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I guess a teenager may give that five stars, butfor me two is appropriate. There is a part of the book which deserves 5 stars for me. Someone starting out in Italian would be upset, and maybe even an intermediate one would be frustrated. Finally, it should be considered an intermediate reader, not an easy one. It is about the history of Italy. Another large part, maybe half or a quarter, is about "boy meets girl" type of thing.
Oh, and it comes with a CD that has MP3s so I can listen in my car on the way to work, nice bonus for the price.Definitely not for the absolute beginner, not sure why they would even suggest that in the item description. I am a beginner/intermediate level italian learner and this was pretty much exactly what I was looking for. But if you know how to conjugate present tense, agreement of subject and adjective, masc vs fem nouns, you should be ok (at least for the beginning). You have to have had at least some basic grammar and vocab otherwise this would be torture. Something easier than online italian newspapers to help me get used to italian grammar and pick up some more vocabulary in context. I've only made it through the first 8 "stories" and supposedly it gets tougher as it goes, so I'm looking forward to a little more advanced learning.
In part one the speaker(male)talks at a clear and comfortable pace. There is a link to check the answers (which are also in the back of the book) for instant feedback.
Mi piace molto questo libro. SO much better than just the book alone, and well worth the couple of extra dollars.
Designed for a second year student, the accompanying CD-rom enhances the learning with a multi-sensory approach. Another option is to listen to the text, then listen to the questions and answer them orally to improve your listening and speaking skills.
Compralo subito. There are two main parts.
The second part uses a female speaker, who is a bit quicker, but hey, it has all the necessary controls to pause, stop, or go back.You can listen to the text while reading it to work on pronunciation, and you can also download the entire text to listen on your Ipod when on the go.
Part Two offers a crash course in the rich history of Italy beginning with Ancient Rome. Each reading is followed by comprehension questions and activities, and each section is followed by a summary of material covered up to that point, and activities including crossword puzzles. I have not yet read this book but I have examined it carefully and believe it will be a great help to me in becoming familiar with Italian sentence structure, which is the reason I bought it. Part Three delves into the works of three Italian writers. I think this book is exactly what I need to continue my Italian language studies. The book looks interesting and is very well structured. Part One takes an American girl and her Roman friend on a journey through Italy.
There's good vocabulary help, and a short quiz at the end of each chapter that helps reinforce what you've just read.I think the book is best suited for someone at the experienced-beginner or low-intermediate level. For many years I've been self-teaching myself the Italian language and have tried several 'easy reader' and dual-language books. I wish there were more on the market just like it. Very enjoyable book but challenging. Most have been helpful but this is the best I've found yet. The book follows a story line based on individual chapters, all in Italian, that gradually progresses in the level of difficulty from what I'd call experienced-beginner level to intermmediate.
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