Rating: 
Summary: Great first Italian book.
Review: I really enjoyed Italian in 10 minutes a day. It is well laid out, and fun to study. A perfect introduction to learning Italian. After this book I can recommend Italian Made Simple, which will then take you through most of the Italian grammar.
Rating:
Summary: Great first Italian book.
Review: I really enjoyed Italian in 10 minutes a day. It is well laid out, and fun to study. A perfect introduction to learning Italian. After this book I can recommend Italian Made Simple, which will then take you through most of the Italian grammar.
Rating:
Summary: Best Value for basic language needs!
Review: I recommend this entire series (..."10 minutes a day") as the bestvalue you will find in learning a language at the basic level/. They are well done, technically excellent and the layout of the graphics and type add to the remarkable clarity this book brings to learning a new language.The content is a perfect mix of not only words and phrases but how to combine these so as to actually be useful while traveling as opposed to the boring and limited memorization techniques so frequently found in language texts. This will not make you "fluent" but will enable you to travel with confidence and communicate your neeeds without worry. This book is easy enough for children s well. My nine year old son easily completed the exercises and the material was not too difficult for him. I would make one recommendation as an adjunct to this book. Without exposure to native speakers it is somewhat difficult in regards to correct accent and pronounciation. I have bought and used many language tapes and found the "Pimsleur: tapes the best around. Even if you cannot afford the entire beginners set of 30 lessons on 15 tapes they now market an introductory set which is the first few tapes of the larger set and is priced at around twenty dollars here at Amazon. Even these few lessons will do wonders for giving you the exposure you need to speak more like a native. If you can afford the larger set go for it... this book is the perfect companion!
Rating: 
Summary: A great book to begin your Italian langauge studies
Review: If you have little or no knowledge of the Italian language, this book is a great place to start. It will take you through all of the basics and prepare you for further studies. However, it will not teach you everything you need to know about Italian. It's only a nice introduction to the language.
Rating:
Summary: OK, but flawed...
Review: It's always difficult to find the perfect "learn a little of the language before you go" book. This one's not bad; and I did learn what I needed to: "how do you get to ...", "where's the toilet?", "how much is it?" and other assorted phrases, as well as enough to understand at least part of the answers.
I did like the way the book presented pronunciations, and I'm pretty picky in that regard.
If you will be using the book ONLY before you go, and NOT as a resource while you're there, then this is a good buy for you. It's not a good carry-with resource, though, due to layoug and lack of index.
The stickers were a fun idea; if you are taking children with you, the stickers will really help your kids learn a few words as well.
Rating:
Summary: High School Student Preparing for a Vacation
Review: Last April I spent 10 days in Italy with my family. I am a language fanatic so I used the trip as an opportunity to try out a new language similar to two that I had already studied (French and Spanish). This book really helped me learn the basics of conversational Italian, without being bogged down by intense grammar sessions and cumbersome textbooks. It is arranged like a children's language book with pictures and workbook pages that really help you become interactive with your learning. Despite some reviewers, I enjoyed the fact that there were no tapes or CDs attached to this book. Listening to tapes for long stretches of time is, frankly, boring, and I know that I can just as easily fall asleep listening to tapes than actually learn the language. This book is fabulous for learning some Italian for a trip, but probably not for a long term study of the language. It is only an introduction and I know that I said I like the minimum amount of grammar in the book but a serious student would be stunted by those missing lessons. One more comment that I would like to add is that I did not have the recommended amount of time to study with this book before my trip. Nonetheless, I learned Italian that helped me be polite, but maybe not a stellar conversationalist. The people there (and I would guess just about anywhere) appreciate visitors attempts at the native language. It shows common courtesy and acknowledges that you are visiting them, and not vice versa. There is too much Anglophone superiority in our country and, no matter which book you choose, learning some Italian is really appreciated.
Rating:
Summary: Loved the stickers
Review: One of the "gimmicks" of this book is that it comes with stickers you can place on objects around your house, labeling them in Italian. It may sound silly, but it works. I will never forget what to call the door, the mirror, the cat (okay, he's not really wearing a sticker), or dozens of other common items around the house. Writing a word or phrase over and over again and repeating it out loud may seem like tedious exercises, but there is a reason why these kinds of drills are used in schools throughout the world. Writing and saying words is an effective way to reinforce them. The pronunciation guide is helpful, although its weakness is that it does not tell you which syllable gets the emphasis. This book is a terrific way to get started, but you will also need some kind of audio course, or a live teacher, to master the sound of spoken Italian.
Rating:
Summary: Fun and easy to use.
Review: The "10 minutes a day" books are a simple introduction in learning the basics of a foreign language. The layouts are in a workbook format that include puzzles, cut-out flash cards and sticky labels that you can place around your house to help you build your vocabulary. Easy to read, easy to follow and enjoyable. You'll build a vocabulary foundation that includes numbers, colors, how to tell time, the question words (who, what, when, where, how)and more. The simplicity of the books makes learning fun and you'll find your are spending more than 10 minutes. As a beginner in learning Italian myself, I paired this book with the Pimsleur Italian CD's. Reading vocabulary is one thing, but Pimsleur is really idea for comprehending how the language is spoken by native speakers.
Rating:
Summary: Fun and easy to use.
Review: The "10 minutes a day" books are a simple introduction in learning the basics of a foreign language. The layouts are in a workbook format that include puzzles, cut-out flash cards and sticky labels that you can place around your house to help you build your vocabulary. Easy to read, easy to follow and enjoyable. You'll build a vocabulary foundation that includes numbers, colors, how to tell time, the question words (who, what, when, where, how)and more. The simplicity of the books makes learning fun and you'll find your are spending more than 10 minutes. As a beginner in learning Italian myself, I paired this book with the Pimsleur Italian CD's. Reading vocabulary is one thing, but Pimsleur is really idea for comprehending how the language is spoken by native speakers.
Rating: 
Summary: Look Elsewhere
Review: The book makes every attempt to be fun and easy, but once you get past its kindergarten feel with multitudes of colorful pictures, large type, double spacing and clutter, you'll begin to notice its shortcomings. Most of the book consists of predominantly English text with Italian words substituted for some of the English words. Aside from giving the false impression that speaking Italian is just a matter of plugging Italian words into an English sentence, this practice gets very old very fast. You are introduced to the word "Lei" (singular polite version of "you") early in the book, and from that point on every single instance of "you" (and there are lots of them) is replaced with "Lei". The fact that pronouns are typically omitted in Italian emphasizes the inappropriateness of this approach. The book includes a pronunciation guide for Italian words. However, the pronunciation guide doesn't indicate the stressed syllable. Given that Italian is highly phonetic, and that stress is one of main unknowns in Italian pronunciation, this omission renders the pronunciation guide practically worthless. Don't bother trying to find the book's index in Amazon's "Look Inside". The book doesn't have an index. It does however have a page at the end plugging the author's other publications. I suppose it's a matter of priorities. For some reason the verb tables are missing the "tu" (singular informal "you") and "voi" (plural "you") conjugations. I am guessing an attempt at simplification is the reason, but as long as you are looking at a verb's root and five conjugations, would it kill you to look at a couple more? The book attempts to compensate for its lack of substance with a couple of gimmicks. On the bottom of most pages you'll find the so called free words. These are Italian words that are similar to their English counterparts. Well, you still have to remember the fact that a particular word is similar to an English word and the details of how it differs from the English word, so while you may argue that these words are in the low cost category, they are definitely not free. Further, some of the supposedly free words bear little resemblance to English. Would you have guessed that "scala" means "staircase"? You definitely need to cough up a few bucks for that one. Another gimmick consists of a few sets of stickers with Italian words on them with which you are meant to label common items. The idea is that as you encounter theses stickers every day, the words will be permanently imprinted in your memory. I wasn't sure where to put the "i jeans" sticker. The book suggests using your imagination. After using my imagination for a while, I imagined several better ways to build my vocabulary. I have a few introductory Italian books, and most of them are pretty good. This one doesn't deserve to share shelf space with any of the others. You can find much better alternatives for the same investment of time and money. I don't know where the glowing Amazon reviews came from. Friends and family come to mind.
| 
