I'm learning Italian at the moment, but nothing seems to be working that well...?

Question

I have used the Michel Thomas tapes as I'm an audio learner, but it seems that I can't get to grips with submerging myself with the language as far as thinking in it,

Are there any tips, or anything that will help me in bettering my language acquisition (other then Rosetta Stone and literally going out there, it's too expensive)

Mio parlavo italiano a il momento é non molto bene, io vorrei aiuto per favore.

Any suggestions/criticisms/etc would be much appreciated!

Grazie

Answer 1

I would highly recommend to you to check out the Pimsleur Language Program.  It is cheaper than Rosetta Stone and works well for conversational language learning.  It comes in Italian.

Answer 2

I tried Rosetta Stone for Spanish. It does not have any translation, grammar or conjugation instructions so it will be very hard to go beyond the basics with it. There is no way to be fluent with it. Their program is based on the same thing where you see these 4 pictures over and over again. I was disappointed especially for the price I paid.

My college uses a software called tell me more. It covers not only the basics, but also intermediate or advanced level. It is also a lot less repetitive. My goal was to become fluent so it was perfect for me and I bought their individual version. It has a lot of different activities: picture/word association, videos, dialogues,..., includes also grammar and conjugation. It has also more content than any other language software. Their speech recognition is great so you can have a dialogue with the computer. You can check out their website http://www.tellmemorestore.com for a free demo and compare too. You can check out independent reviews on the web too Top Ten Reviews or about.com websites.

The best way to learn a language would be through immersion, visiting these countries. Learning a language will require some time. In addition to software, you can have books which are useful as well. Audio CDs like Pimsleur for instance might help you out but you cannot get any feedback on your pronunciation so I did not like it so much