Ease of Use:  

Included audio lessons and games create the need for a lot of disc swapping, and the navigation system in the main program can be confusing at first. However, once we spent a little while with the first few discs we became very comfortable with the program and had little trouble navigating through. We especially appreciated the button at the bottom of every screen which offers help in English at anytime; a useful tool in the third level which is presented mostly in Italian.

Teaching Tools:  

There are a wide range of tools Instant Immersion implements to ensure the Italian learning process is easy. Images, audio and video form the foundation of teaching, but the speech recognition system becomes incredibly important for practicing accent and pronunciation. This system allows you to repeat the word or phrase you’re working on, and then receive a playback so you can hear how your pronunciation compares to the audio teacher’s. This system is probably the best feature on this program, and will do a lot to enhance your Italian language education.

We found ourselves intrigued by the range of activities available, and were very pleased with the amount of material Instant Immersion covered. With this program you will learn many important stand alone words, common phrases, and the correct response to a variety of questions. At the end of each lesson there are games and quizzes so you can see how much information you’ve retained.

Word Tools:  

We were actually pretty discouraged with the lack of word tools Instant Immersion offers. They do have a reference tab in the program, but the information isn’t very helpful.

Tech Support:  

TOPICS Entertainment provides horrible customer support compared to other Learn Italian Software products we reviewed. There is no FAQ section, just a database of disjointed documents. And the database isn’t easily searchable either, requiring you to log a question or problem before being directed to a list of docs that might help. There is also no email support and no phone number to reach the company at.

Instant Immersion is a great (and less expensive) alternative to our top rated Learn Italian Software. It is relatively easy to use, has fantastic features, gets to the fundamentals of the language quickly and effectively, and borders on charity with how inexpensive it is. However, we were not overly inspired by Instant Immersion’s technical support, and would have liked to see a capability to chat online with native speakers.

Check out our top rated product, Tell Me More Italian, if you want a program that covers all these bases.