Pimsleur Italian Basic Course - Level 1 Lessons 1-10 CD: Learn to Speak and Understand Italian with Pimsleur Language Programs

My husband and I are learning together and it's fun for an upcoming trip to Italy. Basic conversation, multiple disk, we have listen in the car, but prefer our office. Great way to learn if you prefer to hear it, disk are not visual if that's your way of learning

The Italian Basic Course is the second language I purchased a course for from Pimsleur and it's just as good as the other language/course I bought. I'm very pleased with it.The Pimsleur method of teaching new languages is one that really works with the way I best comprehend & retain what I'm learning. In high school I failed multiple years of Spanish, so I always assumed I could never learn another language, because Spanish is supposed to be the easiest language to learn, right?! I also thought I couldn't learn another language because I've heard it's more difficult to learn another language as an adult compared to a child...I can confidently say that this is not the case!In addition to using Pimsleur, it's a good idea to immerse yourself in the culture of the language you're learning by listening to music/podcasts and watch movies/shows/news in the language you're learning. I also find that if I am not certain of the pronunciation of a word (an 'n' versus an "m", or "v" versus "b", etc), which isn't often because the speakers usually have clear pronunciation, I will google translate the word so I can see it.

My husband and I have, in the last few years taken two trips to Europe and though we were only staying for a couple weeks wanted to learn a bit of the language in order to make an effort to at least be able to say the polite phrases and to understand the basics. I was not looking for a comprehensive program, nor was I looking to continue on to a more challenging program.This set was recommended by my sister who has a degree in Language and has learned and speaks several languages fluently. She advised me that Pimsleur was one of the best programs on the market for what I was looking for, and she was right.I have found that any effort that I have made to speak the language (no matter how horribly mangled-it appears that it is all about the sincere effort) has been met with appreciation and has often resulted in a more friendly and pleasurably stay. I'm NOT fluent, nor am I a quick study. I used polite/useful phrases from the series frequently in my travels such as: Hello, How are you, excuse me, do you speak English? I do not speak Italian, Where is the bathroom, the list goes on. Any attempts seem to be appreciated, and for me it is worth the time for me to learn a little to be able to get around a little easier. Also, it is fun. I can take the cd's in my car and work on them on my commute. Perfect!This will not teach you all the Italian you want to know if you are looking to speak fluently, but for a traveler, I thought it was perfect and it was both useful and fun.I would highly recommend this product for those traveling to Italy that would just like to know a bit of Italian. You can always build onto it later if you wish to, but for the traveler it is a very nice program.My one wish for these sets would be a booklet that gave a basic run-down on the chapters. With an audio only format sometimes I did not catch the word immediately and found myself looking up a few words on-line in order to understand how they were spelled so I knew if I was pronouncing them correctly. I'm a visual person, what can I say? Other than that I felt this was a highly effective program and would definitely look at other items in this series for our next adventure.

Over the course of the past couple years, I have purchased and used various CD courses as well as DVD courses such as Rosetta Stone and have learned some of the language but would have trouble retaining what I have learned. Various CD courses can usually be too fast and inconsistent. Rosetta Stone was better with the visual learning combined with audio but once I started Pimsleur, my knowledge and retention grew exponentially! I can't say enough how much more effective it has been for me in learning to feel confident in my enunciation and use of the language as I become conversational. Pimsleur courses are slower than the others but through repetition, explanation and consistent use of the words, phrases, they help you comprehend the grammer better and be able to build sentences and phrases on your own in no time. It also helps you "hear" the language in it's native tongue and learn to decifer the meaning quickly.Thanks Pimsleur! I am almost done Pimsleur Italian II and getting ready to buy III. I hope you continue to publish more editions.Ann

I thought this was a great program. It focused on practical things first like saying "I don't understand" and "I speak English" and finished up with "I'll have dinner/drinks with you at nine o'clock". I liked the format, often the narrator asked you in English to say things and then you had a chance to do it in Italian before the speaker gave you the response so you weren't just using repetition.As other reviewers have noted, it would be nice to have a booklet with the words for review... I spent two lessons not sure I was hearing a certain verb correctly. I have had a lot of Spanish lessons so found a lot of similarities between Italian and Spanish and the format of their sentences and conjugation of verbs so perhaps the CDs were good for me because I wasn't exactly starting from scratch.I have since purchased the Italian I course to further work on my Italian. It should be noted that the 5 CDs (i.e. first 10 lessons) in the Basic Italian are also the first 5 CDs out of the 16 CDs in the Italian I. So if you think you'd like to learn past the "I'll go out to dinner with you", you might want to just buy Italian I and skip the Basic Italian.