Help > FAQ
Questions in this section include:
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Getting Started
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Subscription and Payments
- Which subscription should I choose?
- Where can I pay?
- I don’t have a credit card; are there any other methods of payment?
- How can I get a student discount?
- How can I cancel my recurrent subscription?
- How can I obtain an official invoice?
- Is it possible to get a refund?
- How can I upgrade/downgrade my account?
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Lessons
- Where can I find the Lessons?
- How can I edit my lessons preferences?
- How can I get the lessons sent to me?
- Where do I find lessons for different levels?
- How can I manage the content of ‘My Lessons’, my personal lesson archive?
- How can I create a Lesson Set?
- What are different file types?
- How do I get the lesson files into my iPod/iTouch/iPhone?
- How can I enlarge the text content on the page?
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Study Tools and Resources
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Community
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Personal Settings
Getting Started
Is ItalianPod free?
We work on a Freemium subscription model. Some of our content is available for free, namely the weekly Newbie-level audio lesson podcasts and our News and Features shows. However, to access our full archive of 1200+ lessons, our daily lesson podcasts and accompanying online learning resources, you’ll need to purchase one of our various subscription types. If you haven't yet subscribed, you can sign up for a free 7-day trial and sample all our Premium features. Visit the following link to learn more about our different kinds of subscriptions and prices: Subscription Information
How does this work and how do I learn Italian with ItalianPod?
ItalianPod works with what we call the ‘Personalized Learning System’. This is not a sequential course of studying, with a beginning and an end. Instead, through our modular system, you can select independent, self-contained lessons to suit your interests and academic level. By studying lessons that touch on a variety of subjects, and cover a comprehensive range of grammar points and vocabulary, you will notice rapid improvement. You’ll progress to handle lessons of a higher academic level before you know it.
For further details, we recommend you to follow our 10 steps method.
http://italianpod.com/help/using#1
How do I download podcasts on to my iPod?
Organize and download podcast files to your iPod by following the below instructions:
Step 1: First, configure your RSS link
- Login to your account
- Click through to the 'Lessons' page
- Select the 'Channels' tab to browse the lesson archive, and click on the desired lesson
- Click the ‘bookmark this lesson’ button on the lessons that you are interested to study. These lessons will then be available from the ‘My Lessons’ tab that you can find under the ‘Me’ section. NB: Lessons that appear in the ‘My Lessons’ tab form the lessons in your RSS Feed. (To learn more about the RSS feed, continue to step 2).
Step 2: RSS feed settings
- Now browse over to the 'Me' page
- Click through to your RSS feed 'settings & help' page to select the type of future podcast lessons/shows (and files) that you wish to receive and download via iTunes to your iPod
- The changes on this page are saved and updated automatically.
Step 3: Export the link to iTunes
- Open your iTunes account > click on ‘Advanced’ > select ‘Subscribe to Podcast’
- Paste your personal RSS Feed link (on the ‘Me’ page) in the iTunes box that appears, and hit ‘OK’ or ‘Save’
- Click on the arrow (it should be pointing down) to see the lessons that will be downloaded to your iTunes
- You can either select all the lesson content or just 'dialogue mp3', 'PDF' and 'lesson review mp3' individually
- To select, either click on ‘Get All’ or just click ‘Get’ to the lesson that you want to download (ensure that you are synchronizing your podcasts to your iPod so they won't just save to your computer).
I don’t have an iPod, just a regular mp3 player. How can I play the podcasts using it?
To download files to a regular mp3 player, please download them to your computer first and then transfer them to the mp3 player. To download the files to your computer, follow the instructions below:
- Right-click Download: You can download files directly from the site by going to any of the lesson pages
- Right-click on the desired file from those on the left side column, then click on ‘Save Target As’ (if you are a Firefox user: ‘Save Link As’), and choose the location on your computer in which you'd like to save your file.
Please note: An important difference between using an iPod and a regular mp3 player is that it’s possible to read each lesson’s dialogue transcript on an iPod screen, while you listen to the audio files. With other mp3 players this is not possible.
Is there a mobile version of the site?
If you can access the internet through your mobile phone we offer a special site for you: http://m.italianpod.com
This site has been modified for quick download and to be readable on a small screen. The mobile site is available only to premium subscribers. On it you can enjoy most of the premium features on the regular website, such as:
- Dialogue Vocabulary and Expansion section
- Conversations Section
- Personal vocabulary list and Flashcards
Subscription and Payments
Which subscription should I choose?
We offer a wide range of subscription types to cater for various types of learners and budgets. To view detailed information about each subscription, click here.
If you are still unsure of which subscription is best suited to you, we recommend that you start with a Basic subscription and then upgrade. You will not be charged anything extra for the upgrade.
Where can I pay?
Online payments can be submitted through the account page. To visit your account page, click on the ‘$’ symbol, available on the top right section of every page of the website. Alternatively, click here.
I don’t have a credit card; are there any other methods of payment?
If you don't have a credit card, don't worry. Please send us an email at sales@praxislanguage.com with details of your location and the payment methods available to you (bank transfer, check etc.). Based on this, we can suggest an alternative solution.
How can I get a student discount?
Students can enjoy a 20% discount on any 6- or 12-month subscription (excluding the Executive Plan). To claim your student discount, please email us at support@praxislanguage.com with at least two of the following items:
- A scanned copy of your school ID
- University website/email address
- Class schedule
- .edu email address with your name
We will verify the information and get back to you with the next step.
How can I upgrade/downgrade my account?
At any point during your subscription, you can choose to upgrade/downgrade by visiting the accounts page (to visit your account page, click on the ‘$’ symbol available on the top right section of every page. Or simply click here).
Select the subscription of your choice and the duration, and continue with the normal payment procedure.
If your new choice exceeds the value of your remaining credit, the system will require payment to cover this difference. If there is a remaining amount of credit left after downgrading you’ll have this amount left as Praxis Credits that you may put towards any further purchase.
How can I cancel my recurrent subscription?
To cancel automatic renewals, visit your account information page.
On this page is your outstanding balance, the cancel recurring billing button and account expiry date. Just click on 'cancel recurring billing' to cancel.
Please note that all monthly accounts can be cancelled two days after subscribing and must be cancelled two days before the date of expiry/ renewal.
How can I obtain an official invoice?
To obtain an official invoice for subscription purchases, please email us at support@praxislanguage.com, including your full name along with a mailing address to be included on the invoice.
Is it possible to get a refund?
We provide a full refund within the first 30 days, no questions asked, to those who wish to end their subscription. This excludes Executive and Guided subscriptions, for which the first month of multi-month subscriptions cannot be refunded. Just contact us.
How can I upgrade/downgrade my account?
At any point during your subscription, you can choose to upgrade/downgrade by visiting the accounts page (to visit your account page, click on the ‘$’ symbol available on the top right section of every page. Or simply click here).
Select the subscription of your choice and the duration, and continue with the normal payment procedure.
If your new choice exceeds the value of your remaining credit, the system will require payment to cover this difference. If there is a remaining amount of credit left after downgrading you’ll have this amount left as Praxis Credits that you may put towards any further purchase.
Lessons
Where can I find the Lessons?
Based on your lesson preferences, new lessons will be added to your 'My Lessons' list on the ‘Me’ page. You can also see the lessons organized by Channels (academic levels) by clicking the ‘Channels’ tab, found on the ‘Lessons’ page.
How can I edit my lessons preferences?
Set your lesson preferences to subscribe to only those you wish to study
- Login to your account
- Click through to the 'LESSONS' page and, on this, the 'CHANNELS' tab
- Click on the active options, either 'SUBSCRIBE' or 'UNSUBSCRIBE' under each Channel summary (ie. Newbie, Elementary, News & Features) to activate or deactivate your subscription
Please note: If the active option is already marked 'subscribe' and you then click on it, you will unsubscribe and, therefore, podcasts of that channel will not feed into your ‘Me’ page / RSS feed.
How can I get the lessons sent to me?
The lesson files, due to their size and the multiple file types available, cannot be sent to you in email format. However a link to the lesson page and the lesson's downloadable PDF transcript can be sent to you by way of an email notification. By default, your account is configured to receive notifications for all academic levels but you can set your preferences (To learn how, please see 'How can I change the settings for the emails coming from ItalianPod?').
Where do I find lessons for different levels?
The archive of 1200+ lessons is organized into academic levels. To access these, take the following steps:
- Browse over to the 'Lessons' page
- Select the 'Channels' tab to browse through lessons suited to your current academic level
How can I manage the content of ‘My Lessons’, my personal lesson archive?
Step 1: Selecting lessons from the ‘Lessons’ section
- Login to your account
- Click through to the 'Lessons' section
- Select the 'Channels' tab to browse the lesson archive and click on the desired lesson
- Click on ‘bookmark this lesson’ on the lesson pages of those you’d like to study. They will then be stored and available directly from the ‘My Lessons’ tab (on the ‘Me’ page).
The lessons stored under the ‘My Lessons’ tab are the same lessons that make up your RSS Feed. (To learn more about the RSS, continue to step 2).
Step 2: The RSS feed settings will determine which new lessons will be added automatically upon publication
- Browse over to the 'Me' page
- Click on your RSS feed’s 'settings & help' page to select the type of future lessons/shows (and files) that you wish to receive.
- The changes made on this page are saved and updated automatically.
Step 3: To remove lessons that appear in ‘My Lessons’
- Click on ‘Manage lesson archive’ on the ‘Me Page’
- Tick the unwanted lessons, and click the ‘Remove’ button. The lessons will be removed from your lesson archive and RSS feed.
How can I create a Lesson Set?
Follow the instructions below to create your own set of lessons that will be saved to your account:
- Click on the ‘Me’ page
- Click on the ‘Manage Archive’ button (on the right-hand side of the screen, part-way down the page)
- When creating a new lesson set, first click the ‘Edit Labels’ button
- Name this set and click ‘create’
- Click the pencil icon to edit the preferences of the lesson set
- Should you wish to share the set with other users, choose ‘Yes’ under ‘Shared Status’. If it is shared, you also have the option of adding an image and description that other users will see.
- Once you’ve created the set and edited its specifics, you can begin to add lessons. Clicking ‘Save’ will send you back to the ‘Archive Labels’ page, where you must click ‘Back to Manage Archive’, in order to select lessons from your archive to add to the set.
- Return to ‘Manage Archive’ and select lessons to add to specific sets. (To learn how to manage the lessons in your personal archive, see “How can I manage the content of ‘My Lessons’, my personal lesson archive?”)
What are different file types?
These CD quality audio files play at 128 kbps (kilobytes per second), and are available only to paid ItalianPod subscribers. Besides having the highest quality audio, this file they also includes the dialogue transcripts as meta data, allowing you to see dialog transcripts and translations directly on your iPod screen.
Radio Quality Lesson
These files play at 64 kbps. For the Newbie lessons, they are available to the public free of charge, and may be obtained either from the website or the public RSS feed. When you subscribe to our podcast via iTunes you will receive this kind of file.
Dialogues
These files contain a version of the lesson's dialogue audio. These are useful for reviewing the dialogue after you have studied the lesson without the hosts'explanations or translations.
Audio Review MP3
This file works as a review of the lesson's vocabulary. You will hear the vocabulary words in a random order. During the pauses between each words and its translation, you have an opportunity to guess the correct word and its pronunciation.
Lesson PDF
This includes a transcript of the dialogue, an English translation, and the list of the vocabulary. You need to have Adobe Acrobat reader installed in order to open the PDF.
(To download Adobe Acrobat Reader go to the following link where you can download it: Acrobat Reader Download Page).
How do I get the lesson files into my iPod/iTouch/iPhone?
To download podcast files to your iPod, follow the below instructions:
Step 1: Selecting lessons from the archive
- Login to your account
- Browse over to the 'Lessons' page
- Select the 'Channels' tab, browse the lesson archive and then click on the desired lesson
- Click on ‘mark as studied' button and then, when it changes to 'bookmark this lesson', click on it
- This way you can bookmark your favorite lessons
- Now browse over to the 'Me' page
- Select the desired option from the drop-down list, 'view lessons by status', and click on the filter button. This will display the lessons added to the 'RSS feed URL’, which your iTunes will upload.
Step 2: RSS feed settings
- Visit your RSS feed 'settings & help' page to select the type of future lessons/shows (and files) that you wish to receive and download via iTunes to your iPod
- The changes on this page are saved and updated automatically.
Step 3: Export the link to ITunes
- In your iTunes > Click on ‘Advanced’ > ‘Subscribe to Podcast’
- Paste RSS Feed link on the box and hit ‘OK’ or ‘Save’
- Click on the arrow (it should be pointing down) to see all lessons that will be downloaded on your iTunes
- You can either select all the lesson content or choose the 'dialogue mp3', 'PDF' and 'lesson review mp3' individually
- To choose either click on ‘Get All’ or just click ‘Get’ to the lesson that you want to download (ensure that you are synchronizing your podcasts to your iPod so they won't just be saving to your computer).
How can I enlarge the text content on the page?
For Mac users (Fire Fox browser)
To change the font size, simply press and hold 'apple’ key, then press '+’ key to enlarge it to the desired size. To reduce it, press and hold 'apple’ key and then press '-‘ key.
For PC users (Fire fox, Internet Explorer and Chrome browser)
To change the font size, simply press and hold 'control’ key and then press '+’ key to enlarge it to the desired size. To reduce it, press and hold 'control’ key and then press '- ‘ key.
Study Tools and Resources
How to use the Quick Review iPhone app?
We've created a page with a great description of all the app features and a simple explanation on how to use them. Please follow this link to learn all about it: Quick Review App Guide
How do I build a vocabulary list?
On the lesson page, visit the 'vocabulary' tab, select from the listed vocabulary and click on 'save selected vocabulary' button. The selected words will be added to your vocabulary list.
To view/ manage your vocabulary list, visit ‘Me’ page and select the 'Vocabulary' tab.
How can I organize a vocabulary list?
You can do so by labeling the each vocabulary item. The label feature of the vocabulary section of our website is similar to Gmail's label feature.
To create a label, visit the ‘Vocabulary’ tab and click on 'edit label'. Here, at the bottom of the page, you will see an option to create a new label.
To add label to a word, tick the check box next to the word and select a label from the 'apply label' drop down list.
How can I study my vocabulary lists with the flashcards or memory game?
To launch the flashcard game, visit the ‘Me’ page and select the 'Vocabulary' tab.
Click on 'launch flashcards' or 'launch concentration game'.
How do I change my flashcards preferences?
To use specific vocabulary for the flashcard or concentration game, select the preferred label from the USE list and format from Test list.
Make sure you click on the 'refresh' button to save the selected preferences.
How do I change my flashcards preferences?
To use specific vocabulary for the flashcard or concentration game, select the preferred label from the USE list and format from Test list.
Make sure you click on the 'refresh' button to save the selected preferences.
How do I select my answer in the exercises?
There are different methods to select your answer, depending on the exercise. For ‘matching exercises’, click on the dots next to the answers and connect them. For ‘multiple choice’, just click on your answer, and for ‘listen and type’, just enter your answer in the space provided.
Community
How can I create a group?
On the ‘Community’ page, go to the ‘Groups’ tab and scroll halfway down the page. Click on the button labeled ‘Start a New Group’.
How can I join a group?
Click on the name of the group you’d like to join, and then on the button labeled ‘Apply to Join Group’.
How can I publish a new post?
Click on the ‘Community’ page. Above the list of conversations, you will see a bright red button labeled ‘Write a New Post’.
How can I find my old comments?
You can view all your old comments, or that of other users, by clicking on a username or avatar. There is currently no way to search for a specific comment, however.
How can I find other users?
At the top right-hand side of your screen, below your user information is a drop-down search box. Select ‘Community’, and enter the name of the person you wish to find.
How can I send a personal message to another user?
We have a Direct Message system that enables users to send personal messages:
- Click on the user's name to go to their profile page
- On the left of the screen, below their picture, you will see ‘Send Message’.
Personal Settings
How can I change my profile settings?
Your profile settings include public and privacy settings, including contact information and email notification preferences
- Navigate to the ‘Me’ page and click on the ‘Profile’ tab
- Scroll down and click on 'update your profile' button
- Make the desired changes
- Again, scroll down and click on 'update profile' button to save changes.
How can I change my email/password?
To change your password:
- Navigate to the ‘Me’ page and click on the ‘Profile’ tab
- Scroll down and click in the 'Update your Password' button
- The system will take you to the 'Change Password' page, where you need to fill in 'Old Password', 'New Password', and 'Confirm Password'
- Click 'Update' button to save the changes.
To change your email:
- Navigate to the ‘Me’ page and click on the ‘Profile’ tab
- Scroll down and look for the 'Update your Profile' button and click on it
- On the first line of your profile, enter your new email address to replace the old one after the 'Email Address' option
- Scroll down to the bottom and click on 'Update Profile' to save changes.
How can I set up my avatar (picture)?
- Navigate to the ‘Me’ page and click on the ‘Profile’ tab
- Scroll down and look for the 'Update your Profile' button and click on it
- Look for the 'avatar' field and click on the 'choose file' button - the system will prompt you to specify the image location
- Once you have added the image location, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on 'update profile' button
Wait for the page to reload and save changes. The image will now be displayed as your profile picture/avatar.
How can I download the lessons?
The simplest way to download a lesson is to visit the specific lesson page and use the right-click download method.
Right-Click Download: Download the lesson file directly from the site by going to any of the lesson pages. Right-click on the desired file from those on the left side column, and then click on 'Save Target As' (If you are a Firefox user: 'Save Link As') and choose the location on your computer in which you'd like to save your file. Here is a screen shot to guide you:
To download multiple lessons, it’s best to use iTunes or any other RSS feed reader. For more information on this, please refer to the question, "How do I download podcasts on to my iPod?"
