Learn Italian with Paul Noble for Beginners – Part 1

Italian Made Easy with Your Personal Language Coach

By: Paul Noble

Narrated by: Paul Noble

Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's Summary

With Paul Noble’s simple, relaxed approach you will learn in a way that suits you – without having to memorise long lists of words you won’t use, scribbling notes as you listen, or feeling frustrated. Instead, Paul will introduce you to the basics of the Italian language and guide you through over 4 hours of everyday scenarios that are practical, fun, and applicable. Just listen, interact, and learn wherever you are.

Whatever your experience with languages, whether you’re an absolute beginner or someone with basic knowledge who wants to improve their ability, this is the course to get you speaking Italian quickly, confidently, and with no chance of failure. 

A native-speaking Italian expert will help you to perfect your pronunciation as you progress through the course. You will learn a huge range of vocabulary in no time at all, and be able to quickly make your new knowledge work for you in a variety of everyday scenarios. A downloadable booklet is also included to use as a reference and revision tool.

Paul Noble left school unable to speak a language – having found that the traditional learning methods left him feeling ‘confused, incapable and unable to really say anything’. Determined that there must be a better way to learn, Paul spent years devising his own unique method of learning languages which cuts out all the grammar, all the memorisation, and all the stress. He began using his method to teach in his Language Institute and, thousands of students later, he prides himself on never having had a student fail.

This download is Part One of a three-part course. Once you’ve finished Part One, download Learn Italian with Paul Noble for Beginners – Part Two.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio on our Desktop Site.

©2010 HarperCollins Publishers Ltd (P)2010 HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

Mind Numbingly Boring

Any additional comments?

I can’t understand why anyone would think that Paul Noble is such a great language teacher. I literally fell asleep just listening to his “ground rules” on the audio sample on this page. I still ordered the program and continued sleeping through it as he droned on endlessly in a low-energy monotone.
I don’t know about you, but I want to speak ITALIAN. If you’ve ever heard real Italians speak, you’ll notice that they are extremely HIGH ENERGY people with a lively language.
To give you some contrast, check out the Power Italian 1 Accelerated by Mark Frobose. The free audio sample will explain why I think “Learn Italian the Natural Way” should be named “Learn Italian (Maybe) While You Sleep”.
Power Italian is much better in every way.
So is “Learn in Your Car Italian” by Penton Overseas. They blast you with a gong every now and then between lessons, but at least you stay awake.
I also learned some Italian with a memory technique that’s almost as good as Frobose’s in Power Italian. It’s the famous Pimsleur programs, which are also quite good, but just use a very limited vocabulary base.

Making Language Learning Painless

Great natural way to learn a language. Found that I understood concepts later when I encountered them in real life.

Repetition is the key to learning

Paul has a very calm voice and teaches basic concepts in this beginner book. At first I thought I was going to be bored, and then I realized that the key to learning was through repetition. Every lesson builds on the next and his explanations are clear and concise. The female translator speaks so well and it's easy to hear every letter. I am using this book along with other apps and in person lessons- I am finding it very helpful as a foundation to learning the Italian language - a note, every time you start/stop - be sure to rewind - as it's so easy to forget what you previously learned and this reinforces the older material then you pick up new material.

Good learning tool for beginners.

Very easy way to learn basics on italian. I'm not an the type of person that learns from listening, but this audiobook is very easy to follow and learn from

So easy to follow along and learn

Loved the narrator and the Italian lady who speaks clearly. This provides great instructions of how to conjugate words in an easy way and how to build useful sentences. Looking for part 2 now.

Good but not perfect

Good structure and sets up core principles fairly well.
My only complaint is the person doing the Italian pronunciation could have been more articulate. It is a little bit hard to hear at times.
But I recommend it still.

Took me from grammar to basic speaking

I did some beginner Italian with an app and even tried online classes, but felt like I hit a wall. This book helped immensely with having the confidence to speak Italian and make up some of my own sentences. The repetition is exactly what I needed for my learning style. I am excited for the “Next steps” now.

Quite decent

This book made it incredibly easy to follow along and learn Italian words and grammar, and while some may find the repetitiveness tedious or annoying, it’s honestly helpful. However, there are words in here that someone learning Italian doesn’t need to learn, and i’m not sure why the book pushes them (tent, camping, piazza). The book should push more words that are common in everyday talk. And maybe they should spell out the words because it wasn’t until I looked up the words that I realized I was saying them incorrectly (to wait is aspettare and I thought it was espettare). Overall a good place to start learning Italian, but don’t expect to be able to say much in a conversation. At most, I can order food or ask for the price of something.

boring but good

the narrator's voice and the responders are extremely boring and difficult to hear. However if you turn it up very loudly the information is all very good and easy to learn. Gives you all sorts of relevant information to learning very basic stuff

Terrible

The “ato” in “tomato”....come on. There are much better audiobooks to learn Italian than this British nonsensical garbage.

Great introduction into learning Italian.

Learning Italian with Paul Noble was so easy. I suprised myself how easy it was to learn the language using this technique. He also shows you little ways and clues to remember the words and phrases. Just brilliant!!

Great value, excellent way to learn

What made the experience of listening to Collins Italian with Paul Noble - Learn Italian the Natural Way, Part 1 the most enjoyable?

I normally use Michel Thomas method language lessons but initially chose Paul Noble for Italian because of the bad reviews Michel Thomas Italian received. Paul Noble uses a method very similar to Michel Thomas but more methodical and with a native Italian speaker for better pronunciation. On the downside Paul Noble is very slow moving both in terms of progress and slow speaking which I found so irritating that I switched back to Michel Thomas.

However as I found out, the bad reviews of Michel Thomas Italian are well deserved, so found myself switching back to Paul Noble. This time I set the play speed to x1.25 and this made all the difference.

To start learning a new language my experience is that Michel Thomas or Paul Noble is a must. Paul Noble is certainly better value than Michel Thomas but you may prefer Michel Thomas' style like I do. However for Italian I'd strongly recommend you choose Paul Noble.

Enjoyable to learn Italian

Soon I will go on a holiday to Italy, and the only word I already know in Italian is "Ciao!", which won't get me far. I have always been a bit reserved in acquiring language learning materials, as most are complex and boring, but this book is the very opposite in my opinion and I am looking forward to beginning on book 2!

I like Noble's voice, and the way he explains things in a straight forward way. The pauses you get to repeat the sentences and words are perfect - not too short, and not too long - and the italian voice is also soothing and easy to listen to. There are plenty of repetitions, but I don't mind it. Besides, this is done deliberately, to make you remember more easily, and as time progresses you come back to what you have learned earlier on.

I'm a complete beginner so I found Paul Noble's book very easy and fun to use. I would recommend this for anyone who wants a basic understanding of the Italian language.

The Very Best Starter Course to Learn Italian

My husband and I restore houses in France as a full time job 6 days a week, so the only way I can learn a language is via something that is completely "audio based" - I have no time to study "accompanying booklets or notes". The Paul Noble series of 3 is fautless in this. If you listen to nothing else to learn a language, then this is the absolute MUST to start learning a language. He explains everything so well, his instructions are clear, and there is no gratuitous chat or jokes that others seem to waste so much time in doing. At the end of the three series, I felt confident and happy, and never needed to look at any of the accompanying booklets - fantastic when you really do want to learn via an audio medium. My only critisism - that Paul Noble does not continue with more series. I have tried other options to continue my learning, but nothing compares to his clean and clear way of teaching.

I struggled with Italian, until now

I had virtually thrown in the towel with regard to learning Italian, but came across this book and so many mysteries about the language were dispelled very quickly. With previous attempts I had stalled because
Certain elements didn't seem to penetrate my concentration and/or understanding. I found everything was explained perfectly AND I understood all that was conveyed. I have suddenly acquired a greater confidence with the language and eagerly anticipate a steady progress using this and the remaining books in the series. My grateful thanks go to Mr Noble et al.

Another great language learning experience

If you could sum up Collins Italian with Paul Noble - Learn Italian the Natural Way, Part 1 in three words, what would they be?

Learning that sticks

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

not applicable!

What does Paul Noble bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

His tone & repetition really makes the language learning stick, in a way that other language learning tools often don't.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Ha, really can't imagine a film of a language learning audiobook!

Any additional comments?

Thoroughly recommend. Wish he did a sequel or intermediate option to follow.

Language learning

It really is very good. You can listen when driving: it doesn't require you to read the screen or type. You can repeat but you don't have to: I'm not so wild about speaking, in terrible Italian, into my phone while shopping.
He uses several different methods to help the "reader" link words and phrases and thus aid recall.

A Great Way to Learn a Language

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. I consider this Paul Noble series to be about the best audible language learning on the market.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Collins Italian with Paul Noble - Learn Italian the Natural Way, Part 1?

No memorable moments, it is all consistently good.

Which scene did you most enjoy?

All good.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Yes! I found myself unconsciously remembering most of the lessons.

Any additional comments?

I found the Introduction to be overly long. He did not need to spend 20 or so minutes talking about himself.. However, this is the only grumble I could muster.

Nearly Perfect

Where does Collins Italian with Paul Noble - Learn Italian the Natural Way, Part 1 rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

The first on language tuition and so undoubtedly the best!

What did you like best about this story?

I've picked up several useful phrases very quickly.

What about Paul Noble’s performance did you like?

Fantastic tuition. Reminds you of thinks diligently without being patronising and has a friendly style that's easy to listen to.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

NA

Any additional comments?

The alphabet and numbers were meant to be at the end but didn't appear to be there. This is a fault with Audible's rather than anything else, they obviously didn't think to include it even though it's mentioned by the narrator. Feel a bit shortchanged by that but otherwise this was great!

Simple and effective

A very basic introduction to the Italian language which proceeds slowly with plenty of repetition. It is aimed at people who have no previous knowledge of the language, and avoids the standard approach of rote learning of grammatical rules, focusing instead on useful phrases and vocabulary¡, and building very slowly. Paul Noble presents his course with great assurance and calmness. A welcome change from the brash and overenthusiastic style typical of the American approach to teaching. Highly recommended for beginners, but be warned that part one will not be sufficient, and you will then have to shell out for the remaining parts of the course!