Italianissimo: An Italian Experience: A Self-Guided Course for Beginners Learning Italian

It is a pity that English produced courses are not well-known in other countries, because the ones produced by the BBC are excellent, this one included! This course book was originally designed to accompany a full multimedia package that included both television braodcasts entirely in Italian, presented by a very lovely Italian woman (I'd watch the programmes just to gawp at her! Pity she spends the whole series fully clothed!), and supporting radio programmes. I recommend that you consider the full package if you are planning to learn from this, especially if you are involved in study on your own. Obviously, the cassettes contain most of the dilaogues from the radio programmes, minus the explanations you get in English, and are invaluable if you are a self-learner. The components work altogether to create a very effective learning experience which gives you functional language and cultural information, while still presenting you with the grammar you need, if you want to learn it. A key, and unique feature of Italianissimo is the learner choice between two "tracks" for learning. One of these focusses on the functional language ify ou are in ahurry, or if you do not want to get bogged down in grammatical explanations, while the other allows you to get a more in depth knowledge of the langauge.

This is by far the best textbook for learning Italian on your own. I am a Spanish and German teacher and have been trying to teach myself Italian. This is an excellent resource. It teaches useful phrases and vocabulary and intermixes cultural information and helpful grammar explanations. The tapes are great.