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Best manual for Italian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| gogglehead Triglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 6081 days ago 248 posts - 320 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Russian, Italian | Message 1 of 26 14 October 2008 at 3:28am | IP Logged |
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Hi all.
I was wondering which book you all consider to be the best for Italian. I feel as though I have hit a wall somewhat, and I think this is due to my lack of structured lessons. I have considered manuals such as TY and Colloqial (both of which I used for Brazilian Portuguese) but I were hoping for something a little more similar to Littlewood's "living Spanish", for me, still the best language learning manual I have ever come across. But any suggestions for Italian? Thankyou in advance G 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6385 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 26 15 October 2008 at 4:59am | IP Logged |
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I'm not familiar with Littlewoods. If you describe a little bit what type of book you are looking for, I can try to make a recommendation.
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| gogglehead Triglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 6081 days ago 248 posts - 320 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Russian, Italian | Message 3 of 26 15 October 2008 at 5:46am | IP Logged |
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Thanks.
Well, I guess a book that is structured, divided into manageable lessons that can be taken one at a time. Basically I need something for which I can create targets and goals into some kind of schedule. I just wondered if anyone has used colloquial or TY, what are they like, or are there any better ones out there. Thanks in advance G 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| diabolo menthe Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5979 days ago 68 posts - 70 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Italian, Swedish, Japanese | Message 4 of 26 15 October 2008 at 1:46pm | IP Logged |
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I would be greatly interested in this as well, as the material I have been scrounging together has been either 1. unreliable or 2. disorganised. I have heard, though, that with Italian one really needs to do the best they can as there aren't any very high-quality programmes. I hope this is not the case and that I was misinformed!
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| jpxt2 Triglot Groupie United States Joined 6737 days ago 46 posts - 52 votes Speaks: English, Spanish*, French Studies: Mandarin, Catalan, Portuguese, German, Italian | Message 5 of 26 15 October 2008 at 6:50pm | IP Logged |
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I have had a similar problem hitting a wall with Italian. There are not very many native speakers in this part of the world and no renowned materials that I know about.
I have Assimil "L'Italien sans peine" which looks pretty good. It is structured like other Assimil courses, with gradual exposure and short, easy to schedule lessons. Before that I learned from a textbook called Eccoci, which I didn't like one bit. Although I did meet one guy who practiced to near full conversational fluency using these lousy textbooks as a base -- a feat which I ascribe to extraordinary motivation to learn Italian. So there you go; like diabolo says, you have to make do with what you've got with Italian. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 7152 days ago 1152 posts - 1818 votes Speaks: English*, German, French, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Esperanto | Message 6 of 26 15 October 2008 at 7:03pm | IP Logged |
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I like the American printing of Italian Made Simple. I find it much easier to follow than the UK version.
I also like Cortina Conversational Italian. They are both excellent books. They are both a little dated but I would use them with contemporary reading and listening material. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6385 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 26 15 October 2008 at 11:10pm | IP Logged |
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Suprisely, there doesn't seem to be a lot of high-quality materials for learning Italian. The Italian textbooks I have seen are terrible. Same with a lot of the audioprograms. I like the Assimil course. Maybe you could use that while working through a grammar book? I like Barron's Mastering Italian Grammar. Pimsleur is also good if you like drills.
After building a foundation you can listen and watch native programming on RAI's webpage. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| gogglehead Triglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 6081 days ago 248 posts - 320 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Russian, Italian | Message 8 of 26 17 October 2008 at 5:00am | IP Logged |
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Thanks guys.
I have schaums Italian grammar book, which is very comprehensive and covers all aspects, and even has exercises, but I cannot use that alone to learn. It if fine for reference and practicing in areas of the language which might not be as strong as others, but I still would like to follow some sort of structured lessons. Although I love learning languages, sometimes motivation is still an issue, and I think it would help me to motivate myself if I had clear goals and targets. How would I get an American edition of Italian made simple here in the UK? And with "L'Italien sans peine", is all of the instruction in French? (a language I have very little knowledge of!) Edited by gogglehead on 17 October 2008 at 5:01am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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