Intermediate Italian Conversation Guide: 101 Dialogue Exercises (Italian Edition)

Diana B. Morgan: This book was very interesting and great for intermediate Italian learners with both familiar and new vocabulary and a small glossary with each chapter.

United States on Oct 19, 2023

ute nannini: Easy to understand and learn new vocabulary at the same time. Good and interesting storyline. I especially liked that the chapters were short.

United Kingdom on Jun 14, 2023

Patrick Barrett: Correctly titled intermediate, unlike many that are titled elementary or beginning whose vocabulary is pitched way too high. Some knowledge of Italian allows absorption of vocabulary while still providing usage and grammar items worth looking up, e.g. extensive use of 'ci'.
The story-line, while quite simple, still has just enough 'mystery' to whet the appetite a bit. And the language does seem natural and colloquial (research with a comprehensive grammar like Maiden's q.v. reveals that).

United States on May 16, 2023

Aaron Castro: But if you are learning multiple languages, then the story is the same one for the others languages.

It's too boring to read the same in Italian and French (just the characters and city names changed).

But recommended to test your reading and vocabulary level.

United States on Oct 17, 2022

teacher: OLLY RICHARDS knows exactly how to write for learners who want to enhance their skills in everyday communication. His humorous and imaginative books, written in the form of carefully crafted dialogues, respect and engage learners’ intelligence. These are THE BEST books and learners will want to reread them again and again. BRAVO!

Canada on Apr 06, 2021

bookworm: This Intermediate Italian Conversations book is a sequel of sorts to the 101 Conversations for beginners that Olly previously published in that the three main characters from the first book reappear again, but with a whole new story. The story is fun, the chapters are short and I like the way each chapter has an introductory explanation (in Italian) of the setting and circumstances of the discussion. Each chapter includes a few vocabulary words or phrases that might be new to the reader, though I found that there were other unknown words that were not included. I am a low intermediate reader and I had no problem understanding the story or getting the meaning of specific discussions. My only small complaint is that there were multiple places in the e-book where a } character appeared at the end of a word instead of the appropriate letter. Small thing and didn't interfere with understanding. I enjoyed the book and found it the perfect mix - readable but with some challenge so I learned new words.

United States on Mar 29, 2020

Nancy: I'm fluent in Spanish and have worked for over ten years as a court interpreter. I learned (and continue learning) my Spanish as an adult, over the course of many years and through a wide variety of activities. One of the things that I realized is how much a language is made up of patterns and phrases that get recorded deeply in our brains. So when we speak a language that we know well, we're not dedicating brain cells to trying to remember how a certain type of verb is conjugated, or which preposition applies in this situation. Rather, we just "know" what sounds right and it just comes out.

I've now been learning Italian for a few months using Pimsleur lessons, which are fabulous for searing the language into my brain orally. By necessity, however, that approach has a limited range of vocabulary and structures. So I was trying to figure out where to find a good source of more dialogue in Italian....and lo and behold, I got an email from Olly about his new intermediate conversations books! Perfect! I'm by no means intermediate level yet, so it's definitely a stretch for me to read the conversations. However, since there is a lot of similarity to Spanish, I can work it out...

United States on Mar 28, 2020

Wayne Brehaut: I had very little previous experience learning Italian before beginning Olly's graded series in "Short Stories..." and "101 Conversations..." series, which I bought based on my use of the same resources for Spanish and French.

Learning the most common vocabulary at normal speaking speed is very helpful in getting a quick start on the language. My first attempt many years ago was with the "Living Language" records, where I got bored quickly with trying to progress through the alphabet, vocabulary lists, etc. Olly's use of interesting and varied stories--and now conversations--makes language learning much more engaging and encourages you to read and practice more often!

Augmented by the audio version, I hope to reach at least a B1 level in a few months.

Canada on Mar 27, 2020

Gary Orman: Firstly, I'm impressed by Olly's prodigious output.

I'm really bad at learning languages and I hate studying in classes or from traditional language courses. But I do want to be able to speak and understand various languages. I've bought most of Olly's books in French, German, Spanish, Italian (and I think some of the beginner texts in Russian and Chinese too)!

I am also a foreigner who teaches Thai to other foreigners. I also strongly believe in learning to speak and understand a language through stories - but not the literate or poetic or academically-correct kind. The stories that are fun and relevant and *colloquial*.

We do, however, differ in one key aspect. Olly advises "extensive" learning: a mountain of material (that's enjoyable of course) in the hope that some of it sticks - aim to get the gist of the story and don't look up every word you don't know without too much analysis of the grammar.

The book comes with a supplementary course about language-learning in general and an upsell to a comprehensive course for beginners. This book will only be relevant to you if you already know Italian quite well - otherwise get Olly's course Italian...

United Kingdom on Mar 17, 2020

S. Pedley: I really enjoyed the first book - 101 Conversations in Simple Italian. I was so pleased to find this follow-up and bought it straight away.

I was glad to find that this book has been written in the same format as the first. An authenticate Italian dialog between characters which tells a really interesting story. The book is broken-up into 101 nicely-sized, manageable chapters and is great to pick-up when you have a spare five or ten-minutes. The problem is, it's not so easy to put down and you find that you have to read just one more chapter!

The level of the language is just right for me. It's not too difficult, although there are some words and phrases that I do not understand. That's fine, though, because you get the gist of what is going on by the context which allowed me to carry on and enjoy the story. On my next read I am going to look-up any vocabulary.

I will definitely be keeping my eye open for any more of these books in the future.

United Kingdom on Mar 16, 2020