[.uk] Mastering Italian: Book and 12 Cassettes (The Foreign ... (ISBN 0812073231)

All FSI courses have similar strengths -- and weaknesses:
All of the FSI courses were produced for *serious* students of the language -- not tourists or one-time travellers who want to be able to order wine and pizza and offer the equivalent of "voulez-vous coucher avec moi?" to local girls/boys. Are they "boring"? Yes, rather. Do they teach fine detail that the serious student needs? Yes, they do. Is this something even ten percent of language students want? No. There are, to be sure, problems with the design of the courses -- but there's no space here to go into them in detail. The main point is that they are "dry" -- and especially so if you take them as home-study kits. All of them were intended to be presented by a teacher, and a living warm human being -- smiling, encouraging, frowning, demanding, exploding with a delighted "BENE!" when you get it exactly right -- would help tremendously. It is extremely hard to get through this kind of thing unless you have iron discipline and a passion for learning the exact best way. For more than 19 out of 20 users, then, I would recommend the Pimsleur courses, and perhaps Michel Thomas, about whom I've heard good things. However, if you want to really speak a language with precision and grace, and put behind you the idiot-child-at-a-party feeling of the stammering and constantly self-correcting tourist, FSI courses may, merely may, be for you. They should be supplemented by other materials, but you won't find anything like this level of seriousness in any other home study course. As far as the expense is concerned, given the number of CD's and the book, fifty bucks is as cheap as it gets. That's maybe two private lessons.

solid introduction to spoken Italian:
Having been through much of this course, I was surprised to read some of the negative comments. I suspect these opinions may relate to wanting a quick result easily, rather than building an in depth comfort with the language. Much of the course is built around pronunciation, as it should be. Too many courses give only grammar or vocabulary. This one forces you to evaluate your speech and pronunciation of the sound, resulting in more accurate responses. You actually learn to know how to spell unknown words in Italian and to hear subtle differences which change the meanings of words. While this course does not go far enough with the language (I gave 4 stars because there is no level 2 or 3), it does provide the solid base you need to proceed in Italian. Italian is not that easy to pronounce correctly. As I continue to study Italian, I have no doubt that I do so with a much better foundation than other courses offer. Without a live teacher to correct your errors, attention to these details and much repetition are essential. You may then move on to courses with more of the vocabulary and grammar desired with less concern over the basics of pronunciation.

Disappointing:
In general, I think that the Barron's Mastering series of language courses is one of if not the best selection of language courses in their price-range. I have experience with the Spanish 1&2, German, and French 1 courses and I fully expected the Italian course to be of the same quality. Sadly, it's a dud, and I hope that this course won't turn anyone off using this series for a different language than Italian. While pronunciation is important, there's a difference between teaching learners how to pronounce a language correctly, and teaching pronunciation for 5 whole units *before* introducing any real vocabulary. I believe that by Unit 6 you will have learned two whole sentences with this course. There are so many things in this course that desperately need revision. Do we really need to spend a whole two pages explaining the difference between a yes-no question and a multi-choice question to language learners? If this course were to be streamlined so that vocabulary and pronunciation were taught as a unit, and the English speaking portions of the audio trimmed (almost all the English text in the book is read by the narrator, which, if the prospective language learner can read, is completely unnecessary), I'd estimate that the course would be 300 pages and 7 CDs shorter. Perhaps Barrons could replace the deleted material with real content. I dislike the phonetic spelling which is used throughout the course in lieu of standard written Italian. I think this is a huge weakness in a course that claims to be able to teach one how to read in the target language. (Note that the Spanish course has a phonetic system *and* the standard writing used throughout, which can actually be useful to learners) I am also disappointed in the scope of the course. In more than 500 pages and 15 CDs, a course should definitely cover both more vocabulary, and more than one or two tenses. Indeed, all of the other courses in this series that I have experience with *do*. Even with all that said, this course is not completely useless if you have the patience to stick with it all the way through. You'll definitely learn some Italian, and your pronunciation should be beyond excellent. You'll just need more supplemental material than the advertising blurb on the box would suggest.

Complete waste of time:
I was truly disappointed with this course. After listening to the first few CDs, I realized that I had wasted over $75.00 on nothing more than one heck of a boring course on countless pronunciation drills--one cd after another. After the fourth CD, I did not want to pursue this nonesense any further. I wanted to get a reimbursement right then and there, if only it wasn't too late. I'll know better next time to read these reviews first. I learned French at home, minored in Spanish in college and taught myself Portuguese. So, I consider myself a serious student of the romance languages. And after taking a basic course in Italian, which was truly a lot of fun, I figured I was rest ready to do the rest on my own. But contrary to the hyped blurb, this Barrons course was truly a flop. Save your dollars!!

Dreadful!!!:
I am flabbergasted by this so called mastering Italian book/cd. It was pure waste of my money!!!!!!!!!!!!!