Linguaphone audio language courses will teach you to read, write and speak your new language!

Linguaphone is the world leader in language learning. With over 100 years of experience, we know that anybody who can speak one language has the ability to learn another. Our proven method - Listen, Understand, Speak.- has helped over 7 million people learn a new language in a natural and effective way. From basic phrases through to fluent conversation, you'll be surprised at how quickly a second language becomes second nature. To see the Linguaphone ITALIAN Language Courses, click here.

Pimsleur Language Courses are audio courses. Since there are no books included, the Pimsleur courses are great way to learn while driving, exercising, etc.

The Pimsleur audio programs use a natural mode of interactive communication -- questions and answers; statements and rejoinder; give and take -- beginning with the most-frequently-utilized vocabulary native speakers use in their everyday conversations with each other. These are the most useful words and structures every language learner needs to insure communication. It is like having a personal tutor. This along with the Graduated Interval Recall theory and the Principle of Anticipation, makes the Pimsleur language courses the most effective courses on the market today. To see the Pimsleur ITALIAN Language Courses, click here.

Why learn the Italian Language?

The Italian language has 60 million speakers. Many learn Italian for the sheer pleasure of this beautiful language. And if it's not for the sake of the language, it's worth learning just to communicate with these passionate people in this rich and diverse Mediterranean country. Italy is renowned for its wealth of history and culture: from the streets of Rome and the canals of Venice to the architecture and art of the Vatican's Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo's David. Why not take up a new challenge today and order your Italian course now? Italian is the official language of Italy and Switzerland. Italian is the common 2nd language of San Marino, Vatican City, Sardinia, Yugoslavia.

"One day Mercury, Jove’s messenger was flying over Italy carrying a cornucopia filled with all the world’s treasures. While he was flying, his little wings flapping, the cornucopia slipped from his hands and fell to the ground smashing into smithereens. Mercury gathered up some of the pieces, which he managed to spread over the rest of the world, but many were left behind. And of course, amongst all those marvellous treasurers was the gift of language." (Dario Fo). Italian is considered by many to be the most beautiful of the world’s languages. Besides being spoken in Italy, it is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is also widely spoken in the United States, Argentina, Canada and Brazil. All told, there are about 60 million speakers of Italian.Italy was home and heartland of the Latin language and the Roman Empire (500 BC – AD 476). As the armies extended the boundaries of the Empire into much of the Continent of Europe, Latin was introduced everywhere as the new language of administration. As the Empire began to crumble, the Latin of each region began to develop in its own individual way, being naturally influenced by the speech of the surrounding peoples. The languages that developed are known as the Romance languages (Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian). Italian has remained closer to the original Latin than any other of the Romance languages.

Italian Dialects. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Italy became divided into many independent kingdoms, each proud of its own local dialect. The dialects varied tremendously often to the point where communication became a problem. At the beginning of the fourteenth century when Dante wrote his Divina Commedia in the Florentine dialect, his language was immediately recognised and adopted by the Italian cultural elite and became known as the literary standard. However, for the vast majority of Italians who lived outside the Florentine region in the small kingdoms into which the peninsula was divided, it was normal to use the many other regional dialects. Literary (Florentine) Italian failed to achieve the status of national language but remained the lingua franca of the elite for over three centuries. This situation remained the same until Italian unification in 1861 provided the political support necessary for the spread of Italian as the common language. It is incredible to note however that in 1861, Italian was still foreign to 97.5 per cent of the population of Italy, most of whom spoke exclusively in their local dialects. More recently, the influence of the press, radio and television has increased the ease of communication by broadcasting the Italian standard. For the younger generation, the dialect problem is in any case less prominent since they are on the whole better educated and tend to be more mobile within Italy than their elders.

Finally . . . Between 1861 and 1950 there was a mass of emigration of 21 million people who settled in the United States, Australia and Europe. Most took their dialects with them and ‘Italianised English’ was born! It was quite common therefore to hear an Italian family living in London talking of ‘incontasse’ (income tax) ‘plaitaim’ (playtime) and ‘sculdinna’ (school dinner)!