Oggi in Italia: A First Course in Italian

I always prefer classroom textbooks to a more casual phrasebook or language learning CD (usually geared toward the casual tourist). And in that regard, Oggi in Italia does not disappoint. I learn tons of vocabulary and grammer in an easy fashion. I highly recommend this book for any learner of Italian.

The book does spread a verb tense over two consecutive chapters for highly used and complicated tenses. In this way, it doesn't confuse me with too much information all at once. I can first learn the basics of the tense and in the next chapter learn more of it's use. As an adult I found it organized and well written. The book is clear, it explains grammar thoroughly, and the vocabulary and exercises are interesting. It is a very popular italian language program and there are lots of used versions at a great price. After studying the first half of this book, I can read Italian articles on-line and have a fairly good understanding of them without using the dictionary a lot.

I'm sorry, but I just don't get the detractors to this text. With apologies to Pimsleur, learning a language is hard work. OK, if you want to learn how to say, "Hello," or, "Where is the bathroom," try one of the quickie methods, but if you want to be fluent in a conversation, live in Italy, or study there, there is no substitute for struggling with the pedagogy. Maybe there are some of us that can pick up a language effortlessly, but I'm not one of them. I was raised in an Italian family and heard it every day when I was a child, but when it came to really learning Italian, I had to sit down and work on it ... hard. This is a fine basic text, covering all the tenses, grammatical forms and basic vocabulary. It also nicely covers pronunciation and culture, which are often neglected in basic language texts. The material is presented in a traditional, logical manner. Yes, every now and then there is a word that is not in the glossary, but that is part of language ... sometimes someone says a word you just don't know. I guess that is what a dictionary is for. To use this text effectively, I would recommend buying a dictionary and a guide to common verbs, whoich are, frankly, necessary no matter what method you use. The workbook is recommended but not necessary. If you have someone around who is fluent, so much the better, but you can do almost as well by listening to the news at night from Italy on the Internet, buying an Italian movie or two, and struggling through an Italian novel a few sentances at a time. Work your way through this book and you will have passable conversational Italian, and be able to work your way through a newspaper as well. If you don't want to put in the sweat equity to learn Italian, sign up for a brain transplant, but otherwise, go out and buy a book like this one and plan on some hard work. Your effort will not dissapoint you if you do.

I am in the second semester of an Italian course and find Oggi in Italia interesting to read and to work from. The pattern to the book is given at the beginning, and each of the lessons follows the pattern. Especially noteworthy in the book are the currency and relevancy of its references to people, places, TV shows, etc. If I were teaching a course in Italian, I would choose this book as a text. In my opinion, the companion workbook isn't really needed, since the textbook has many exercises in it. Also, it should be supplemented with audio tapes, either the companion set or other tapes aimed at the basic-intermediate levels.

Oggi in Italia, Fourth Edition, is an excellent textbook. It is clear and concise and very well organized. The vocabulary and situations presented are everyday, realistic situations that anyone visiting the country would be faced with. I do wish this book was still in print! There are a lot of drills and that is really the best way to learn a language.