Teach Yourself Instant Italian Audiopack

by Elisabeth Smith

The quickest way to learn a language just got easier These streamlined language guides are the answer for people who have little patience and even less time to study. Even those who have failed in traditional language courses succeed with the Teach Yourself Instant Language guides. These easy courses teach only the words and phrases that really matter so learners can start speaking a new language right away and conversing with confidence after only six weeks. These new editions feature friendlier page layout and recording on CD for easy access and review.

Paperback

First published April 22, 1998

About the author

Elisabeth Smith has published more than 30 books, CDs and DVDs in 11 different languages. She has taught enthusiastic audiences all over the world. Her unique entertaining courses are international bestsellers with over one million copies sold.

Reviews

[Andrew]

As a starter to learning Italian very quickly (in 6 weeks, as it says on the cover), this little book is excellent.

I decided to learn Italian in readiness for my first trip to the lakes for a dual celebration of my wife's birthday and our wedding anniversary in 1998. I bought this with 6/7 weeks to go, and stuck to it every day for the 6 weeks. I fell in love with Italian, and 6 weeks later with Italy. We flew to Milan and got the train along the coast in order to see Lago Maggiore spread out alongside us, but the flight was an hour late, and we arrived in darkness on a pretty dismal train. But that evening, as we entered our mezzanine room in the Hotel Simplon in Baveno and were greeted by the hugest bouquet of roses I've ever seen, and pulled up the shutters to the high French doors, at that very moment a fireworks display commenced across the lake at Verbania - and it was a glorious start to an unforgettable long weekend.

I practiced my Italian at every stage, on the plane, at the airport, at the train station, in the hotel, in the shops on the Isola dei Pescatori and Stresa (visiting the hotel I thought Hemingway had written A Farewell To Arms in - but it turned out that was in a hotel in Vevey near Montreux in Switzerland? ), and I loved every minute of my time in that country. We returned to the Italian coast the next year, and I returned to that hotel a couple of years later, and revisited Stresa and the Borromean Islands, with an Italian guide. I had by now completed Teach Yourself: Italian, and I later got quite a way into Teach Yourself: Improve Your Italian - so this little starter book was the beginning of a great adventure for me, and the start of a love affair with Italian and Italy.

[Leah]

(this is a newer edition than mine) Another language offering courtesy of Daniel and Christmas. This was my introduction to Italian along with the Michel Thomas series. It was okay but there are others that are better.