Bilingual or Italian only? Beginner or advanced? A pocket guide phrase book or a college-level textbook? Here are a few factors to consider before purchasing an Italian textbook, dictionary, CD, or tape. Most important, spend some time every day reading, writing, speaking, and listening to Italian to become accustomed to the target language.
Seek Out Recommendations
Ask your friends, colleagues, and teachers to recommend their favorite titles. Find out what they like and don't like about particular works and why.
Determine Your Proficiency Level
Make an accurate assessment of your language skills so that the material reasonably matches your own level. Challenge yourself by selecting an Italian textbook, dictionary, CD or tape that's more advanced.
Identify Your Goals
Are you traveling to Italy and want to learn survival phrases? Being transferred to Milano and need to become fluent in Italian? Maybe you want to converse with your Italian relatives. Decide first what your goals are before buying so that the Italian grammar book, dictionary, CD, or tape is appropriate. If it doesn't fit your needs, it's not worth it regardless of the cost.
Monolingual or Bilingual
Take the training wheels off and take a quantum leap in learning Italian! Use monolingual reference material and your comprehension skills will improve immeasurably. You'll begin to think and speak in Italian without cumbersome mental translational gymnastics.
Consider Compatibility
When shopping for a CD-ROM check the manufacturer's minimum and recommended system configuration for your PC or Mac to ensure optimal performance.
