Drive Time. Italian CD . Learn Italian While You Drive LL R All Audio Courses

Customer Reviews

Good Choice

2008-10-04
Excellent product, but should not be relied on solely it you REALLY want to learn Italian. But it makes the ride in the car ( even in traffic!) very bearable.

Drive Time Italian

2008-09-15
Very pleased with this product. Using Rosetta Stone at home and the I use this product to practice when in the car.

Too big a jump

2008-08-29
The first lesson went swimmingly. I build up confidence and could easily follow and use the language I learned. With enthusiasm I moved onto the second CD and alas the speed of delivery and quantity of new vocabulary made it clear that this might not be the best resource for the new learner of Italian. This is despite the assurances of the Italian speakers who model the langauge.

A great introduction to Italian

2008-08-11
I have this series on audiotape so can't comment on the issues others are bringing up about the 2nd disc in the series, but I did find the series to be well worth the very inexpensive price. I listened a lot while driving and was well prepared for my first and second trips to Italy, at least in being able to get around and ask questions and understand the answers. A lot of Italians assumed by what I said that I was fully conversant and knew more than I actually did!
I liked that there was variety in the way the information was presented - first the conversation in Italian spoken fairly rapidly, followed by the words, translation of the conversation, repeat the dialogue, answer questions based on the lesson, etc. so the information was repeated several times but in different ways so as not to be boring or tedious. I preferred it to Pimsleur, which seemed just to repeat the same words over and over to the point of being annoying and some others which I found not at all helpful. I would definitely recommend this series to someone wanting to get a good start in learning to speak Italian, especially for travelers who do not feel the need to become fully conversational in Italian.

Learning Italian

2008-05-28
Recently got this to learn some italian. I dont know how much it will help as im only on disc two,but its FULL of info and the book that comes with it is a great guide to learning too. I think this is going to be great(once I learn it) Cd one and two has been wonderful.

This is the best Italian course I've bought

2008-05-24
Now anyone can learn a foreign language while commuting to work, running errands, or even taking a trip with the family. The new all-audio Drive Time series starts with an ingenious “On-Ramp” CD that eases language learners into Spanish, French, Italian, or Japanese with simple, practical expressions and engaging warm-up exercises. Three additional CDs contain 18 lessons that cover all of the essentials—vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, and basic conversation.

Drive Time also includes a 64-page reference guide for anyone who would like to see spellings or read dialogues as a review—from the passenger seat, of course!

italian

2008-04-20
First cd is great - but then it starts moving too fast for a beginner.

Helpful for pronunciation-not for car use

2008-03-24
I have been studying Barron's Italian Verb Book. these CDs were helpful with pronunciation as well as challenging me to come up eith both the meaning and answers to questions in Italian. BUT you need to pause the CD to think about what is being said as well as needing the time to answer in Italian. The pause they have on the CD is OK but only if you have gone through it a couple of times. I so wish they had gone further with the tenses. They stop where I really want to get going. So I listen now more for pronunciation than to learn. I wish they would come out with Cds that cover the rest of the tenses. If someone knows of more advanced CDs please put it in a review.

before you buy...

2008-02-17
i decided to purchase an audio lesson in italian...so I bought Drive Time. The first c.d. is fantastico. It's easy to follow along and you can get a good grasp of it even though its focused on small phrases. CD2, goes into warp speed and continually gets faster with every c.d. I don't know what happened between cd1 and the rest but i wouldn't reccommend it for beginners. If you know spanish,...great. I'm sure the pace is okay. But if you don't know spanish or any italian, fohget-a-bout-it. There isn't enough time to even repeat some of the words yourself. I find myself hitting pause every phrase/word so i can repeat it at a decent pace. If you decide to purchase it, good luck.
ciao ciao.

Drive Time (CD): Learn Italian While You Drive

2008-01-08
I like the chance this program gives to repeat Italian words and phrases 3 times before going on to another word/phrase. The 1st disc, however, uses words related only to driving -- car, bus, motorcycle, large, small, colors, etc. -- that arene't too usefule day to day. I also find it is dangerous for me to try to learn while driving because my attention is taken from the road. This may be my own personal learning style, but I don't recommend drive-learning. Also, I do need to see the written word before I can assimilate it. But I think the discs are well-planned, the voices are clear-spoken.