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If you're looking a really effective Italian course that is also really great value for money, in my books you can't go past Rocket Italian by Rocket Languages. You essentially get three courses rolled into one: There's a 33-lesson audio course, which quickly teaches you the important fundamentals of Italian. Then there's a 'Language and Culture' course which goes into more depth and helps you become more fluent.
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And on top of that, there's a whole suite of testing tools to improve your pronunciation, retention and confidence. The audio course in particular is a lot of fun, and hugely informative. It's not dull, and each lesson is around 20 minutes long — good for learning a bit of Italian on your way to work.
Because the information in Rocket Italian is presented in so many different ways it's suitable for all learning styles, and compared with other Italian courses it offers extremely good value for money. Pros Great price for what you get. Suitable for all learning styles. Comes with an audio course AND a grammar course, so you don't need to buy them separately. One-time only purchase with free updates for life.
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Good community. Cons Only available online. (Digital download and physical versions with free international shipping available.). Rosetta Stone probably has the biggest advertising budget of any language learning software on the planet, so it's not surprising that it's often the first course people try. It's based on an 'acquisition' model that doesn't explain anything about the rules of Italian: It just presents you with pictures and you choose the right answer. What makes Rosetta Stone appealing is that you don't have to sit down and purposely learn any grammar. A lot of people HATE grammar, so Rosetta Stone seems like an easy out.
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There's also the idea that this is how we all learned our mother tongue as children: by watching and figuring out the rules ourselves in context. Rosetta Stone is fun. You'll learn some vocabulary, and you'll feel like you're making good progress — so it's good for staying motivated and developing good habits with your Italian. The problem is that there are lots of things in life that cannot be demonstrated by a picture, so you can forget about discussing philosophy over a cappuccino. You'll be limited to things like 'the woman drinks a coffee.' Rosetta Stone may give you some usable vocabulary and phrases, but probably not enough to survive on vacation. I consider it a more advanced kind of flash-card software — one that is fun to use in addition to another course that explains what's actually going on.