Ok. My Ds15 is bent on learning Italian; however, he absolutely hates language arts. Any simple programs for learning Italian that won't break the bank in case he doesn't complete it?
Bumping this back up to say that I ordered the cheap 8 lesson sample from Pimsleur. Anyone else ever use it? They teach by listening rather than by learning the grammar and writing first since that is the way research has shown us to be wired. (who ever teaches their children grammar and writing prior to talking? )
This might not be as specific as you'd like, but a good book can do wonders. If he wants an easy and painless introduction to the language, then I agree that you should not do grammar or vocab drills for a while, since they are a huge turn-off for lots of kids. Just like when they learn their first language, kids start speaking first and then fix up grammar etc. later. "I eated the apple" and so on. I don't know of any for Italian, but I'm certain this kind of book exists: one where the language is taught by the 'immersion' method, i.e. kids begin the language right away. For Latin, we used 'Lingua Latina' (found it for $8 on Amazon), where it starts with sentences like 'Leo est animal' that you can understand easily, and it slowly builds up each chapter until you're reading and understanding the language at a high level. I've seen French and German texts that do the same, but never browsed the Italian ones. If this is what you want, then I'm sure you can find a book that makes it easy to start speaking Italian. Even to complement what you are already doing, if you can find a book like this, then I say go for it. Learning by both reading and listening (but not writing at an early stage until some skill is built up) will attack the language from two angles at once and make its conquest all the more easy.
It is funny that you mentioned Pimsleur. I recently ordered the cheap starter set for Spanish to see if it would work for my son.
I am considering Rosetta Stone. I did their sample lesson myself. I'll see if my Ds15 does well with it or Pimsleur. He has already picked up a bit of Italian vocabulary from one of his Call of Duty games on the Xbox.
