Learn Beginner Italian Bundle: Lessons 1 to 30 Learning Italian Like Crazy

The Ultimate Italian for Beginners Bundle

By: Patrick Jackson

Narrated by: Giovanna Carriero, Tony Russo, Sophia Colombo

Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's Summary

If you want to learn how to speak real, conversational Italian with complete confidence - without having to relocate to Italy for months or even years - then keep reading....

Perhaps you've already purchased another learning-Italian program or two. Or maybe you've purchased several and still feel you're unable to speak Italian with complete confidence. Or maybe you're an absolute beginner. In any case, you may be thinking that you'll have to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on learning Italian programs and/or private Italian classes to learn how to speak Italian with complete confidence.  

Fortunately, there's no need to spend a ton of money and move at a snail's pace in order to learn to speak conversational Italian with complete confidence. 

Learning Italian Like Crazy will empower you to step on the gas and peel rubber, taking you from beginner level - or even absolute beginner level - all the way to a level where you speak real, conversational Italian - and with complete confidence. 

Take a peek at what I have in store for you in this audiobook: 

• Almost 13 hours of authentic Italian audio lessons  
• Core program consists of 30 audio lessons - each lasting about 30 minutes 
• System that will allow you to master conjugating Italian verbs 
• PDF transcripts to all lessons 
• Only native Italian-speaking voice actors to make sure you develop an authentic Italian accent and the pronunciation of a native  

And most importantly, a fun and engaging teaching method that will have you looking forward to practicing with this program - and the more you practice, the more you learn. 

To learn how to speak Italian with complete confidence, this is what you need to do now. 

Buy this audiobook now to get started today!

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2018 Learning Like Crazy (P)2018 Learning Like Crazy

There should be a WARNING message on this

This is the third or fourth learn-a-foreign language product that I bought from this same author in the last few weeks. I obviously find them to be very effective otherwise I would not keep buying them. But they should have a warning message stating that the use of these language learning products cannot only be effective but also addictive. LOL.

Excellent way to learn Italian

Italian is an absolutely beautiful language, and relatively easy to learn if you're already familiar with another Latin language. This bundle of Italian lessons are well-structured and a great way to learn the basic verb structure and vocabulary of beginner Italian. Definitely recommended.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Why I decided to give it 4 stars and not 5

Although I have purchased dozens of learning-Spanish programs, this is one of my first learning Italian programs. And the reason why I chose this program is because it is made by the same author that made Learn Beginner Spanish bundle. And I found that Spanish program to be very effective at helping me learn how to speak real, down-to-earth conversational Spanish. By the way, I also recently purchased the learning Portuguese program by the same author.

First, I will talk about what I liked most about this program. One thing that really pleases me is that there is so much content for what I paid. The program has 30 audio lessons and nearly 13 hours of recorded audio.

The teaching method is another thing that I really liked. The method is so engaging and interactive. The lessons are about 30 minutes long and I don’t think there was ever a moment when I was bored while listening to any of these lessons.

These lessons only feature native Italian speakers – which really helped to improve my pronunciation in Italian. And it definitely gave me the confidence to speak Italian and hold a conversation with an Italian speaker. Hopefully, I’ll have the chance to travel to Italy soon and give my Italian-speaking skills a real test drive.

I believe I gave this author’s learning Spanish program 5 stars. But I am only giving the Italian program 4 stars overall. And that’s because my reason for wanting to learn Italian is completely different from my reason for wanting to learn Spanish.

I live in a city with a lot of Spanish speakers. And I have several Spanish speaking friends. So my reason for wanting to learn Spanish is for developing friendships and relationships with Spanish speakers. And the author’s Spanish program does an excellent job at that. But my reason for wanting to learn Italian is only for tourism or travel. So I am most interested in learning very basic Italian vocabulary for dining, staying at a hotel, what to say at an airport, etc.

And a lot of the vocabulary in this Italian program seems to be for people who have a long term goal of achieving fluency in Italian or developing friendships and relationships with Italian speakers or for someone who has plans to relocate and actually live in Italy - which is not why I would like to learn Italian.

I still think it’s a great program. Not only will it really help to improve your pronunciation, it does a great job at helping the student understand Italian grammar without the lessons sounding overly academic. But it doesn’t address my personal needs for learning Italian. I’d prefer a crash course in “Italian For Travelers” as opposed to a program that guides me towards achieving fluency in Italian.

I started with the PDF and then stopped

I started using the downloadable PDF transcript that is included with the program and found in my AUDIBLE LIBRARY along with the audiobook. But I later stopped using the PDF and used the audio only (after two or three lessons) after discovering that the program is a lot more interactive when I only use the audio. And from what I've read about learning a foreign language, a true native-like accent and pronunciation as well as listening comprehension evolves from hearing and speaking and less from reading.

Average

At first it was great. The lesson on proverbs early on was intense but I felt good understanding it. Then in the last 6 or 7 lessons, it became exponentially hard and I could not follow. Specifically, there is no direction on the grammar or how to conjugate verbs, for example, past tense. It just repeats a few verbs for you in the past tense, and you have to repeat after, and thats it. Its not bad, but if youre paying for something, you might as well get something better.

Choose something else

If you are planning on spending time in Italy and want a basic vocabulary, then choose something else. There is nothing to help with ordering at a restaurant, asking directions, making a hotel reservation, etc. But if you want to know how to correctly say that you write letters to your mother, or go to the discotheque, or you got to class late, then this is for you . There is nothing about the internet, emailing, texting, etc. I liked hearing correct Italian pronunciation, but even here the speakers often pronounced things differently. Updating is needed.

Magnificent way to learn authentic Italian

I was somewhat hesitant to buy this program when I noticed that the author's name did not sound Italian. But from buying a Spanish program of his, his teaching method had earned my trust. To my surprise the narrator or the actual instructor in the audio course is a native Italian speaker along with all the voice actors and voice actresses. Why does ths matter? Listening to native Italian speakers makes the program more effective and enjoyable. And it also helps me develop a real authentic sounding Italian accent. For anyone who is hesitant about getting this program to learn Italian, I highly recommend it!

Skeptial about the medium

Skeptial about the medium

I’m always skeptical how these books would translate in to audible format. With regular books you can always turn the page back. It seems like it would be a hassle but the book does it really well. It goes slowly enough that can learn at a good pace.

Social Italian for beginners

I got this audible for free with another Italian audio program that is centered around short stories. I got them both free in exchange for an honest review. I can sincerely say that I enjoyed Learning Italian Like Crazy and would have even paid for it if I had known it was going to deliver so much value. One thing that I like about this audible is that it teaches social Italian. This is probably one of very few audiobooks that teach social Italian instead of the Italian you would learn as a tourist. If or when an intermediate level of Learning Italian Like Crazy is released they can count on me to be one of the first customers.

I found the PDF to be very useful

The creators of this program recommend that you do not use the PDF in order to force the learner to think in the target language. Since I tend to be a very visual learner the PDF was quite useful for me for learning how to actually say the words.

This audiobook believed in me more than I did.

It’s true that the listen and repeat style is pretty much standard for learning programs of any kind. But what makes this bundle unique is that it trusts its learners with role-play almost immediately. At first, each lesson is focused around a sample conversation which is broken down into its basic components for us to analyze. But then as early as Lesson 3, the instructor says that she will be giving us the chance to "participate" in the sample conversation through figuring out the correct response before it is revealed. I think this surprised me because it felt that by inserting this exercise so early on in the audio book, the instructor and other creators are essentially saying that they estimate that the students would be ready to have a basic conversation by the time they reach Lesson 3.

And in fairness, their estimation was correct. It's amazing that the lessons were actually gently nudging and pushing me to do more than I thought I was capable of. If it were up to me, I would have spent months of practice before I felt I was ready to actually have a conversation in Italian. Yet, there I was at the beginning of Lesson 3, calmly and accurately responding to an Italian sample conversation. And of course, having such a positive experience early on has severely boosted my confidence and motivation to keep learning. I no longer dread the prospect of having an Italian conversation, I look forward to it.

Poor

Not a bad book, but there’s some poor translations at times. It’s obviously written by Americans who don’t speak Italian or live in Europe

I trusted the course designer’s judgment.

Personally, I’m a very visual learner. I like being able to read and see diagrams or watch videos whenever I want to learn anything, so I hesitated to buy this course after the friend who recommended it to me told me that it was mostly an auditory experience. However, she kept saying that it was a fun and quick way to learn Italian, so I went ahead and bought it anyway. And now that I’ve done several lessons, I can safely say that I have no regrets.

Like I said, I’m a visual learner at heart, so the first thing I did after buying the course was download and open the course’s transcript. I was very surprised to see a disclaimer in the introductory section that said something along the lines of, “These lessons were designed to be received through listening. So please try to avoid using the lesson transcripts except for occasionally checking the spelling of certain Italian words.” Again, I started having some doubts because I always had a certain learning style. But in the end I said, “What’s the worst that could happen?” So, putting trust in the program and its creators, I immediately closed the transcript and started listening to the lessons.

Sure enough, I was able to learn without any problems. The way the lessons are structured allow for a lot of verbal practice of the same words repeatedly. I especially appreciate this because you’re repeatedly practicing along with the native Italian speakers. If I had simply heard the word once or twice and then had to pause the audio in order to practice a few more times, then I’m sure that I would eventually end up mispronouncing the words and in turn, develop a strange accent. So the fact that a large chunk of each lesson is allocated purely for practice of new words and proper pronunciation is actually a pretty big deal now that I think about it.

After (I think) four lessons, I decided to open the transcript again mostly out of curiosity than anything else, and briefly went through some of the lessons I had already finished. I was then able to fully appreciate why the transcript itself recommends NOT using the transcript while learning. Let me try to break it down as clearly as possible. Now, obviously, even when we use the same alphabet system to write English and Italian words, the same combination of letters in English sound different than they would in Italian. For example, the English term, “Italian” [pronounced i-tal-yan] versus the Italian term “Italiano” [pronounced ital-yah-no]. Clearly, despite having similar spellings, they have very different pronunciations. This means that English speakers who refer to the lessons’ transcripts could accidentally start using English pronunciation on Italian words because of the way these words are spelled.

I guess this is why from the very beginning of the learning program, the creators recommended not relying on the transcript. Of course, I’m not trying to say that the transcript is detrimental to the learning experience. I’m just saying that this course is well-designed and was meant to be used in a certain way. So using it in that way will ensure the best learning experience. Besides, the audio is so well put-together and neatly structured that I didn’t even feel the need to consult the transcripts. I’m now fairly confident that I have developed at least an understandable, if not “decent”, accent. Another great thing about the audio lessons is the occasional syllable breakdown of different words so that you can really analyze and imitate the pronunciation.

All in all, I’d recommend this to any other beginners out there. I think my experience has shown that the lessons can work for any kind of learner. And I’m happy with my experience with this product so far. I haven’t really had the chance to have a full on Italian conversation yet, but I just know that I’ll soon have an opportunity to use everything I’ve learned. I didn’t really have a particular reason to start learning Italian, I guess I just felt like expanding my horizons. But even though that’s the case, I believe that in a way, this course gave my learning some purpose and direction. Looking back, I have always enjoyed learning, but my experience was made especially enjoyable because of this bundle of lessons. If I could go back in time to once again choose an Italian audiobook tutorial, I would definitely choose this one again.

I was wrong.

This audiobook has been a refreshing experience. I bought it with the purpose of jump starting my Italian speaking ability. Right away, I started listening with the expectations of receiving a rigorous program focused on memorizing as many Italian words as possible and as quickly as possible. Instead, I received a steady, consistent program with a focus on proper pronunciation.

Honestly, I was skeptical at first because I felt as if the instructor was barking up the wrong tree by dedicating so much time to each term/verb. Eventually, however, I realized that the way the lessons were organized is actually genius. Of course, it goes without saying that vocabulary is a crucial component of learning a new language. However, if we think about it, vocabulary is also relatively straightforward to build. Do you know what is NOT straightforward? Being able to communicate with the use of proper verb conjugation and word pronunciation. After all, as long as your Italian is understandable, you can always ask other Italian speakers for help with the specific terms for different items and thus build your vocabulary from there. On the other hand, possession of a wide vocabulary does not guarantee that you will be understood or able to communicate with other Italian speakers.

Therefore, even though this course does indeed build vocabulary, this is not the main focus. Each lesson is designed to give students the skills and tools they will need to have a conversation regardless of the size of their vocabulary. I seriously believe that if I was dropped in the middle of Italy armed with nothing but this audiobook and a bottle of water, I would be able to survive and eventually get back home. That's how much confidence I have in the course. And that is just how much confidence the course has instilled in me. It's true that we all learn at different rates, but nonetheless, this bundle of lessons will help you, not just learn Italian, but to actually speak it.

I'm not saying that these lessons have already helped me perfect the Italian language. After all, I haven't even listened to all of the lessons yet. I'm just saying that I can actually see my progression as a beginner. True, I am still technically a beginner at the moment, but I believe that each lesson is successfully preparing me for the intermediate learning stage. In my opinion, it's almost impossible for one to remain as a beginner learner with this audiobook being used as a reference. With such clear narration and relevant examples, you're bound to learn more whether you want to or not. I would recommend this audiobook for anyone who wants to learn Italian and have fun at the same time.

The whole package right here!

Learning with this resource is an immersive experience! I enjoyed every aspect of this audiobook, from the pleasant narration to the solid content. Learning a new language can be considered as similar to learning how to ride a bike. Initially, you'll require quite a bit of support, but over time, you learn to ride by yourself. This program, although it was designed for beginners, has given me the support I need while simultaneously teaching me to become less dependent. For example, the instructor switches from stating directions purely in English to occasionally stating them in Italian.

I also appreciate the regular reminders to be mindful of my pronunciation no matter how many lessons I have already listened to. There are also countless tips and "hacks" that beginners should remember in order to evolve into fluent Italian speakers. Whether it's about grammar rule exceptions or alternative ways to say something, I always welcome these information tidbits since they always save me from confusion. As for any Italian words that would be especially tricky for English speakers to master, the instructor will at times break them into individual syllables and repeat it slowly. Without a doubt, it's safe to consider this course to be the whole package!

An excellent resource.

There is a lot of learning in these 30 lessons. It is well planned out and easy to follow and understand.
The pdf copy of the transcript was a welcome bonus as I need to read the content as well as listen in order to learn. Very few people are aural learners so having the transcript on hand as I listened reinforced my understanding of the lessons.
The Italian speakers in the book were excellent.
This is a very good set of lessons for beginner learners and I know that I will be dipping in and out of them a lot.

I voluntarily reviewed a review copy.

Enjoyed this Course

Good introduction to learning Italian. Would like to see an Intermediate follow up in this series. Having to look somewhere else now to continue☹

Unexpectedly effective.

Learning can be a completely different experience when you choose an audiobook over a regular course. Sure, either way, there are advantages, but personally I think the audiobook format works better for me. With all of my responsibilities, it’s hard for me to actively set aside time for self-improvement or language learning. So being able to learn Italian whenever and wherever I want has made a huge difference.

The more I thought about some of the other differences between an ordinary course versus the audiobook format, the more I came to appreciate this format of learning. For example, if you want a personal Italian tutor who is available according to your schedule, you either have to go to their house or pay them extra to come to yours. In either case, you’ll have to pay by the hour. If you have to travel to the session, then technically you’re even paying for gas or transportation while taking into account traffic and weather conditions.

In other words, my point is you would have to invest a LOT of time and effort to get the same results you would get while learning from an audiobook instead. In other words, this was the more practical choice for me. Not to mention, I’m able to learn faster using this format since there aren’t any limits to how many lessons I can listen to in a day.

Since I usually listen to the lessons while doing other things, I might not always give 100% of my attention to each lesson. But I don’t stress out as much about it because I can always go back through the different lessons as frequently as I want. However, I’ll admit that it takes some discipline in order to regulate myself. Since I’m not accountable to anyone except myself, I tend to sometimes let myself off the hook.

At times I’ll tell myself I’m not in the mood or that I’m too tired. However, once I get started on a lesson, I feel energized enough to do several in a row. All the voices in the recordings are clear and easy to follow. The recordings are straightforward and plain without being boring. I appreciate the use of different voices because it prevents the lessons from sounding too monotonous. It’s great because despite my short attention span, I can stay focused on the lessons.

I’m happy with the course overall. I may not have the best attention or retention, but at least I’m still having fun as I learn. I’ve now completed several lessons and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. Thank you to the developers of this program for making this awesome learning experience possible for all of us!

Ready for my mental marathon!

Some people light candles, others might choose to play instruments, but for me, I use language learning as a way to relax. I’m slowly working my way through different languages in an attempt to become a multilingual. And although I wouldn’t say I’m fluent in every single language I’ve tried to learn, I’d say that as long as I stick to this course, it’s possible I will eventually become fluent in Italian. And based on my previous experiences with other beginner courses, this one is especially healthy from the learner's perspective.

One of the main challenges with learning a language is that you might lose interest or motivation halfway through. Personally, this happens to me when I feel overwhelmed or pressured by the learning materials or curriculum. Of course, this isn’t what the instructors intend. They simply want the students to learn as quickly as possible. These educators may believe that this is simply part of doing their jobs. However, as I mentioned earlier, learning has become a sort of pastime for me. It's what I do when I want to unwind, and I tend to eventually lose interest in programs that might put even more pressure on me. When I read that the course's purpose was to fast-track a person's progress in learning Italian, I was worried that it would too fast for comfort. However, I saw all of the positive reviews and decided to give it a try. And I'm so glad that I did.

The lessons definitely live up to their claims. To tell the truth, I do feel as if I have picked up Italian pronunciation and grammar fairly quickly. However, the instructor doesn't rush through the lessons. She doesn't attempt to teach you as many words or grammar rules as possible within one lesson. Rather, the teaching technique in each lesson is more focused on mastering a few key words that are essential for daily conversation. And I can say for sure that this method works! It's true that it may take slightly more time for a student to memorize and master the words through additional repetitive practice. But that method of learning is still less time-consuming than having the students rush through vocabulary building exercises so quickly that they (almost immediately) forget most of what they've learned, which then leads to them having to keep coming back to redo the exercises.

In short, the learning happens quickly, but at a consistent and comfortable pace. Athletes don't run marathons by expending all of their energy at the beginning just because they want to move quickly. Instead, they pace themselves while still maintaining a high speed. Similarly, this learning program is fast-paced, yet as a learner, I can follow along with ease. Learning Italian is challenging (like running a marathon), but this program is helping me both pace and push myself. I’m proud to give it five stars!

Five stars I must say !

I don’t have any problem at all giving this course 5 stars. I have tried it both the visual way. That is, by using the PDF transcript found in my Audible library. And I have also tried it the way the author recommends which by discarding the pdf transcript and just listening and speaking. I think I prefer that latter method because it makes this audible program more entertaining and engaging. I kind of felt like I was cheating when using the transcript.