[.ca] Learn In Your Car Italian Level One: 3 CDs with ... (ISBN 1591257263)

Amazon.com Audiobook Review:
Look ma, no textbooks! The Learn in Your Car series treats you like a child--in the best possible way--starting with one-word phrases ("please," "good-by"), counting exercises, and simple nouns ("bus," "train") designed to imitate a child's learning process. First you hear the words in English, then they are repeated slowly in clear, unaccented pronunciations. The method is extremely effective for those who don't know a thing, or for those who want to brush up by testing themselves when the English words are spoken. The tapes emphasize the building blocks of communicating in a foreign country rather than rote phrases that only apply on the tape and not in real-life exchanges. Level 1 painlessly covers basic verb forms, essential prepositions, near future and past tenses, as well as shopping, hotel reservations, and other travel-related situations. The series includes French, German, Italian, Russian, Japanese, and Spanish in three levels that can be purchased individually or in boxed sets. Each level contains two 90-minute cassettes (or CDs) and an accompanying booklet (not for use behind the wheel) with helpful explanations and scripts for the lessons.

Where did they get this anouncer from ??:
The package says "Prepared by dialect-free professionals"... What they should also have insisted on is they be NATIVE Italian speakers too! Listening to the female do the Italian part gave me an uneasy feeling... I kept asking myself "is her pronunciation right?" For example, every beginner knows "Io voglio" is pronounced "ee-yo volyo"... but the speaker here kept saying "ee-yo VOY-yo" (wish no "l" sound). Drove me crazy to listen to her mispronounce it over and over! At other times, it sounded as if she was just learning the proper pronunciation (in other words, as if they took someone who knows nothing about Italian and has them practice a word a few times, then reads that word aloud). How did they expect people to learn the correct pronunciation like this?? The other less severe complaint I have is that they should have steered away from "travelers vocabulary" and instead focussed on what most other programs don't, that is normal BASIC speaking which is what grammer is built upon. I know most people who take couses do it because of travel, but there are tons of specific travelers leanguage pograms already available. How about a program with vocabulary NOT used for travel? I'm tired of refrences like "customs office". The package implys the method used here is how a child learns.. well that may be true, but I doubt children focus on travel terms. Overall, good idea but he speaker's pronunciation wasn't good enough.

What is going on??:
I am going to Italy for my honeymoon in two months and am so excited I decided I should learn some of the language, so I can really get into the vacation. I also commute far to work so this sounded ideal, however, I have no idea what is going on during these cds. A man randomly says words and a woman says them in Italian... I don't learn like that at all (does anyone?). Are we really supposed to just memorize every single word on these cds from hearing someone say them in Italian, without any instruction on the logic of conjugations, pluralization, etc.? It is such rote memorization, totally not for me. I remember like three words, don't ask me to put them into a sentence! I have only listened to the first cd, so the other two may be different, but its pretty telling in and of iteself that someone as eager as I am to learn the language can't bear to listen to all the cds! They are so useless. If you learn by hearing, and have a fantastic memory that requires no understanding of logic, this is for you.

Learn Italian in your Car CD by Henry Raymond:
I am really learning a lot from this 3cd set. The car is a great place to practice in private. It's the first time I haven't felt self conscious about trying to speak another language. The book helps to preview each lesson. I like the CD format so a lesson can be easily chosen for review. When will Level II on CD be available??

A great & easy way to learn Italian!:
Had this set of 3 cd's & book for 2-3 weeks. Listening to it on the way to work & back, turns a long & tedious commute, into a fun & interesting endeavor. I now bring my portable cd player, so I can still hear Vivaldi in the background while learning to speak Italian. Once I get to my destination, I can quickly go over the lesson in the book to better understand the spelling of the words & language rules. This is such an easy way of learning a foreign language, I will try the French lessons after this. E Grande!