Unlocking Italian with Paul Noble

by Paul Noble

Ever tried to learn Italian and found it too hard? Bestselling language coach Paul Noble has a quick and easy way to get you back on track with his unique tried-and-tested method.



Keeps things simple with three basic rules; don’t skip anything, don’t try to memorize anything and cover up to test yourself.
A fun, jargon-free way to learn
Easy-to-understand Italian pronunciation
PROVEN to work; Paul can teach anyone a language, even people who think they’re incapable

Paul’s course teaches you how to speak Italian more effectively, giving you the building blocks to form a huge range of conversations. This is a practical way to learn the aspects of language that you’ll actually need and use; from booking a hotel room to navigating a menu, Paul will effortlessly build your confidence and give you the tools to handle any vacation situation. You will unlock a range of vocabulary you already know.


There is nothing so complicated in foreign languages that it cannot be made simple.” Paul Noble


A quick, easy and fun way to unlock your basic language skills. Perfect for beginners, this book will give you all the information you need to build basic conversations and get by on your travels.

Genres: Nonfiction, Language

256 pages, Paperback

Published October 4, 2022

Reviews

[Tiago F · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book. I've tried a bunch of language apps beforehand, and I felt I wasn't making much progress. It mostly gives a false sense of confidence.

This book had great reviews, so I thought I'd give it a shot. The fact that it didn't require you to memorize something, was a huge plus for me.

And it delivered, I never spent hours trying to memorize words or phrases. I loved the method of teaching it. The fact that everything is repeated throughout the book and connected to whatever content is slowly added in was hugely helpful.

I just wish the book was longer. While the method of teaching is great, it takes a lot of pages and practice to nail something rather simple. So even though the book is 200 pages+, the amount I learned was relatively small. Nevertheless, at least the amount that I did learn didn't require much effort and I felt it taught important fundamentals about the structure of the language itself, rather than random vocabulary.

[Ravenclaw Library Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the perfect book for those who want to learn Italian. It keeps everything simple and truly focuses on you learning words as opposed to simply memorising them. I would highly recommended to anyone wanting to learn Italian.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book uses a really clever and novel approach to learning a language. Paul Noble quickly gets you speaking useful phrases in Italian rather than the not so useful phrases you may have learnt on a traditional Italian course.
I know pretty much no Italian aside from yes, no and thank you and so have plenty to learn.
The book starts with explaining to you just how many words are very similar in Italian to English and how we can use simple rules to move from one language to another (in most cases).

This is a book you have to work through from the beginning, page by page, it's is structured in particular way to aid learning. Each chapter slowly builds up a multicomponent phrase. As you go through the chapter, the author asks you to cover the answers written in green with a bookmark or piece of card, to get your brain working and so that you actually work through the multiple micro-tasks. Each answer in Italian has a pronunciation guide as well as the actual written answer. There's no active memorisation required but the use of spaced repetition gets you effortlessly remembering how to say all sorts of different phrases.

At the end of each chapter are increasingly long word/phrase lists that the author encourages you to keep going through until you only get 3 wrong. That sounds hard, but the way you're taught to put phrases together and the spaced repetition actually makes this much easier than it sounds. Noble also reminds you to not try and do too much and that if it takes all week to get through the word list, that's ok.

You start learning how to put together the phrase " I spent the weekend in Rome – and wow, the weather was fantastic" and end with being able to hold a conversation including things like " I’m sorry, I was in the middle of preparing dinner when you arrived, so I was a bit distracted." Unusually you actually start using the past tense before the present one, but it makes sense when you think about the kind of things you usually want to talk about.

There are no long list of grammar rules to memorise, instead there are really useful tips like how to remember when you change a verb ending to match gender and when you don’t, and ways to remember how Italian phrases are put together. For example, " I’m moving" in English is " myself I transfer" if you literally translated the Italian. Similarly, " when my mother arrived" in English, is literally translated from the Italian as “when my mother is arrived".

The book ends with ideas on where to go next as this book really is just a stepping stone to further learning although a really useful one. It definitely builds confidence and makes you realise learning a new language does not have to be as difficult as many courses make it. School may have you put off learning languages for life, but this book shows it doesn’t have to be that dull and difficult! I will definitely look up Noble’s audio course as this way of learning does seem much more sensible and useful than the usual ways!

Whether you are totally new to Italian, learnt a little at school but not used it since, or know some Italian but don’t feel like you know anything actually useful, this is a great little book to get you going and feeling confident about learning and starting to Speak in Italian.

[Sue Cartwright · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always believed that the most respect you can give to a person from a different country is to understand and speak their language. The same applies to visiting a country. Even if you learn just a few phrases, it will endear you to the local people and ensure the best reception and service.

With this in mind, during the months preceding my trip to Italy, I wanted to learn as much as I could to be able to ask for things, ask questions and (to a point) share a comment or answer a question in Italian. I wasn't very good at languages at school (except Latin strangely enough) so I needed a different learning method. I tried my best in French and German but simply wasn't quick enough, and rest of my class seemed to speed on ahead of me, leaving me behind.

This is why 'Unlocking Italian' by Paul Noble caught my eye. He presents a way of learning that appealed to me, taking you through logical steps to gradually build a bank of key words and helpful sentences by rote, until you can remember and speak those words and sentences as fluently as if you know the language. This started happening on the first few pages, which was very satisfying.

During my daily walks, lasting about an hour, I would work on new words and phrases, repeating them slowly to build up the sentence, continually referring back to the green text in the book until I was sure I was using the right pronunciation. At the end of each chapter you go through a checklist in English and Italian to test your memory before moving on.

It's a simple but effective process that teaches you new words and phases, tenses, sentence construction, context and sound in small steps until you have a sizeable vocabulary to work on. For example, the phrase 'You called me' literally means 'Me you have called' in Italian which translates to 'Mi hai chiamato' which is spoken as 'mee eye kee-am-art-oh.'

It was great to be able to speak a few words when I was in Italy although the most frequent phrase I used (especially to those who did not speak any English) was 'Ho bisogno di parlare italiano' which means 'I need to speak Italian.' This was enough to explain why I could only really ask questions or make the odd statement here and there as I was still learning, and it always brought about a nod of appreciation and a broad smile.

For anyone new to languages or seriously not very good at it or rusty (like me), this book is for you. A thoroughly enlightening and enjoyable experience. Buonissimo!

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I often watch foreign language TV programmes with subtitles but just sometimes it would be nice to actually understand what they were saying myself without that need to read anymore. This seemed the perfect book for that purpose, especially as my favourite programme is Inspector Montalbano set in Sicily.

This book keeps everything simple and focuses on you learning words as opposed to simply memorising them and seeing their is a pattern to the words being taught. Some are quite close to their English equivalents but have a standard type of ending in Italian, so makes it quite easy to remember.

Each chapter starts with a new set of building blocks. alongside tips and tricks throughout and each chapter is closed with a thorough summary and includes all that you have learned to date. This is really useful as it means that you don’t have to constantly flick back to previous chapters.

I enjoyed using this book to build up my Italian and will certainly be listening out next time my favourite programme is on to see what I can decipher.

I received this book from Netgalley in return for a honest review.

[william ellison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Se parla

I really should score it higher as I found it very useful and it cleared up a couple of issued about Italian usage, but I already has a smattering of Italian. How easy it would be for someone who knew none of hadn't learned a second language, I'm not sure but it does tackle the subject head on and gets the learner in the deep end quicker than more traditional courses perhaps.

[Elise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Growing up in NYC I took Spanish for four years and an additional four years after moving to Florida at 14. I love to learn new languages.

I decided to give this book Unlocking Italian by Paul Noble and he definitely didn't disappoint. Paul makes it so simple and easy to learn by using repetition and practice. I highly recommend this book and his other books as well!

I reviewed this book on Netgalley for my honest review.

[Mark Inder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good!

The way the language is built up is cool. It would be great if audible linked to Kindle. Buy it!

[Bizzy Day · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great accompanying book to the audio book learning

[Piper Winchester · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book!
Bite sized chapters and good sentence building

[Siena · Rating 4 out of 5]

a very good starting place for beginners and refresher/solidifier for intermediates.

[Jodie Wang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Paul Noble’s teaching method!

Great book. I think I have a rudimentary knowledge of Italian, and I have some confidence to speak it. Moving on to the audio course.

[gino mazzuchetti · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book very much and found the teaching style easy to understand and follow.

[Alice]

I listened to a complete audiobook of this book and it was great. Absolutely reccomend this method to all ages and all levels of italian learners.

[matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unlocking Italian with Paul Noble is a delightful little book. Noble’s tone is friendly and helpful, and it feels like he’s letting you in on a secret that will change your life.

He opens by stating that we already know Italian. It sounds like a brave move, but ‘around half of all English words have close equivalents in Italian.’

Noble argues that there are three rules to unlock the language, and this helps to put into perspective the ease of learning, when allowed to learn for pleasure.

Given that this book is interactive and requires active participation I would recommend that you read it as a physical book rather than an ebook. His teaching often relies on words being in different colours and a reader being able to cover up particular phrases. This doesn’t translate well to an electronic copy. At least not on my Paperwhite. If you’re using a tablet you will be okay as long as you are happy to go back and forth.

There are tips and tricks throughout, and you are encouraged to engage with Italian wherever possible. However, Noble stresses that you should never over exert yourself, and that the language should have a natural place in your life.

Each chapter is closed with a thorough summary and includes all that you have learned to date. This is helpful as it means that you don’t have to constantly refer to previous chapters, and there’s no difficulty in finding that one phrase that seems to have jumped off the page and launched itself out of the book.

Noble also begins each chapter with a new set of building blocks. Through this he encourages you to play around with the language and see what you can work out for yourself. You can both see and feel your grasp of Italian coming together.

I also rather enjoyed some of his forays into definitions. The defining of each day of the week was interesting, and it was a much more memorable way to learn them.

Following the completion of the book, you are welcome to join Noble for an audio course, which I might check out once I feel confident with the content of the book.

The only thing I might have changed about the book, is moving the reference to Forvo, to the front. Whilst Noble provides the phonetics, you can’t beat hearing the word pronounced by native speakers.

Overall, I’m not exactly fluent, but I didn’t follow one of Paul’s rules. I have picked up some very useful tips and I’m sure with some dedicated study I’ll be much closer to my goal of reading the Italian classics in their original language.

*I received a free copy of this via NetGalley for review*

[Anastasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book is okay. It can be useful for some people.

The teaching method the author uses does work. The author’s explanations and writing style is easily understandable.

I am not sure if this book is good for complete beginners though… I already had some basic knowledge of Italian, so for me it was easy to follow the book’s teachings and exercises.

After I’ve finished reading this book, I was able to make up many sentences in Italian. However, I wish the book included audios with pronunciation. It is important to learn correct pronunciation from natives from the very beginning.

Also, once you finish this book, you need to keep going with your learning practice. Otherwise, your efforts will be wasted.

This book can be a good addition to your practice, but I believe that it should not be used exclusively.

[Suat Atan · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to talk Italian within 3 months try this book. Just by reading and practicing the exercises aloud, I am able to ask addresses, basic questions, defining addresses, ordering things. Even understanding basic conversations. A very very good way to learn. The essence of the method is using word similarities between English and Italian and focusing the phrases instead of words or grammatical rules.

[Alfi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's probably handy to bring it along with your Italy trip. I read this for refreshing my Italian grammar. So, it's easy reading. But after a month, you probably will forget what's inside the book if you don't practice the language regularly.