Getting by in Italian: With Audiocassettes

We found the tapes to be extremely useful. We learned enough Italian to "get by" during our trip to Italy. We have lent the tapes to many of our friends.

I found this Barron's series very helpful in my attempts to prepare for a trip to Italy. The title is truth in advertising. These tapes are not for academics or those trying to learn fluency in the language, but instead they are meant for travelers and business people planning a short stay. They provide practical phrases, questions and answers for dining out, making hotel and camping reservations, using public transportation and setting up meetings with people."Getting By In Italian" utilizes a variety of methods to teach and to reinforce learning: imitation/repetition, games, word find puzzles, listening for newly learned phrases in "natural" conversations, and picking out the correct sentence out of several that are recited to you. Rather than relying on rote memory and repetition, it emphasizes picking out things from context -which is far more realistic for most travelers. The variety of methods made these tapes more pleasurable to listen to than either the Fodor's or Pimsleur tapes that I also used. The book that accompanies this set is possibly even better than the tapes. It provides a more complete translation than the tapes do and will serve as a nice reference on my trip.This set does have some weaknesses, however. First, the "natural" conversations (in hotels, restaurants and stores) that they recorded are sometimes very difficult to hear. You have to turn the volume way up and then you get BLASTED when the narrator comes back on. These tapes provide the correct pronunciation for a given phrase only once. The listener repeats it, but most of the time the phrase is not repeated a second time. Most other tapes will provide correct pronunciation more than once and expect the listener to repeat more than once as well. As a result, it helps to have a good ear and facility for language if using these tapes. Additionally, these tapes work best if you plan to follow along in the book. Some of the translations are not provided on the tape and the games usually require that you circle a correct answer or look at some written options that are before you. As a result, if you plan to listen to the tapes mostly in the car, you will definitely miss out on some things. At the same time, most people learn languages better if they can use more than one sense (i.e. just hearing.) Visual cues help to reinforce learning, so you're better off if you use both the book and the tape at the same time anyway. (Just not as convenient for those of us who like to listen in the car. The Pimsleur tapes - which have other weaknesses - are better for that.)Finally, the narrator is British, which is fine, but the American listener will have to pay close attention and translate certain phrases for themselves (i.e. "lift" for elevator and "power point" for electrical outlet.)All in all, I was satisfied with these tapes and so were my friends who tried them. The value for the price was also better than other tapes I purchased.

I have bought and tested at least five different"language tapes" in the past year.These Getting by in... are wonderfully organized and give adults and children a passing use of the language very quickly.This has dramatically enhanced our travels by allowing greater immmersion in another culture.I can easily learn how to be polite, order food and find help and bathrooms in any language.These tapes hit the mark directly and are worth the time and money.