Michel Thomas Foundation Course: Italian (Michel Thomas) - Michel Thomas

...one crucial difference: it works. Michel Thomas was a genius, and he has revolutionised language learning with a simplicity, accessibility and plain elegance that literally astounds. As advertised on the CD box (which, incidentally, is rather cumbersome: the size of two DVD boxes stuck together), this course demands no writing, no books, and indeed no homework (not even any mental homework.) Everything takes place while listening to the eight CDs ...
...group of students taught by Michel Thomas on the audio track, and you will soon find yourself correcting their mistakes mentally, and occasionally will be corrected by them! The course is wonderfully easy to get into, and within minutes of the first CD you will be capable of constructing basic sentences in Italian. By the end of this Foundation Course, you will have a fairly comprehensive grounding in the language and its grammar; which can be improved ... more

This is a standard, become-fluent-in-Italian-in-a-day course like any other, with one crucial difference: it works. Michel Thomas was a genius, and he has revolutionised language learning with a simplicity, accessibility and plain elegance that literally astounds. As advertised on the CD box (which, incidentally, is rather cumbersome: the size of two DVD boxes stuck together), this course demands no writing, no books, and indeed no homework (not even any mental homework.) Everything takes place while listening to the eight CDs (each an hour in length), and this is learning the way it should be: truly painless, and really effective. You, the listener, form the third in a group of students taught by Michel Thomas on the audio track, and you will soon find yourself correcting their mistakes mentally, and occasionally will be corrected by them! The course is wonderfully easy to get into, and within minutes of the first CD you will be capable of constructing basic sentences in Italian. By the end of this Foundation Course, you will have a fairly comprehensive grounding in the language and its grammar; which can be improved upon following the Advanced and Language Builder Italian courses which follow. The italian language is taught with a view to being spoken with confidence and fluency under pressure, so is particularly apt if you plan to take a holiday or business trip to Italy. However, it focusses mainly on structure, meaning that there are not vast amounts of vocabulary learnt in terms of nouns and adjectives (but these can easily be picked up as necessary, and once they are used a few times in coversation with Italian speakers they will not be forgotten.) This does mean that it will be of slightly more limited use to, for example, a GCSE Italian student, as vocabulary is very important here; but equally, it grounds very thoroughly in grammar, and as such is a very solid resource. At this price range, this is an indispensable purchase for anyone who has ever had the slightest inclination towards learning Italian. It really works! 

...less