Colloquial Italian: The Complete Course for Beginners (Colloquial Series) 2nd Edition, Kindle Edition

I've been using this book to prepare for a trip to Italy, so I am not (currently) pursuing Italian in an academic sense. I would give it 3.5 stars if possible, but I've rounded it to four, but really 4 is too generous. The audio is available online for free from Routledge (search for "Routledge Colloquials Audio"), so don't waste your money trying to acquire CDs to go with it!The book is structured as a few dialogues with some exercises and grammar points thrown in. It moves fairly quickly (probably too quickly, to be honest) and like most "touristy" books, it starts in a cafe and then goes to topics like trains, directions, and describing yourself.The print and binding quality are fine, and it's a monochrome print.The audio quality is pretty good, but there is a lot of English at start of each dialogue that reads text straight out of the book -- I wish they would cut that, but this is pretty much standard for every Routledge "Colloquial", so I just use Audacity to trim the audio. There is probably less than 5 minutes of Italian per unit.There is one difficult part about this book: they don't provide a translation of the dialogue. Sure, they give you vocabulary words and some phrases, and yes, there is a dictionary that contains every word, but there are not bilingual texts for quick comparison. For me, having to jump to the dictionary in the back isn't the best experience.Still, the audio is very animated (clearly good voice actors/actresses) and you can learn quite a bit, but you will need listen and read along with the dialogues easily 10+ times. The book also covers a surprising amount of grammar, albeit a little too strongly like the grammar-translation method for my taste.Compared to  Teach Yourself Italian , the audio in this course is much better, but this course feels a bit more random. I think the two have a lot of overlap and can be used to reinforce each other. And finally, compared to  Assimil Italian with Ease , it's far, far less content: Assimil still takes the cake for cramming 100 bilingual dialogues with 3 hours of Italian (only) audio into one course. I own and use all three, but if I had to pick just one, it would be Assimil, not this course. Still, this has been useful and I have learned from it, and the dialogues are a lot more relevant if you're going to be traveling or living a short while it Italy -- much more so than Assimil, to be honest. If you find an inexpensive, used copied, grab it and download the audio!

I bought this from the Colloquial languages series because I had used the "Colloquial Japanese" in 1983 and found it exceptionally useful - I still use phrases from that book. What I liked at that time was the speedy pace, the intelligent and full discussions of Japanese grammar, and the relatively wide standard vocabulary for both reading and speaking. What I was trying to get away from was the Phrase Book approach - which treats you as if a) you are stupid and scared of grammar, b) only interested in buying souvenirs. So how was Colloquial Italian?On grammar, about middling. I found it irritating to have to learn the first person singular, then a little later the first and second person singular, and then again later the first second and third person singular. My feeling is that we need to learn paradigms, lets get on with it. Postponing it does not make it easier. In Colloquial Italian you only get the plural of first conjugation regular present tense on page 77, halfway through chapter 5. Still the discussions of grammar, when they come, are intelligent and informative.On vocabulary, I was again disappointed, for the book is directed primarily at the American tourist. Again, one needs to learn a good deal, so let us not hang back. The chapters are broken into several little sections, with a few words each. Much better to have one place with all the vocabulary listed in some rational order. Then one could start by learning it all by rote before working through each chapter. This would reinforces memory and also makes systematic study / revision far easier. Still, at least the book has a glossary that covers words used in the text so if you cannot recall which list it was in, you still have some recourse.If I look back at languages I have persevered with, I have in fact used them more for general reading and for watching films than as a tourist. I also have some experience as a schoolboy learning language systematically and effectively. I am clearly not the target learner for this (or any other current language learning) bookThis book is sold as a "New Edition." I wonder if the old edition would be more to my taste. Probably the dumbing down and the narrow focus on tourists derives from the publisher. I would like one publisher however to set out to satisfy the language learner of broad interests. They would have that section of the field to themselves. Perhaps they should have two versions, the "normal edition" and the "tourist" edition".

This language course closely matches my needs in acquiring Italian language skills for everyday travel by adults. It exposes one to Italian culture and the ability to practice conversation skills needed for travel and communication. There is also introduction to grammar which makes it possible to understand the basic foundation of latin-based languages. The explanations are clear and easy to understand; the grammar easy to understand, connect to one's home language, and practice to remember. I can review, practice and sustain my language skills.

With the colloquial series, it's hit or miss. The colloquial Italian book is a real winner. Clear explanation of grammar, useful vocabulary that takes one to an intermediate level

I have used the Routledge Colloquial series for teaching and learning for my own pleasure for numerous languages. This is certaily the best the series has to offer. Sylvia Lymbery does an outstanding job of making you feel at home and comfortable learning Italian. It's almost like sitting with the author and having a chat over a nice espresso! Well done!

This book is an easy read and the best part about the book is that it teaches the reader to speak the way Italians speak. And not some text book version of the language.

I really like this book. It is thorough and logically set out, with a clear structure. There is a good balance of reading, writing, listening and speaking. I bought this because it is currently the set book for the Open University beginner's Italian course, Andante. When I have completed the first 13 units of this book plus the relevant grammar exercises in the other set book, Teach Yourself Essential Italian Grammar, I will have covered much of the material in the OU course, but at a hugely lower cost. Colloquial Italian is suitable for learning on your own, unlike courses such as Contatti which assume you are at a class and have partners to work with. This course is also quite cheap, probably because it has not spent money on expensive colour printing and pictures. The course moves quite fast, so it is best for people who already know a little Italian, or for people who are prepared to do other work on top, such as a class, a grammar book or an internet language site.

This item is the book only (no CD) but there are details provided in the book to enable you to download the audio which is needed for the listening exercises

My biggest problem with this text is actually its LACK of interactivity. Yes, there are dialogues, but these are simply recorded for you to listen to (and to repeat should you want to). However, although there are plenty of written exercises, there are no dialogues where you take an active part yourself. This is a major failing in a course designed for beginners and I would have thought that with a new edition (2005) this is something that could have been corrected. In summary, this book is good as far as it goes - but it doesn't go far enough in terms of spoken communication.

A good easy to use guide for those who have progressed from the simple " Good morning". Also a useful refernce which can be returned to again and again.

Very easy and clear instructions,sentences to learn...