Rocket Italian Reviews

I'm very new to Rocket (only a few lessons in). I love the idea, and almost all the execution, think it's a great design - well-organized, relevant conversational topics, practical for likely real-life situations, and there's lots of opportunity to practice (recording, writing, quizzes, etc).
Overall happy!

I have to say though that having to listen to one of the 2 two teachers for the course speak Italian with a really strong American accent is super-annoying. I don't want to hear that, it's not helpful. (I have a hard time imagining what Rocket could have even been thinking there...)

All that said, I'm still glad to have it. I'm going to Rome in 4 mo for the first time, and I feel like this will give me a great foundation for very basic interactions, which always feels good.

Just getting through the free lesson, so far, so good.

The Rocket Italian Premium level is great for learning basic travel phrases. The voice recognition software works very well and if you use all the tools they provide for you regularly you'll definitely feel comfortable pulling out Italian phrases when you need them. I do like to listen to the audio lessons several times though. Also I with there was more variety in the testing and practice. An exercise where the student is given a completely new sentence that they have to give back in Italian would be really helpful.

Lots of variety and also different ways of learning

It took me quite a long time to decide to take the plunge and buy a language course. Ive only ever tried free apps like Duolingo which is also a good program. But i can tell you Rocket Italian so far has exceeded my expectation. I have just finished the first section. I have become quite addicted to the program. The numerous forms of self testing really does help it stick. Im not perfect and I did have to rerun the last two sessions three times for it to stick but believe me. Doing this has helped me a lot better than any of the free apps I have used. Long may it continue as I progress through the lessons. I agree with comments about the fact that some times quite rarely the recording went odd. Bit a quick stop and replay solves this. It doesnt happen often.
In short Im loving it at the moment. Not sure about when it gets harder though. Give it a go!!

I believe that the Rocket Languages Italian course is very useful and helps to obtain a basic level of understanding rapidly. I think that it is more efficient compared with now obsolete CD and audiotape courses that I have taken. It could be improved by adding a visual component, such as pictures of objects and foods that are mentioned.

Despite having studied Italian for years, I am still uncomfortable trying to actually speak the language. With Rocket lessons I have gone back to the beginning and am nicely closing up some of the holes in my knowledge of the language. I am hoping to soon become more at ease with with Italian and more willing to actually test the skills that I am clearly acquiring with my Rocket Languages course.

I have tried a few different resources in starting out with Italian. I have to say that I am glad I completed Paul Noble's audio course before starting with this - as the pace of learning with Rocket is much faster. The downside is that I find the learning much less "sticky" - the audio lessons simply don't have enough structured repetition of material to make the words stay in your memory. I find a lot of the exercises pointless too - I really don't want to repeat "sto bene" or "ciao" 100 times - although the recording facility is useful (not much point in relying on the software to rate your pronunciation - it's actually more useful to listen to yourself back).

Having said that, the course is enjoyable, and it's nice that it uses contemporary subject matter as well as "real" Italian. I tried a few Pimsleur lessons too and that was really, really bad - very out of date, with some cringe-worthy material. Just awful.

I find the most useful lessons the non-audio ones , oddly enough. No one course is enough when you are learning a language - I supplement Rocket with Italian films, a fantastic audio resource which cost me 95 PENCE ! (Rilkey's 613 Italian dialogues) - reading Italian newspapers and short story books, Duolingo, and any opportunity I get to speak in real situations.

I'm not sure I would buy the advanced levels of the course - but I am enjoying using the first level partly as revision and partly to lean new things.

This is working out great for me. I took Italian in college over 30 years ago, so I've forgotten almost everything, but it's all coming right back to me. The interactive audio is good practice, and I like the themed lessons. They sneak in the grammar rules, so it doesn't get boring.

I found the first level excellent. Both presenters were extremely clear. I'm on to the intermediate course now though and finding it much tougher. It's the same female presenter and she's excellent, but the male presenter in this course is really difficult to understand, pronouncing words considerably differently from the original. They also leave way too little time to repeat the phrases in this one on the first attempt. The second seems to be ok. I've timed the first and in a lot of cases they leave less time than it took for them to say it, so hopeless for me as a beginner! A bit pricey, but overall it seems to be working.