real life situations.

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Summary: Buy This Well Made Course !! It Really Works !!
Review: At the risk of sounding crude, I am annoyed at people who launch attacks at a fine, well produced product like Behind the Wheel Italian, who don't even know how to spell.
That said, let me get on with why I love this course. It is obvious that it is professionally produced because much of it was recorded in 1993 when digital computer recording was not available for the most part. I bought my first Language Dynamics Italian course in 1993, it was cassette
of course and the label gave the name of the studio in which it was recorded.
Once again, the package (which is innocent because it is excellent) is attacked and the content (which is outstanding) is ignored.
Now, on to the content. To sum it up briefly, IT REALLY WORKS.
This method is simple, fast and very user friendly. It gets you really speaking Italian without even noticing HOW you're doing it.
It actually teaches you how to speak Italian like you learned English as a child.

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Summary: Best on the Market !!
Review: I am a bit of a renegade when it comes to learning languages. I guess I just expect to get what I pay for and truly appreciate a 'no nonsense' approach.
I returned a Berlitz course the other day because I couldn't understand what the native speakers on the tape were saying. That's when a friend recommended 'Behind the Wheel Italian' to me. I bought the course and I'm glad I did.
The approach is truly original and very effective at teaching you to speak and understand Italian. Nobody else even comes close to this. There is an English translation for everything on the CDs so you never have to guess. The method is so simple that even my 6 year old is learning to speak Italian with me.

Rating:
Summary: Best on the Market !!
Review: I am a bit of a renegade when it comes to learning languages. I guess I just expect to get what I pay for and truly appreciate a 'no nonsense' approach.
I returned a Berlitz course the other day because I couldn't understand what the native speakers on the tape were saying. That's when a friend recommended 'Behind the Wheel Italian' to me. I bought the course and I'm glad I did.
The approach is truly original and very effective at teaching you to speak and understand Italian. Nobody else even comes close to this. There is an English translation for everything on the CDs so you never have to guess. The method is so simple that even my 6 year old is learning to speak Italian with me.

Rating:
Summary: I know how to count.
Review: I can only review three of the discs because the remainder were defective and had repeated areas of skipping. One of the "good" discs had 54 seconds of dead air space at the beginning of the disc. A good portion of the discs (too much actually) concentrates on counting. Many references are out of date and irrelevant (how you convert from Francs to Lira? who cares, - there are no more Francs or lira....) Mr. Frobose discusses a few examples of words that have similar roots and sounds in Italian and English as a way to accelerate the learning of many words. However after this brief mention, he never expands on this idea. If he had given the listener a bunch of these words, he may have hit on a theme for a set of discs that satisfy.

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Summary: Excellent Course for Travellers
Review: I first checked out this course at my local library. What a fantastic method. It is truly designed for travellers and people who are actually planning to actually go to Italy and really speak the language there with natives. They start out with basic words and phrases such as 'Where' or 'How' and then evolve to How much is this? How many are there... .Where is the bathroom.? 'Waiter, the check please.' etc ... The course is excellent at building off of previous material. I have managed to learn to speak a great deal of Italian while tied up in traffic and even at the gym or while jogging. Now I can say 'The menu please' and 'Where is the train station'. and understand the answers when they're given to me. Even more important, I can express my personal likes and dislikes and carry on basic conversations in Italian. I'm looking forward to a level 2 version of this course because it is so much better than the Berlitz, Pimsleur and Learn in Your Car Italian courses I have tried and returned.

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Summary: Made Speaking Italian Simple and Fast
Review: I first learned about Behind the Wheel language courses from a TV program in New York called 'Good Day New York'. As part of the segment, Fox 5 showed copies of a few of the Behind the Wheel Series which included Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Chinese, Arabic and Italian.
When I saw the Italian, I ordered it right away from Amazon and I'm glad I did. This course really made speaking Italian a reality for me. I just couldn't (and still can't) believe that I have learned this much Italian in so little time.
I am of Italian descent and have a 'Nonna' (grandmother) who barely speaks English. Now that I have had this course for just a few weeks I am actually able to talk to her in a meaningful way.
Bottom Line: A real bargain. Easy to learn from and gets you speaking the real Italian language right away so that the natives understand you. Impressive.

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Summary: Thank You Language Dynamics for Behind the Wheel Italian
Review: I really enjoyed learning Italian with Behind the Wheel Italian. This professionally produced course took all the pain out of learning a foreign language for me. It was so easy. And I speak a lot more Italian now that a lot of my friends who have travelled to Italy and who have even taken a few Italian courses in college.
The course is designed to teach you a foreign language naturally like you learned English as a child.
I know from experience that compared to Pimsleur, Beriltz, Living Language, Michel Thomas, that this course has them all beat in terms of speed and simplicity.

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Summary: Best on the Market * Fast and Simple
Review: I really enjoyed learning Italian with Behind the Wheel Italian. This professionally produced course took all the pain out of learning a foreign language for me. It was so easy. And I speak a lot more Italian now that a lot of my friends who have travelled to Italy and who have even taken a few Italian courses in college.
The course is designed to teach you a foreign language naturally like you learned English as a child.
I know from experience that compared to Pimsleur, Beriltz, Living Language, Michel Thomas, that this course has them all beat in terms of speed and simplicity.

Rating:
Summary: Thank You for Teaching Me Italian
Review: I've been using Behind The Wheel Italian for 3 weeks and it's amazing how effective it is. The course starts with a handful of basic verbs that can be combined to form a wide array of sentences (e.g. "I want to sleep" and "She can't talk on the phone") and then expands to include useful phrases, numbers, days of the week, etc. By the end of the course you'll own more complex phrases such as "I brought three big suitcases full of clothes just for this vacation."
The narrator and Italian speaker are very clear and the lessons progress at the perfect pace, including moderate introduction of new material as well as periodic repitition of words and phrases previously learned. The method requires very little effort -- simply repeat along with the CD and before you know it you're rattling off Italian sentences naturally.
Unfortunately the CDs are not broken into separate tracks, which makes it more difficult to return to where you left off. Also, you'll want to obtain a book on Italian to develop at least a basic foundation for reading and writing the words you learn. That said, Behind The Wheel Italian is a great way to go -- time and money well spent.