Mastering Italian

Rating:
Summary: Barrons Moron Italian
Review: After two years of hard fought effort, I was still floundering around unable to speak italian. This program promises much more than it delivers. For example, the end of chapter sentences arent recorded . So there is no way to check your progress. compared to Transparent Language which brings you to speaking advanced levels in only a few weeks, this just barely takes you any place. Too bad, because I wasted SO much time getting very little out of it. I sincerely hope poeple will look elsewhere for italian instruction. CIAO!

Rating:
Summary: Ugly but thorough.
Review: The instruction in this course, particularly in the beginning, borders on the awful. It makes learning Italian much harder than it needs to be. The use of phonetic symbols, albeit relatively infrequent, was totally unnecessary. On the plus side there is a lot of audio (15 CDs) and the course is very thorough in teaching pronunciation. Living Language and Pimsleur offer better instruction but far less audio. "Mastering Italian" is also fairly decent as a stand-alone course. Purchase this course only if you are patient and want to slowly be walked through learning Italian. It does get easier the further you progress. After completing this course you'll know more Italian than you would have with other comparably priced courses but may wonder if it would have been more worthwhile to have shelled out the additional money for other courses and not have had to struggled so much. Since this course had been developed for diplomats it is intended for serious students of the language. Tourists wanting to learn Italian should go with Berlitz or some of the other phrasebook-type audio courses for travelers. The CDs are not suitable for use while driving and are designed to be used simultaneously with the textbook.

"Mastering Italian" diverges quite a bit from the usual audio-lingual format found in Barron's "Mastering French," "Mastering German," or "Mastering Korean" series. It has less emphasis on drills and more on the technical aspects of pronunciation (e.g. tongue flaps, intonation patterns, etc). The Pimsleur courses totally ignore these technical aspects yet are far more effective in teaching natural pronunciation. This is an ugly course but it clears the hurdle for three stars because it is very thorough.

Rating:
Summary: Mastering Italian
Review: To cut to the chase, of all the many language teaching aids I've used - tapes, CD's, videos - this is the most boring, most confusing, and least effective. That it is also extremely expensive merely adds insult to injury.

This set seems based on two propositions, which are almost oxymoronic: that the student has a completely tin ear for languages, and that a welter of technical linguistic symbology will make up for that little problem. It doesn't work. Among other defects there is no interactive capability although the material is obsessed with the most subtle distinctions in pronounciation. The student (with the tin ear) has no way to check how he's sounding.

Most purchasers of a language set are hoping to learn how to order a meal, get a room, get around town, maybe shop a little, and show the natives that he cares enough to try their language. This set misses that emphasis almost completely. I have never had the need to ask for a yoke of oxen in any language or country!

In place of this set I strongly recommend a CD based program which is interactive, of which several are available. You'll still have money left over for several operas!

Rating:
Summary: Mastering Italian
Review: To cut to the chase, of all the many language teaching aids I've used - tapes, CD's, videos - this is the most boring, most confusing, and least effective. That it is also extremely expensive merely adds insult to injury.

This set seems based on two propositions, which are almost oxymoronic: that the student has a completely tin ear for languages, and that a welter of technical linguistic symbology will make up for that little problem. It doesn't work. Among other defects there is no interactive capability although the material is obsessed with the most subtle distinctions in pronounciation. The student (with the tin ear) has no way to check how he's sounding.

Most purchasers of a language set are hoping to learn how to order a meal, get a room, get around town, maybe shop a little, and show the natives that he cares enough to try their language. This set misses that emphasis almost completely. I have never had the need to ask for a yoke of oxen in any language or country!

In place of this set I strongly recommend a CD based program which is interactive, of which several are available. You'll still have money left over for several operas!

Rating:
Summary: For serious learners only.
Review: What the previous reviewer failed to realize is that this set isn't meant to be for someone who just wants to "learn how to order a meal, get a room, get around town, maybe shop a little". There are plenty of other products that will do that for you (in far less than 15 CDs). This is for someone who wants to learn to speak the langauge fluently.

Learning a language fluently doesn't mean memorizing specific phrases. It means learning pronunciation, sentence structure, how to conjugate verbs, etc.

Yes, this series deals with a lot of pronunciation. In fact most of the first three or so CDs is pronunciation. But if you're trying to speak fluently and they can't even understand what word you're tryign to say, whats the point? The initial pronunciation lessons seemed a little silly at the time, but in hindsight, I now realize that they were quite important.

Once again, if you're just looking to ask where the bathroom is or learn how to check into a hotel, go elsewhere. You can find one or two CD sets that will do that. If you want to actually learn the language, this is a great set (if you can afford it).

Rating:
Summary: For serious learners only.
Review: What the previous reviewer failed to realize is that this set isn't meant to be for someone who just wants to "learn how to order a meal, get a room, get around town, maybe shop a little". There are plenty of other products that will do that for you (in far less than 15 CDs). This is for someone who wants to learn to speak the langauge fluently.

Learning a language fluently doesn't mean memorizing specific phrases. It means learning pronunciation, sentence structure, how to conjugate verbs, etc.

Yes, this series deals with a lot of pronunciation. In fact most of the first three or so CDs is pronunciation. But if you're trying to speak fluently and they can't even understand what word you're tryign to say, whats the point? The initial pronunciation lessons seemed a little silly at the time, but in hindsight, I now realize that they were quite important.

Once again, if you're just looking to ask where the bathroom is or learn how to check into a hotel, go elsewhere. You can find one or two CD sets that will do that. If you want to actually learn the language, this is a great set (if you can afford it).

Rating:
Summary: For serious learners only.
Review: What the previous reviewer failed to realize is that this set isn't meant to be for someone who just wants to "learn how to order a meal, get a room, get around town, maybe shop a little". There are plenty of other products that will do that for you (in far less than 15 CDs). This is for someone who wants to learn to speak the langauge fluently.

Learning a language fluently doesn't mean memorizing specific phrases. It means learning pronunciation, sentence structure, how to conjugate verbs, etc.

Yes, this series deals with a lot of pronunciation. In fact most of the first three or so CDs is pronunciation. But if you're trying to speak fluently and they can't even understand what word you're tryign to say, whats the point? The initial pronunciation lessons seemed a little silly at the time, but in hindsight, I now realize that they were quite important.

Once again, if you're just looking to ask where the bathroom is or learn how to check into a hotel, go elsewhere. You can find one or two CD sets that will do that. If you want to actually learn the language, this is a great set (if you can afford it).