Customer Reviews

Rapid Italian: Volume 2

Even knowing how to say "hello" and "thank you" makes life more pleasant when travelling abroad - and the locals appreciate it. But is it really possible to learn a language the easy way? I've tried several teach yourself Italian audios and have always ground to a halt because they were too fast or too boring. Earworms gives you the Italian you are likely to need on holiday (with the tiniest hint of shoe fetishism thrown in) The slow pace and frequent repetitions allow you to really HEAR individual words and pronounce them correctly. The vocabulary does seep in, as promised. You suddenly realise that you can hire a car or ask for sticking plasters (which you'll need after buying all those shoes) without quite realising it is happening. It would also be useful for schoolkids and students taking Italian as an accent improver. I shall definitely get the second CD when it comes out.

I have now tried five different beginner courses for Italian and this is the best of them. The voices are charming and very natural. The pace is not fast and the pronunciation is wonderful. I would like more in this series but where are they?

At last, a language course that I can use any time, I have been trying to learn Italian with books for years (struggling)...I have downloaded to my MP3...the music really helps you to relax and enjoy it. I wake up now with Italian words in my head...it really is a cool product, the best yet - can't wait for volume 2.

The claim of this CD to anchor 200+ words of vocab in your head is amazingly accurate. It didn't take much effort or a lot of time before I was easily speaking all of the language on this disc.

Ok, it's a bit cheesy but get over it, it works!

It's not an Italian course in itself. Perfect for those going on holidays who need basic words and phrases but nothing more. For those beginning to learn Italian, I've found this complements other courses and aids pronounciation.

Will most definately be buying vol. 2

With a holiday to Italy coming up, preceded by several long car journeys, I bought three language CDs to listen to in the car: Earworms, Learn in Your Car Complete Language Course and BBC Quickstart and I'd rate them them in that order. They're all easy to listen to in the car, although I think they are actually better suited to short journeys than long ones.

Earworms was easily my favourite of the three. You absorb - I don't want to say learn, because it doesn't involve any effort - the phrases as the CD plays. When on holiday, it all came flooding back just like magic - my companion kept exclaiming at how good my Italian was. Yes, the range of phrases is limited and I was scuppered once anyone ventured beyond the obvious holiday areas of buying clothes, ordering in restaurants, getting directions/travelling etc, but within those areas I confidently spoke and not only did people understand me, but I understood what people were saying to me.

On the CD the man says the word in English, the woman gives the Italian translation. There isn't a space for you to repeat the words as such, but because they follow the rhythms of the music you find yourself joining in. They've both got very attractive voices, and interact with each other - there's no attempt though at the painful role playing of the BBC CD. I listened to the CD three times through before going on holiday, which was enough for most of it to stick, and it was never a chore to listen.

Very occasionally I didn't catch the Italian and had to check in the booklet. Very helpfully that has the English, the Italian translation and a phonetic version of the Italian so you can see exactly what should be said. Overall, if you want to learn Italian properly, you need something more comprehensive, but for a holiday this is perfect.

Earworms is the first language course that has made me stick at Italian! It's harmonies with repetitive words/sentence formula works very well indeed. After a few weeks, I was able to cover all all the 10 modules and progress to 'Volume 2'- which is more of the same however, a little more advanced (Bought the latter direct from the author's website). The way you learn key phrases and words really does help grasp both translation and how you actually say it. One small point (ref 4 stars)..although this method appears to be amazing, I don't actually feel as though I've got far enough....eg. made enough progress. It's as though there needs to be more content to the cd, whether changing to a double cd set or increasing the amount of modules/difficulty on one cd. Both vol 1 and 2 contain over an hour of recordings however,now that I'm proficient in both, I feel I should be further along my road...Small note about volume 2 - It feels a little more 'rushed' than vol 1. When downloading to Ipod - there are no titles or subjects and the recording sounds less clear than vol 1, not hugely noticeable but a little. All in all though excellent tutorial,I just hope I don't have to get to vol 33 (at �10-�15 a time)to get to conversational stage - because I'll be broke!

We're hoping to move to Italy in the next year and I've bought several language courses, including Michel Thomas, Rosetta Stone and DK's 15 Minute Italian. My husband has real difficulty with them, never having studied any languages. Until I got volume 1 of Earworms his only attempt at Italian was 'il conto, per favore'. I was getting worried, thinking all the Italian was going to be down to me - and I've still got plenty to learn. However he has made real progress with Earworms - and I have found it invaluable too for the pronunciation and repetition, which has increased my confidence in speaking considerably. We're eagerly awaiting volume 2.

I have always considered myself to be pretty slow at learning languages, I have to hear things so many times I get bored before they sink in. I am not sure that these CDs are making me learn any quicker, but it is far easier to listen to several times over because of the music. I am listening to the second volume at the moment and today as I was wishing someone a good weekend, the Italian phrase came straight to mind without having to think about it.

If you only have volume 1, then on volume 2 the music is more noticeable, and there is an almost comic flute riff in the first track! I don't think I'm spoiling the plot to tell you that the English male voice and the Italian female voice get more flirty with each other through the second CD until you start wishing they would just go get "una camera matrimoniale" ... perhaps the one he has booked in the name of Beckham!

Although this may seem like a gimmick it really does work and makes learning much easier. A basic course but what you learn sticks. I would recommend this series as an effective way of learning enough of a language to survive!

The central premise here seems to make a lot of sense intuitively. Learn the language through hearing catchy songs - that sounds good. However the 'songs' themselves are really more like a series of phrases spoken over an ambient backing track. Fair enough, you will remember some of them but it's not exactly what I had expected from reading the description of this product. If you're starting from scratch then this will arm you with a very basic vocabulary to use on your holiday, but don't expect any miracle solution here where you will find yourself speaking fluent Italian after a couple of listens. If you are serious about learning the language I would suggest investing in one of Michel Thomas' audio discs.