Italian Software

What's the best software to learn Italian?

Think learning Italian needs to be tedious, long and hard? It doesnt HAVE to be.

We've heard it all before. Learning a foreign language is difficult, and every method out there promises to make it fast and painless. However, they cant all be the best and alot of the programs out there really arent worth anything. Which is why we have created this list, to seperate the facts from reality and strip away the smoke and mirrors of fancy sales pages and commercials. Instead what you will read below is the realistic evaluation of the top three products currenty availible for learning Italian. Based upon our research as well as consumer reviews on the internet.

Each product will have a value between 1 and 5, 1 being the worst and 5 being the best rating it can recieve in a given area. The areas that will be evaluated are, Features, Fundamentals, Simplicity, Teaching Method, and Tools.

Rocket Italian

#1 High value at a low price

• Features: 5/5
• Fundamentals: 5/5
• Simplicity: 5/5
• Teaching Method: 4/5
• Tools: 5/5

Rocket Italian is our top choice for learning Italian over any other program. Because it offers everything the other programs do and more, in a more affordable package. With the added virtue of some additional features Rocket Italian has like the ability to contact a Italian teacher 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Which gives it an extra way to help you along with learning the language.

The Rocket Italian program itself is setup with 45 audio/video lessons. Of those 45 the first 25 cover all the very basics, how to read and speak Italian effectively. Which is then followed up by 10 intermediate lessons, which takes that core you built with the first 25 and builds a stronger understanding from it. The final 10 lessons brings everything you have learned together placing you into real world situations using everything you have learned so far and taking that next step into an immersive environment to hone your skills. Using practical social situations to build your confidence and understanding.

The Rocket Italian program component series is as follows:

• Component #1: Learn to Speak Italian Confidently with 33 Interactive Audio Lessons
• Component #2: Learn to Speak Italian Naturally with 31 Language and Culture Lessons
• Component #3: Learn Tons of Italian Words with my fun MegaItalian Software Games
• Component #4: See How Much Your Italian Has Improved!
• Component #5: Have your own Italian teacher, virtually "on call" 24 hours a day!

• Features: Rocket Italian has alot of great features, each component offers something unique and interesting to the whole process. Included things like interactive games, quizzes, test and a rehearsal function which lets you test your skills fully. As well as having access to a eacher 24/7 and extra features and bonus's available on their page.
• Fundamentals: The Rocket Italian program covers all the fundamentals and builds you from the ground up in your understanding. Done in a gradual fashion so you should never feel lost or confused while going through the content. And it builds on things like grammar, and proper sentence structure which is arguably one of the most difficult but important elements in learning.
• Simplicity: Rocket Italian is really simple, it is well organized and if you get it via the less expensive digital format you have everything in one place ready to go when you need it. And with the additional benefit of having a teacher available to you you really cant go wrong.
• Teaching Method: The teaching method follows the tried and true principles of using all of the most effective mediums to teach. IE: Visual, Audio courses as well as the more interactive games and testing methods available to help you track your progress and keep you interested.
• Tools : This part is really impressive, since as i mentioned there is a large amount of tools available with Rocket Italian with the amount of audio, video, games, quizzes and other material all included. And the dual format is also great, in-case you are uncomfortable with a pure digital download you can order the 20 CD series which also contains everything you would receive through the download. But keep in mind the physical CD's are alot more expensive, so if you are on a budget the digital download is by far better.

Conclusion:

So overall, the Rocket Italian program really is your best bet for learning Italian. Well deserving of our number one spot on this list of Italian learning programs. And given its comparatively reasonable price of 99.95 for the digital download version, which when weighed against its competitor is a lower cost but higher value. If you buy the physical version though, it is 300$ but free shipping is thrown in.

Natively Italian

#2 Excellent choice

• Features: 4/5
• Fundamentals: 5/5
• Simplicity: 4/5
• Teaching Method: 4/5
• Tools: 4/5

Natively Italian is the number two choice on this list. As while it is a fantastic program in and of itself, it does not quite meet up to the high standards set by Rocket Italian. Wondering how we came to that conclusion? Continue reading to find out...

Natively Italian uses immersion as its primary teaching method. What that means is, when you start learning with Natively Italian it does everything possible to draw you in, make you feel as though you are in an Italian speaking country trying to learn. Using both real world pictures and situations, combined with native voices for you to interact with giving you an interesting and effective learning experience. And another great feature to help your growth, is the fact that Natively Italian tracks your progress and over time will start to focus the lessons on areas you are exhibiting more trouble with.

Now lets take a look at why this program was rated the way it is, using the scale you saw at the beginning of the review.

• Features: The Natively Italian program has alot to offer, provided you get the full version. With the 'Talk Now' 'Talk More' 'Talk The Talk' 'World Talk' 'Talk Business' and Vocabulary builder as well as a ton of extra features such as Ipod Integration, Memory Games, Quizzes, a Printable Dictionary, Speech recording and alot more. Natively Italian does offer alot of value in this respect, the only fault i find with it is in order to get the most out of it you need to buy the more expensive complete package.
• Fundamentals: Natively Italian is fantastic for building a fundamental base to learn from. So it scored full marks in that regard, with things like printable dictionaries and phrase books and the ability to track your mistakes and gear the lessons towards your weak points it really is exceptional in this regard.
• Simplicity: The Natively program is pretty simple, the course material is even to understand even with no prior knowledge of Italian. And it does help you along in some ways, by tracking your progress and adjusting accordingly to maintain a consistent level of challenge. But the initial experience with the program and material itself can be a little confuseing, and could benefit from a slightly better layout.
• Teaching Method: The teaching method itself is a great, proven method as mentioned before. Using all of your senses to really immerse your mind in the language, which if you think about it is the same way you learned your native language by experiencing and learning by association. And with the much lauded ability to track your progress and tailor the content to your needs on its own, you may as well have your own personal tutor teaching you with ability’s like that!
• Tools : There is alot of useful tools in this program.Packing in multiple CD's, Quizzes, Interactive lessons, Printable dictionary, Memory games, Speech recording, Printable phrasebook, printable worksheets, vocabulary builder and alot more there is literally everything you will probably need to learn Italian in the full program. The downside once again, is you need to buy the full program to use them all, which makes it more costly then Rocket Italian for example.

Conclusion:

So, our conclusion is that Natively Italian is an excellent program. And if it weren't for the overall cost, and the slightly superior effectiveness of Rocket Italian it would probably be our number one choice without question. However, if you intend to use Natively Italian, your best bet is to buy the complete package from the get go. As the basic variants really dont offer much, and may turn you off of the Natively program altogether which will force you to buy yet another program.

Rosetta Stone Italian

#3 Solid product

• Features: 3.5/5
• Fundamentals: 4/5
• Simplicity: 4/5
• Teaching Method: 4/5
• Tools: 2.5/5

Rosetta Stone Italian finishes out our top three list in third place. Which may come as a surprise, as im sure many of those reading this have seen at least one commercial advertising Rosetta Stone as THE language learning software, bar none. However, while it is a good program it is not better then Natively Italian or Rocket Italian really. But before you dismiss it entirely as a result of its placement, lets take a closer look at it.

You probably do not remember, but the methods Rosetta Stone uses is the same method you learned your native language with as a child. With immersion and picture association it immerses you entirely into the Italian language, using a series of pictures to represent different words. Which makes it easier for your mind to recall the word by association with the image. However, there are no translations and you will more or less learn everything by trial and error. Build up slowly from single words, to phrases and then sentences.

• Features: The Rosetta Stone program doesn't have as many features as the other two products. So if you are looking at it purely from that basis it falls rather short, and loses points as a result. However, what it does have does work very well despite the somewhat limited scope it provides.
• Fundamentals: Fundamentals is one thing Rosetta Stone does pretty well with. Given the method of full immersion it more or less forces you to build a solid core before going forward otherwise you will struggle possibly. Building from simple picture association to more complex sentances and phrases.
• Simplicity: As mentioned, the overall method is the same way children learn. So overall it is a pretty simple program to understand. And the actual interface after a little use feels fairly intuitive and easy to use.
• Teaching Method: Here it only loses points because it is really focused on a singular method for teaching, and while that teaching method is sound it is perhaps too limiting. And there is no translations, or anything else to kind of give the student a helping hand in understanding in the beginning. Immersion is great, but it would have been nice to have more options available to help you along.
• Tools : This is where Rosetta Stone Italian losses alot of points, there simply is not enough content in the Rosetta Stone program overall in this area to merit the cost or the hype of the program itself. There is little to none of the nice extras that make learning a little easier, games, printable helpful guides, and alot of other options would have fleshed out this program alot and made it much better.

Conclusion:

Overall, Rosetta Stone is still a decent program. The price is really the biggest problem with it, but if its not an object for you and you feel safer using Rosetta Stone, or perhaps you've used it in the past. Then it is a reasonable choice and will help you learn Italian. However, your time and money are better spent with one of the other two.