Italian is the official language of Italy and San Marino, and an official language of Switzerland, Croatia, and Slovenia. It is spoken by about 58 million in Italy, 24,000 in San Marino, 840,000 in Switzerland, another million in other European countries, and 5 million in North and South America. The Pimsleur® Method is scientifically proven to be your fastest route to nearnative fluency. <I>Italian III, Comprehensive</I> includes another 15 hours of spoken language practice and one additional hour of reading instruction, and is designed to be used after completion of Levels I & II. <P><UL><LI>The beginning lessons offer you the chance to expand your vocabulary and increase your fluency to an even higher level. You'll gain experience participating in many informal and some formal discussions on practical, social, and semiprofessional topics. You'll skillfully form longer, more complex sentences, and most importantly, you'll find yourself being understood, even by native speakers unused to dealing with foreigners. You'll be able to join in conversations effortlessly, confident of being understood. <LI>In the next 10 lessons your skills will show everincreasing mastery of the language. Speaking with grace and complete naturalness, you'll enjoy fluid conversations on many new subjects. Delving deeper into cultural norms and situations, you'll find yourself responding effortlessly, and able to choose from a wide accumulation of vocabulary and structures. <LI> In the final 10 lessons, you're nearing fluency with agile responses, and a naturalsounding, nearnative accent. You're able to utilize the language in subtle ways, and speak using past, present, and future tenses. Selfconfidence soars as you experience the language and culture; no longer as a foreigner, but with a deepening insight into an expanding new world. </LI></UL><P>Reading Lessons are included at the end of Unit 30. These lessons, which total about one hour, are designed to give you practice reading Italian and to provide vocabulary. Before you know it, you'll be reading Italian with the ease and flexibility of a native speaker. A Reading Booklet to be used with the audio lessons is also included in PDF format.<P>