Learning Italian
 

I did a search but would like to ask if anyone can highly recommend a tape series or online site for learning italian....everyday/basic conversation, ordering meals, buying train tics etc. Thanks

I've found the Pimsleur's series to be very useful.

I think it depends what is your native language, as begginer level audio courses are basing on th elanguage you already know

Agree about Pimsleur. I first re-learned with Berlitz tapes in the car. It listed words travel words and had just a few useful phrases. Some years later, when I wanted some Spanish travel help, the Berlitz had "guzzied up" cd's which had a lot of music which distracted me. That being said, I'd go to Pimsleur. I have no experience with Rosetta Stone because of its price so others can say. Check Rick Steves for advice.

For a beginning, try My Daily Phrase Italian, a very simple and free series available online. If you feel the need for more depth, try the others mentioned.
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You might check your local library to see if they have language tapes to borrow. Sometimes local schools (check with the school's language department or their librarian) will have language learning tapes as well.

>>> ordering meals, buying train tics etc
In my experience, these areas you mentioned are not productive area to learn Italian. Unless you are dining at places where they hardly get any non-Italian speaking diners, most places speak enough English. The area of difficulty is the culinary terms unless you are expert in Italian wine and cuisine. Buying train ticket is another area the amount of vocabulary needed is very limited. Furthermore, the windows tend to get long queues at major stations. They try to make you use the machines, in which case, just select English. The area I always find need to know enough local language is dealing with the taxi and bus drivers.

Here are my opinion on various methods I have used.
Online - face to face (or voice to voice with a real person). Each site is really a referral site that takes commission.
Verbalplanet and Italki. I like Italki better. Less commission, more teachers, and much better escrow based payment process fair to both the teachers and the students.

Classroom - yes, that is going to a class.
College adult education - no credit. The quality is hit and miss. The only good experience was when the teacher was a graduate student planning to be a language teacher. Otherwise, mostly money wasted even though they were a fraction of a credit class.
College credit class. This is the most time consuming method (short of going to Italy). If you are a serious learner. This is the most comprehensive way provided the school uses a relevant method. Some language departments believe in immersion even for the first year student, which I I thought was nuts. How do you explain grammatical concepts in foreign language when you just started learning?

CD - try to try out at your local library first
Pimsleur - This is good at helping you with the rhythm of the language and pronunciation by sheer repetitions. It does not teach you grammar, and hence cannot be the only method as you often don't know why you say one way one time and not the other time.
Michel Thomas - This series explains grammar. It has enough repetitions to help you learn without need to read or write.
Both are suitable for listening in a car.

Where are you going? These courses teach "standard" Italian, which is sufficient at hotels, restaurants, and other visitor oriented places used to dealing with foreigners. However, if you are going to the South like Napoli and beyond or very east like Trieste, what you hear natives speak would be nothing like what you have learned from these classes.

I have enjoyed using the Instant Immersion language CDs. I have bought them in Italian, French and Spanish. They have easy games to help remember the phrases and words. That made it fun and not drudgery.

Not expensive, maybe $20-$30? If you get it on Amazon, make sure you order the most recent edition.

italki is fantastic, you can either pay for a teacher or just chat with a normal Italian, all you need is skype
Michel Thomas is very good
There are also a shed load of good stuff on youtube like this guy https://www.italianoautomatico.com/

We listened repeatedly to French language podcasts before our trip to France. The best one we found was Coffee Break French, check if they also have Italian. I know they do Spanish and Polish so it's likely they have Italian. It was free and very basic which I wanted. I also did classes and practised at home but we found it hard to pick up more than words and a few phrases.

Kay

Wow, thank you all so much. I, goimg to check out several of the recommendations.

My husband has been using News In Slow French for 4 years now. There's News in Slow...fill in your language. He likes it because as it teaches you the language it keeps you up to date on the news in the country you're living in. You may not want that, but it's an ingenious online tool that you can regulate to various speeds, stop and start, and read explanatory footnotes.

He is, of course, surrounded by French all day long and can't help but pick it up through osmosis, too.

BTW, I think there are several different Pimsleur's lesson series. The ones I've used have about 30 lessons, each about 1/2 hour long. I've used them for Chinese, French, Turkish, Korean, Castilian, Indonesian, Greek, and South American Spanish -- and in each case, I learned enough to be civil, meet my basic needs, and even have some limited conversations with people who did not speak English.

Hope that helps!

hii