Street Italian 1 : The Best of Italian Slang (Street Language)

Rating:
Summary: alright... for those who don't want TOO much accuracy...
Review: I bought this book just before I left for Italy, intending to learn some Italian slang so I wouldn't stick out too much as un americana. I'd never spoken Italian before, or studied it, so I figured, why not? I didn't touch the book until I was almost done with my three months, and when I picked it up to look at it, I was disappointed. Even though I'd only been studying Italian for a short period of time, I noticed that the translations weren't terribly accurate. They held the same general meaning, I guess, but left out a lot of the colour that the Italian version held. I can't vouch for the accuracy of the slang, unfortunately, though I can say that it may not be all it's cracked up to be. Italian as a standardized (I emphasize STANDARDIZED) language has only been around for about fifty years. Before that, people spoke i dialetti, dialects separate for each region, and a lot of slang is still only used in certain regions. But after saying that, the book is still decent for a (short) laugh and is probably useful enough if you have twenty bucks to burn in your wallet. I do recommend that you not get this if you're just starting out in Italian - save it for after you've studied for several years (or, if you're studying in Italy without speaking your native language, for several months). Comunque, in bocca a lupo a tutti chi stanno studiando la lingua bella!