Learn Italian with Paul Noble for Beginners – Complete Course: Italian Made Easy with Your Personal Language Coach

This has been a wonderful tool for me to learn Italian. I listened to discs 1-5 in the correct order, but since then, have kept all (12) discs on my shuffle playlist so listening and practising comes unexpectedly, regularly, without too much concentration and easily. The method is simple, at a good pace, is explained clearly at the start and remains consistent throughout the discs. Paul constantly jumps back to reminding things we learnt earlier, too reinforce them and support the learner to remember not only the word and its meaning, but why and how the sentence is structured this way, how the verb is structured and the grammatical rules. This in turn enables me to go away and create my own sentences as i learn more verbs. I'm sure there are cases where the reality of how something is said on the Italian streets is different to what is being taught here, but expecting dialect and slang from a language course is ridiculous. We should learn the correct way to speak, and then, once you have gained the skills to understand the grammar and sentence structure and are using the language, you will naturally learn where corners are cut and words dropped/modified etc. I would say that in 6 months, my Italian is now conversational, and I have learned more verbs that aren't in the course, to broaden my ability. It would be good to have something to follow on from this level, perhaps taking learners to intermediate level. I 100% recommend this, it is effective, clear and an absolute bargain. I wish I had found it a long time ago! I liked it enough that i have now bought the Spanish course too. Olé!

Really great way to learn to speak a new language.

These CDs by Paul Nobel are an essential acquisition for anyone who wants to begin learning Italian and who wants to learn to speak it a little right from the start. Although a booklet is provided with the CDs Paul Noble emphasises that in order to really understand, learn pronunciation and progress with this programme it is vital that you start off by listening to the lessons and speaking aloud during the spaces provided within the course. The method used of explaining something, getting you to use the phrase/word/grammar and then coming back to it again later really helps you to remember and understand fully the language that you are being taught and ensures that you retain the information. I would highly recommend this programme for anyone who is travelling to Italy and would like to know a little Italian in order to be able to do the usual things; book a room, book a table, order a drink and food, buy a train ticket, enquire where things are etc. However, for me, the real value of this language programme is that it enabled me to have the confidence to progress with my study in Italian.

Following on from a couple of recent trips to Italy where I was just about able to get by by putting an "o" onto most of the French words I know, I thought I'd better try and learn a bit of the language properly for the next time I find myself over there. I read all the reviews, and it was a toss-up between this and Michel Thomas. What swung it for me was comments about Michel Thomas' accent, whereas Paul Noble uses a native speaker. I did spot a lot of comments about people wanting to then move onto a more advanced Paul Noble course, which doesn't yet exist - and I've now worked out why they were saying that. So - good bits first: pleasantly narrated, the pauses are all just around the right length to work with and (this is the key bit) you aren't just repeating stuff back at the CD parrot-fashion, what he does is he feeds you elements of the jigsaw and you've then got to think about how to piece it all together and say it back at him. That's the main difference in this method as far as I can see, and it is a big difference from other parrot-style language courses I've done in the past - I was surprised by the length of the sentences I was confidently creating for myself by the end of the first CD. Here come the downsides. There is a heck of a lot of repetition of content across all the CDs. I think that this would have been OK if I had been doing this by listening to one CD a week over 12 weeks - but I was listening to a lot of it in the car on a long drive to the Alps and it ended up with me shouting out "give me more bloody words to work with" because I ended up so frustrated with being asked to conjugate the verb "can" or to ask for a bottle of white wine for what felt like the 100th time that hour. So, at the end of the course, most of this stuff has been seared into my mind in a way that I'm sure will leave it there till my dying day. But I think that the trick which has been missed is that it didn't need to be seared that deeply into my mind, I can go back at any stage to the earlier CDs to revise that vocab, by CD 11 I should be conjugating all sorts of different verbs and be able to ask for pretty much anything I wanted at the bar. So I finished the course I reckon 250-500 words short of what I'll need to effectively get by in Italian on a day-to-day basis, I'm not sure where I can actually go to get those extra words in this same sort of learning style, and my frustration is that I reckon there was scope within these same 12 CDs to feed me a heck of a lot of that extra vocab (asking for a beer, asking for an extra chair, or fork, or knife at the table he'd taught me on 5 different occasions how to at the restaurant) etc etc. Also, a lot of the vocab being fed has got the feel of the types of language course on vinyl my dad used to do back in the 70s before we travelled abroad. In this day and age I'd have thought it was more useful to be asking for things like directions to the nearest wifi hotspot or internet cafe than the nearest hotel or campsite, as you'd have no doubt booked your hotel or campsite online before you left home... So, in summary, I didn't think it deserved 3 stars or lower because the method I thought worked really well but I couldn't give it 5 stars because of the missed opportunities to provide me with the extra vocab which I'll have to find another way of getting. I've actually since gone and bought the exact same course in French for my wife and kids before we head out that way this summer, because even if similar vocab limitations crop up on that course as I speak fluent French I can use that course as a way of giving them the fundamentals onto which I can then build the extra vocab they'll end up needing. So I guess I'd be able to highly recommend this course to those who then have an actual Italian they can work with to expand their vocab once this course has got the basics in place for them.

Having tried several other methods this is BY FAR the best. I listen in my car and have quickly picked up phrases and gained confidence. (I am on disk three but am so impressed that I wanted to come on and review- something I don't do very often.) His voice and tone are clear and reassuring and he uses a native language speaker to say the phrases and ensure pronunciation is correct. I love the way he explains things and makes them easy to apply more widely. I used to get stressed trying to learn but now I look forward to it, knowing that I will be given all the tools I need.

I have only listened to the first few CDs so far, but I already feel that I have learned a lot of Italian! This method is a terrific way to learn. I will say that at first listen I was a bit sceptical, but I kept it up and I'm glad that I did. Sticking with it is the way to go. You feel at the beginning that Paul is just rabbiting on, but he's sneaking in edumacational stuff when you're not lookin'! There is a lot of English spoken in this method, and at first that put me off, but I know realise that that's one of the tricks to this--you almost don't realise you're picking up another language! I am actually trying to learn German at the moment, but I bought the Italian course as Paul Noble hasn't created the German one yet-(HURRY UP!!) and I must say that I now have a better grasp of Italian than I do of German despite having spent a lot of time with German courses and even spending two weeks on an immersion course in Germany. My pals in Deutschland always have a go at me about how terrible I am at their language, but they'll be INTERDETTO when I show up and have somehow magically learned Italian since they last saw me in October! Thanks Paul!

I think Paul Noble needs to learn Italian himself before teaching to others, it's very easy to learn and I've bought it to improve my Italian, so it's a good job I already knew that 'suo' means his or her, not 'your' which is what's being taught!!

Excellent. Paul takes you from what you know in English to the unknown of a foreign language and helps you to understand how to use this to communicate, in this case in Italian. It's basic, but gives you confidence and the ability to learn at your own pace. This is much better than many language courses which develop learner incompetence, throwing unnecessary grammar and vocabulary at you. Paul constantly reinforces your developing knowledge and confidence so that you feel conversing in another language is quickly within your grasp. For people like me who learned a foreign language from books and hated it, this comes as a liberating experience. For those who, like me, used Paul's "Learn Spanish" you will find the lady who gives the pronounciation a little more difficult to listen to than in the Spanish CDs. Nevertheless, Paul's encouragement keeps you locked into your learning and progress is relentless. My intention is to go on to more advanced learning with a course like Hugo as Paul doesn't offer the next (more advanced) level. He should he's a genius!

Very happy with this cd det so far but only just started. Came quickly, great price

This is similar to the Michel Thomas series, both of which cover some of the introductory level grammar of Italian as well as some vocabulary. Another product in the introductory language category is Pimsleur, but Pimsleur focuses more on learning phrases and doesn't have much explanation of grammar. Thomas and Noble, by contrast, focus on giving you the verbs, the backbone of beginning to speak a language and building a framework in your mind. I find Pimsleur and Noble complementary and have used both. One advantage of Noble over Thomas is that Noble uses a native speaker to say the Italian so you are hearing it pronounced correctly. Thomas has a thick German accent and the students are just learning (in the Thomas scenario you are the third learner is a class Thomas is teaching). Noble must think people have a fear of grammar. While he explains verb conjugations, turning singular into plural, etc. he almost never actually mentions the grammar by name. One thing I didn't like so much about the Noble course is that he over-prompts for an answer. Learning theory says that it is the attempt to recall something that leads to strengthening the memory; even if you try and fail, then get the answer, you become more likely to remember it in the future. Unfortunately at times Noble will ask a question but give so many hints you practically have the answer so you don't fully engage the effort to recall.

The best language course for me. I have learned more with this course then I could have imagined. I spent many months researching how an adult learns languages. I have read comprehensible input works. I have studied many of the easy learning course. I have been to blogs. Nothing worked for me until I discovered the master language teacher, Paul Noble. I am working through Italian now. I love Italian. Such a beautiful lilting expressive artist language. This course is not about memorization, conjugation, blah blah. It’s about learning a language as a way of communication, which is all a language is for my purposes. He has also masterfully decoded the language into Pareto principle patterns to make remembering easier. I think this is the best language learning system. Mind you, to learn a language you need more elements then just a course. You need a language parent. Comprehensible input. Etc. Good luck!

I like his style a lot. It's like Michel Thomas minus the two amateurs. I wish the had more languages. This really helped me before my trip to Italy. I bought the German, too, but I didn't really have a chance to use it. Unfortunately they seem to have switched to Audible-only. I prefer the CDs because I can play them in the car. The other negative is that they are pricy.

Rosetta Stone, Living Language, Michel Thomas, Onlingo and now Paul Noble, Learn Italian...I have been at it for a long time. I am not language literate, having said that in the hour that I listened to Paul Noble's CD in my car I can already comprehend the difference in his approach to teaching and I was able to speak more freely and more confidently that I have with the other courses that I have listened to repeatedly for hours. I can't wait to continue Learning Italian with his CDs. Of all the self-teaching courses I have invested in I would rank Paul Noble as #1, Onlingo #2, Living Language #3, Rosetta Stone #4 and Michel Thomas #5.