Italian for Dummies (For Dummies)

click here for more details, find new or used items	Francesca Romana Onofri, Karen Antje Möller Our price £10.39 (£14.99) New from £5.98 Used from £5.51 Pages: 372 (Paperback) ISBN: 0764551965 Pub: John Wiley & Sons Pub date: 2000-05-08 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 149304

Reader Reviews:

Poor (0/1 people found this helpful)

I agree about the margins and poor audio CD that other reviewers gave this book.
For me I think it is best to know how Italians structure their sentences and give more precise translations. A simple example would be - 'Che cosa desidera', translates to 'What thing desires you', but the authors would give the translation as 'What would you like'!!! It is very misleading.
I need a book that gives true translations, any recommendations?

Disappointing ... an insult to the storage capacity of a CD! (22/27 people found this helpful)

I was very disappointed with this book/CD pack. I have awarded 'Italian For Dummies' 2 stars. It earns these points for its nice introductory grammar section which is ideal for any beginner.

But the pack loses BIG, in my opinion, for failing to utilise 'space' - both in terms of the book and the audio CD which accompanies it.

The pages of the book have huge margins on either side, which leaves you feeling that you should have gotten twice or three times as much information as you paid for. (ie - You've been robbed!) And I'm not judging the book on purely quantitative terms. For example, if the book did it's job, it shouldn't matter how much is written inside it. But the problem with this book is that there is so MUCH left out that you will feel resentful about that wasted 'paper'! (This book covers very basic stuff)

The biggest travesty, however, is the audio CD. It was the main reason I bought the book in the first place. Everyone knows that the audio component of any language pack or course is VITAL to the learning process. Anyone aware of the storage capacity of a CD will be disgusted by how little they find on this one. And remember too that everything is repeated on this CD so in reality I would estimate that you will get about 15 mins of 'new Italian' for your money.

What is so disappointing is that what little was included in the book and tapes was actually very good. There just wasn't enough of it.

My verdict: Buy this book if you have a lot of money and time and don't mind buying another course to follow up. This book is an EXCELLENT INTRODUCTION, but really should have given more.

If you want to learn Italian - this is it! (8/13 people found this helpful)

I wanted to learn Italian in less painfull way and I made it. This is great and fun book whit useful dialogs on CD. It really help me whit my exam and talking to Italian people. I would recomendet to enyone who is starting to learn Italian.

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