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FSI Italian

  Tags: FSI | Italian
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes Post Reply
onurdolar
Diglot
Groupie
TurkeyRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4451 days ago
98 posts - 147 votes 
Speaks: Turkish*, English
Studies: Italian, German

 
 Message 1 of 8
20 March 2012 at 10:38pm | IP Logged 
Buon giorno,

I wanted to ask if anyone tried FSI Italian? Is it any good? And the ideal study order
should be "Italian Headstart" then "Italian Fast" and "Italian Programmed" ? or the other
way around on latter two. I am studying. Pimsleur Italian, MT Italian and Assimil Italian
with ease allready. ( I also have Linguaphone Italian all talk but not doing it everyday.
)You would recommend me to start FSI before gettng after i finish pimsleur I and
italian foundation or right away? I would also like to hear how you study FSI.

Grazie mille.
1 person has voted this message useful



kanewai
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
justpaste.it/kanewai
Joined 4688 days ago
1386 posts - 3054 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese
Studies: Italian, Spanish

 
 Message 2 of 8
21 March 2012 at 12:04am | IP Logged 
That's already a lot! But FSI is a different enough style that I think it's worthwhile to add it to your studies.

I am currently working on FSI FAST. I like it a lot, and it takes about an hour to 90" for me to do one chapter. It's good if you want quick conversation skills. Although it's not quite as modern as the other course; I think FAST was designed for the wives of American diplomats, so you learn phrases like Maria, Le faccio vedere come funziona la lavatrice. (Maria, I am going to show you how to use the washing machine).

However, I'm just flirting with Italian, so the FAST is perfect. For the languages I'm serious about I used the full Basic or Programmed courses. There are a lot more pattern drills, and it's slower going, but I find that it gives me a deeper appreciation of the language.
1 person has voted this message useful



napoleon
Tetraglot
Senior Member
India
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543 posts - 874 votes 
Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu
Studies: French, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 3 of 8
21 March 2012 at 1:11am | IP Logged 
Students at the FSI usually start with the Programmed introduction courses, which introduces them to the overall sounds of the language. This is followed by intensive study of the Basic Course, if such a course is available.
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manish
Triglot
Groupie
Romania
Joined 5345 days ago
88 posts - 136 votes 
Speaks: Romanian*, English, German
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 4 of 8
21 March 2012 at 3:04pm | IP Logged 
They don't have a Basic one for Italian, so would a native speaker of Romanian with some knowledge of Spanish benefit from the FAST one? Or would it be boring?

I understand Italian to a great degree without having studied it, and I would like to be able to speak it as well. Then again, it would probably cause interference with Spanish, which I'm trying to brush up on (and maybe also Esperanto, which I'm dabbling into as of recently)... Too many languages, too little time.
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Itikar
Groupie
Italy
Joined 4468 days ago
94 posts - 158 votes 
Speaks: Italian*

 
 Message 5 of 8
21 March 2012 at 3:57pm | IP Logged 
Personally I find the FAST Italian course pretty nice, probably the best Italian course made by English speakers for English speakers.
There are some very minor questionable things, like suggesting to say "arrivederLa" whereas most of people use "arrivederci".
In general it seemed me that it teaches a quite polite way to speak. But that's absolutely not bad.
3 persons have voted this message useful



TerryW
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6156 days ago
370 posts - 783 votes 
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 6 of 8
21 March 2012 at 9:54pm | IP Logged 
onurdolar wrote:
I am studying. Pimsleur Italian, MT Italian and Assimil Italian
with ease allready.


The FSI Programmatic Italian has pretty much been panned on this forum as one of the
most worthless FSI courses.

I actually bought the course (manual and cassettes) from the US Government a long time
ago. It starts from the very beginning, so if you've gotten a little way into
Pimsleur, Michel T and Assimil, you probably won't learn much from FSI Programmatic
Italian.

It *is* very good for pronunciation skills. After I got mostly through it, I tried
throwing some random phrases out on a native Italian guy in my department at work
(without telling him first that I was studying Italian), and he said "Wow, you have no
(English) accent!"

I actually liked the course at the time, and was looking to buy the next volume (which
doesn't exist) so I could continue on. But that was before widespread internet, so I
had no knowledge at the time of all of the other good courses out there.

Since it's free online, you might as well try it, but I think you'll see right away
that, except for learning good pronunciation, you're better off studying those other
courses.
1 person has voted this message useful



onurdolar
Diglot
Groupie
TurkeyRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4451 days ago
98 posts - 147 votes 
Speaks: Turkish*, English
Studies: Italian, German

 
 Message 7 of 8
22 March 2012 at 9:26am | IP Logged 
TerryW wrote:
onurdolar wrote:
I am studying. Pimsleur Italian, MT Italian and Assimil Italian
with ease allready.


The FSI Programmatic Italian has pretty much been panned on this forum as one of the
most worthless FSI courses.

I actually bought the course (manual and cassettes) from the US Government a long time
ago. It starts from the very beginning, so if you've gotten a little way into
Pimsleur, Michel T and Assimil, you probably won't learn much from FSI Programmatic
Italian.

It *is* very good for pronunciation skills. After I got mostly through it, I tried
throwing some random phrases out on a native Italian guy in my department at work
(without telling him first that I was studying Italian), and he said "Wow, you have no
(English) accent!"

I actually liked the course at the time, and was looking to buy the next volume (which
doesn't exist) so I could continue on. But that was before widespread internet, so I
had no knowledge at the time of all of the other good courses out there.

Since it's free online, you might as well try it, but I think you'll see right away
that, except for learning good pronunciation, you're better off studying those other
courses.


Indeed i noticed it focuses mostly on pronunciation so i decided to start with Italian Fast since perfect pronunciation is not my top concern at the moment. Also i noticed Italian way of pronunciation is not very different from my native Turkish. ( at least less different then English is )

Thanks for all replies, they've been really helpfull.
1 person has voted this message useful



garyb
Triglot
Senior Member
ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5006 days ago
1468 posts - 2413 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian, French
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 8 of 8
22 March 2012 at 11:37am | IP Logged 
I've tried FSI Programmatic. It's great for pronunciation, at least for English speakers (especially American English) as it emphasises the differences in sounds between English and Italian. But yes, after the first 15 or 20 lessons, most of the sounds have been covered and it begins to get really tedious. I have no experience with the others though.


1 person has voted this message useful



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