Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A terrific way to learn a new language - 2nd attempt to post this review!, 6 Mar 2008
What a fantastic introduction to a new language! It's attractively presented, colourful, bright and cheerful and the very presentation encourages you to want to learn! I have only had this pack for 2 days now, and have already worked my way through the first 2 units, learning as I go and enjoying every minute of it!
On opening the box, I found 2 CDs - one to be used with the book, providing invaluable listening and converstaion practice; and the other to be used 'anywhere', helping with the trickier words and phrases and providing extra listening and conversation practice.
There is also a wonderfully colourful book, filled with hints and drawings to help us to learn a foreign language.
These include:
* mental images - eg. to remember the word for orange juice, think of Sue and her friends (Sue & co) on a ranch drinking orange juice - put the image together and you have 'succo de arrancia'. There are a great many of these scattered through the book.
* hints - including the fact that Italians never drink a cappuccino after lunchtime! A useful tip if you want to 'fit in'.
* tips - one very useful one is on page 27 of the book, and shows how to fix your learning into your long term memory by using the 'repeat and succeed' method.
* Mental gymnastic activities to help fix what you've learnt.
* Cartoon strip stories, putting the vocabulary into context.
* Quick puzzles and exercises to help you practice your new skills and new vocabulary.
In addition, there are Tony's wonderful mind maps. For anyone who has never previously encountered mind maps, these may look a little unusual - but they are being used more and more in teaching and in revision. Their bright, cheerful imagery helps to fix ideas and words into the long term memory.
Then there are the 2 CDs
The first CD is great - leading you straight into learning.
The 2nd CD has a longer introduction, which may appear tedious to some, but which contains some very useful hints; so I would encourage you to listen to it the first time you play the CD.
In addition, there is a link to a website which provides extra practise exercises and answers to the exercises in the book.
My only criticism with the pack is that the CDs would benefit from longer pauses to allow the learner to repeat the phrases and words that they have learnt - or to allow thinking time. This is the reason why I only gave it 4 stars rather than the full 5 - as it is really the only complaint I have with the whole pack!
Well worth a try if you want to learn some basic Italian in preparation for your next holiday!
|
|
|
21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great for holidays and basic language learning, 28 Mar 2008
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
The market in language learning products has always been an anathema to me. As soon as I have approached the shelves laden with endless confusing packages - some for beginners, intermediates or advanced - even `advanced advanced' (!?), those that claim that they take you from beginner to fluent in 2 nanoseconds (provided of course, you follow the exercises in each of the 85 disc set), those that use books, those that say that books are useless etc, the idea of language learning suddenly becomes an unwanted chore instead of the fun opportunity that it started out as. So is this product any different from the other thousands of available book/disc sets out there? In some way yes and in others no.
Having used this product now for a few weeks I think that it is primarily useful for two things:
one: you want to holiday in Italy and need to be able to get around - i.e. you need basic phrases for buying things, describing things, giving and receiving directions and all the other things you might be asking for on holiday or
two: you want to start learning Italian perhaps as a Uni course or evening school but you want to make sure that it's really for you before you commit to something more expensive and intense.
This book/disc combo is bright, informative and enables you to get to grips with the basics easily and quickly. It includes a relevant amount of information about each topic teaching you exactly what you need to know and omitting onerous, complicated and difficult details. If you are someone that wants to know the ins and outs of a language, this is definitely not for you. If you want something quick and easy and couldn't less about grammatical explanations etc then this is definitely up your street. The book was much thicker than I expected and relies on extended use of mind maps accompanied by lots of bright colours. Some might say that the presentation has a childish feel to it but others would argue that it makes for a more interesting and engaging experience. There is method behind the colour usage - it is supposed to help you remember things more easily.
One of the immediately noticeable things about this disc set is that the recordings are very clear - you would be surprised how many language packages have discs with recordings that sound like the speaker is sitting 500 miles away from the nearest microphone or where it seems that the speaker has the microphone in their mouth. The intro disc is a little too long for my liking - others here have said the same but stick through it. I would agree with a previous reviewer about the length of pauses allowing the learner to practise the phrases, my cd player did not like being paused so often.
Overall, I think this package is great depending on what you want to get out of it. If you are thinking of learning Italian properly with a view to being able to speak proficiently, forget it, this definitely will not help you beyond the extreme basics. If you want to go on holidays, it's almost perfect - the accompanying book would double as a comprehensive phrase book and it doesn't bog you down with unnecessary details. The chapters are clearly set out and the colours make it an easy reference tool. It's also more reasonably priced than some other beginner's courses so it's great for one off holidays or basic learning.
|
|
|
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty good, in it's market - Another attempt at this review!, 9 Mar 2008
If you want to learn a language, there are two ways to do it. Up sticks and immerse yourself in the culture and language or go to lessons with a good teacher. You can't learn to speak a language from CDs or Tapes.
You can, however, gain an understanding and ability to communicate at a basic level and in this respect Tony Buzan's mindmaps are an admirable way of going beyond phrasebook muddle and confusion. The two disc approach, with one "structured" disc to be used with the A5 book provided and the other to play anywhere for a simple way of immersing yourself in the vocab you have learned.
The course is structured around real life events, at the bar, in the restaurant etc, and gives a good view of the basics of Italian.
Mind maps offer a way to structure thoughts and fit learning languages well. 1 Star deducted for the old fashioned and wasteful package that the book and discs came in!
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
