Interactive Ideas Learn Italian Now 9 Deluxe

If your method of communicating in Italian is to gesticulate wildly, this CD-Rom is for you.

Learn Italian Now is an interactive language tool designed to familiarise you with the language at your own pace, using activities and videos set in an authentic Italian environment.

There are four titles included in the package. The first, Around Italy with Gabriella and Piero, introduces the two hosts by way of a video complete with subtitles, repeat features and translation if you need it.

You can also switch between reading the scrollable video script, a series of conversations between the hosts, relevant games and activities, and correct pronunciation.

All four titles have these features and, if you have a microphone and sound recording software installed on your PC, you can record your own voice to perfect your accent.

Conversations in Italian follow Gabriella and Piero, who are writing an unusual travel guide, as they tour Bologna, Venice and Sardinia.

This element of culture and geography is an engaging touch and learning about local history alongside the complexities of language lends an appealingly realistic dimension to the experience.

Fundamental Italian is just that: nouns, verbs and conjugations listed then used in context and spoken conversationally in real-life situations.

Survival Phrases equips you for everyday and emergency tourist situations.

This stimulating package makes an effective change from the deadening drone of rote learning but is significantly marred by the software, which often crashes.

However, although it's annoying, since you don't actually save anything, little is lost and it's relatively easy to pick up where you left off.

Price: £50

Contact: Interactive Ideas 020 8805 1000
www.interactiveideas.com