Ultimate Italian Beginner-Intermediate (Book) (Ultimate Beginner-Intermediate)

Great for Enriching your Trip!

I found this book to be very helpful in my preparation for a trip to Italy. At one time I had been fairly competent in Italian but had forgotten most of what I once knew. This book got me back up to speed quickly in conjunction with Pimsleur Italian, which I can't recommend highly enough. It really made the trip much richer being able to read and communicate in Italian. One morning I went for a walk and found an old Order of Malta castle just outside of Rome now being used as a hospital. After a brief conversation with the custodian who did not understand any English, she gave me a private tour of the building. On other occasions, I found it helpful for getting medication at a pharmacy. This book has a great and logical approach to improving vocabulary and understanding of grammar. It covers many different topics from dining in restaurants and navigating medical care, to renting and buying homes, as well as cultural events with arts and music. The exercises were helpful. But learning a language is work. I recommend notecards and making your own flashcards. Don't just do singular words, write out phrases and sentences, the questions and answers for the exercises and so forth. Memorize them because that ingrains the structure of the language into your head and later allows you to play around with it. Sure, if you stay in the tourist areas of Italy you will be able to get by without learning the language. But not everyone there speaks English, and far fewer feel competent enough in it to talk to anyone in English. However, even if you stay in the tourist friendly places, your trip will be enriched when you can read what is there for the Italians and not just the points of interest for the tourists, the waiters and waitresses treat you different too. Read more