We purchased this with a 14 day trip to Italy (first time) in the future, and our intent was to learn a bit of Italian before we left. The first several lessons are excellent, however, as we moved further into the lessons the examples were spoken much too quickly for novices. It would have been much better if we could have slowed the presentation down. This is a good program to get some basics down on the Italian language... but I think if you want more in-depth into the actual structure and use of Italian, a more sophisticated program is necessary. I would still recommend this program to anyone for a good initiation into some basic communication in Italian.

We used these CD's intensely for 3 weeks before a trip to Italy. I used them only in driving back and forth to work. I covered each lesson twice (sometimes 3 times) before going to the next. When we (wife and I) arrived in Italy, we had a lot of fun with this and the naturally warm people of Italy seemed to have fun with us. We weren't exactly ready to read Dante in the original language, but for the scope of what this program intends to do we had a great experience. If I had more use for the language than that of a tourist, I would like to go through then Pimsleur long course(s). This is a great way to learn a language. This is the best simulation of learning a language "naturally" that I have seen. The results were great and the pain was very low. Every word they teach is present in the context of use. There really is no rote memorization. Highly recommended.

Only on the first disc. The introduction is tedious. The first 2 lessons focus on correct pronunciation and using words in a sentence. Highly recommend!

First of all, even though this shows the picture of the original style package, what I got was the newer version with the simple blue and white graphics on the cover. That means you DON'T get the nice cloth-covered zipper case for the CDs that you get with the older version. The upside of that, I suppose, is that the cardboard folder the disks came with in this version takes up less space. If you've done Pimsleur before for other languages, you will know what to expect. The dialog was almost the same in the French and Dutch courses, mostly word for word, except where the language necessitates something a bit different. It may help to have a sense of humor as well, as because the conversations are often not anything that anyone would actually have in real life. In both the French and Italian versions, the second half of lesson nine consists of an apparently increadibly dense guy repeatedly asking a married woman to go out with him, first for a drink, then for a meal, when she has been making it very clear she is not interested! The Dutch version isn't much different either. As someone else said, the lessons are extremely repetitive, but that is intentional. That can be a bit annoying if you already have some familiarity with the language and got the disks to refresh your memory, say. But, if that is your intention you can play the disks in the background while you are doing something else. In the case of Dutch, with which I had no prior familiarity, I found the repetition at times helpful, although, even then, a bit much. (... and even with the repetition, I still tended to get it mixed up with German. One thing I would NOT do is rely on Pimsleur as the sole means of learning any language. You will get no sense whatsoever as to how the language is written and because it is so repeatitive, you don't get a lot of vocabulary either. The disks can be quite helpful with pronounciation, although I get the sense that in all languages they tend to try to give you a "man on the street" type of pronounciation, with things slurred together a bit more than a refined speaker might pronounce them. (Not being a native speaker of any of these languages, I can't say for sure.) I bought the Italian set because I found the Dutch one helpful with pronounciation and basic vocabulary. If you already know quite a bit of the language, as was the case with French for me, the program will be way too basic for anything except refreshing pronounciation, and, as mentioned, you need to play it in the background in that case, or the repetition will drive you batty. I haven't even considered getting the German one because my shortcomings there are with grammar, not pronounciation or vocabulary. BOTTOM LINE - useful/helpful, but I would also get a textbook of some sort and probably a book of conjugated verbs.

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 wife works for an Italian food company and is literally the only person who does NOT speak Italian. GReat gift for her to listen while she's driving all day. It starts off easy and kind of goes a bit FAST but I guess if you listen to it a million times you'll get used to it