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2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Wierd voice / wierd accent May 10, 2008
I have the Speak in a Week French, which I love.
So, I decided to buy the Italian. I'm not enjoying it at all. The voice of the woman speaking Italian is very high and very sort of pinched, almost like it has been slightly sped up. In addition, she mispronounces a lot of words. Like, "Dov'è... which means "Where is..." is pronounced "'DOH-veh" but she mispronounces it like, "'DOO-vay", like the French word for quilt cover "duvet". But then in the next chapter, she pronounces it correctly as "'DOH-veh" Why would she mispronounce it in one chapter and then pronounce it correctly in another? This makes me think that she is not actually Italian.
The purpose of these CDs is to go through it with the book and then have it playing so that you can get the sound of the language from a native speaker in your ear, but when it's mispronounced, it defeats the whole purpose!
In addition, many times the pronunciation they have written down phonetically is wrong so I have to look it up in my Italian book to see who's right: Her pronunciation or the book's pronunciation...
Example: Pg 49, the Italian sentence reads: Dov'è la scrivania?" (Where is the desk?) She speaks, "'DOO-vay [wrong] lah scree-vah-'NEE-ah [right], but the pronunciation in the book says, "dohv-EH [right] lah skree-'VAH-nyah" [wrong]. I had to get my Italian book out with IPA to decide who to follow; the woman's voice or the book, and they were both wrong.... oh my God...
What a waste of time!
2 of 3 found the following review helpful:
phrases are not helpful, didn't like at all compared to others Aug 23, 2007
I learned to speak Italian in my car before my last trip and wanted to learn more, especially since I changed cars and needed CD's instead of tapes. These phrases were so silly and so useless that I quicly lost interest. "I like your hat" I didn't think that the CD's were helpful, I didn't like the way they taught you and for the price, I expected a whole lot more. I was really sorry that I bought these.
My other tapes were cheap but excellent. I should have returned this item.
Get something else......
 Great for beginners Aug 06, 2007
I just finished book 1 and already I've learned a lot for someone who was a complete beginner when I started. By the end of book 1 you will be able to understand this for ex: "Ho una racchetta ma non ho una palla" and much more. If you want to be able to read/write as well as speak Italian, this a good place to start -- especially if you're looking for a book, that's small, portable as well as one that has a simple, uncluttered format -- there's just a phrase per page (one side in English, the other in Italian) and the CD follows along w/ the book. If you literally want to complete each book in a week, you'd have to spend ALL day studying - It took me a month to get through the first book, studying 30 mins to an hour, 4 or 5 days a week (I'm in no rush) - Of course, the more you practice, the faster it will go. I also listen a few minutes a day to the CD in the car. If you just want to learn enough to get by for a trip -- I would try something else. However, if you're a beginner and you want to learn how to read/write and speak Italian, this set is a great start. Note: there are a couple errors where the CD doesn't match what's in the book and some lists of words in the book that are in the wrong columns -- but you can go online and find the info you need to make the corrections (there are a ton of websites for students of Italian)
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Super language learning series May 13, 2007
This series on learning Italian follows in the admirable footsteps of the series on learning Spanish. Penton Overseas has got a winning formula for teaching languages. I purchased the Spanish series and was so impressed that I decided to obtain other Penton Speak in a Week series i.e. French, Chinese, and Italian. I just wish the German series was available in a four book/volume set. At the present time I am dual learning both Spanish and Italian as there is a great amount of similarities in both languages.
Anyone interested in learning a new language or brushing up on a language (my Spanish was learned 40 years ago), would be well advised to invest the time an money in purchasing these excellent language series.
3 of 11 found the following review helpful:
Speak in a week! Italian Complete" Jul 19, 2006
I brought this for my 15 year old son. He asked for it. My 5 year old daughter loved it too. They did the cds and are still learning Italian. This is very educational. I have alot of educational materials in my house for my kids. I would recommend this if you want to learn Italian.
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