If you've never studied Italian (and never studied Spanish) I recommend you start with Pimsleur courses. Typically the first level is Units 1-30 (which is 15 hours). These are expensive courses, but Pimsleur all-audio courses will hammer about 10 words per half hour into your head whether you want to learn them or not.
Pimsleur proof: I used Pimsleur courses (Units 1-30) to learn basic Hebrew and basic Greek. This proves that if you're starting from scratch in a very foreign language, here is a course that actually works if you just spend the time and listen to it.
REFRESHING OR LEARNING SOME ITALIAN (ALL AUDIO)
I had several years of Spanish in my teens, and as an adult I used that to learn some basic Italian and French. If you have some basics in a Romance language, here come are my recommendations. The courses in Italian below really work, at least, if you know some basics. If you are starting completely cold, refer to Pimsleur above, first.
- EITHER (A) MARK FROBOSE OR (B) PAUL NOBLE
These courses are fairly similar and fairly inexpensive. The're both long (around 15 hours).
Using an English guy to explain everything, you then hear phrase after phrase, or sentences, from a native speaker. The Frobose courses come with snappy high energy titles ("Accelerated Power Italian!!"), but the content of Frobose and Noble audio courses are not that different.
- Mark Frobose, Power Italian Accelerated, Levels 1 and 2 (2 x 8 hours).
- Paul Noble, Learn Italian, Levels 1,2,3 (3 x 4.5 hrs).
- Another All Audio option at Audible is "Italian Survival Phrases," which is two levels, each with about ?30 lessons in vignette format. For example, you might get a four or five minute lesson using 3 or 4 sentences to buy a train ticket. At Audible, you can buy "Learn Italian, Survival Phrases Italian, Vol. 1 & 2" which comprise lessons 1-30, then 31-60. Each volume is about 2 1/2 hours of listening. The publisher is "Absolute Beginner."
I've already bought the above, so Audible doesn't show me prices, but they were fairly inexpensive.
Short Stories
I really like short stories for boosting reading skills, but they are often deadly boring or just drivel.
I found two short story ebooks that are available BOTH on Kindle and on Audible, although the two don't sync automatically.
Olly Richards, Italian Short Stories for Beginners. This includes several short stories, each divided into short chapters. They are around the fourth or fifth grade reading level. In the first one, David and Julia visit Armando in Rome. Jetlagged David falls asleep on a bus and wakes up in Naples with a dead cell phone. Each short chapter is followed by a bilingual word list.
Olly Richards, Italian Short Stories for Beginners, Volume 2. This is the same format as above. In the first one, Detective Morgan investigates a case. The reading level is not that different that the first volume.
Note that "Olly Richards" writes introductory readers in a range of other languages too. Like Mark Frobose and Paul Noble, he seems to be a real guy (here).
There are a lot of other options for simple Italian stories on Amazon, but I find alot are drivvel.
Simple Paperback Textbook
A simple paper back conversational textbook for beginner's can be nice.
I have a beat up old copy of Teach Yourself Beginner's Italian, An Easy Introduction. Used copies are $3 on Amazon. There are many other options. In Greek I once had "Conversational [Language] in 7 Days," that is a good inexpensive paperback series too. Just so you don't think you'll really learn "Language X" in 8 hours or 7 days.
Quirky Book
I went to college in the 80s at Stanford and later learned there was a Stanford psychiatrist, C. Peter Rosenbaum, who made an adult avocation of learning Italian as well as possible. He left behind a 1985 book, "Italian for Educated Guessers, Shortcuts to the Language" which I have an old out of print copy of. $20 used on Amazon. He gives you long lists of cognate words, false friends, shortcuts to reverse engineer the sometimes-large spelling changes between Italian and English, and so on.
My Column on Improving Your Spanish
Here.
