BillyIdol Posted September 14, 2014 Report Share Posted September 14, 2014 Just wondering if anyone here has successfully used the Michel Thomas system. I've listened to a few of his audio books, one for French and another for German, and what he explained seemed logical, but I'm wondering if it sticks or not. Both times that I started using these courses my life got in the way, and I didn't continue, but I'm ready to give it another shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
czarina84 Posted December 23, 2015 Report Share Posted December 23, 2015 I have never heard of him before. What exactly is his method? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
宇崎ちゃん Posted December 23, 2015 Report Share Posted December 23, 2015 I've heard lots of success stories on other forums, but I can't speak for them because I have never used it myself. I can easily get around with a few dollars, yens or euros for a couple of materials a month for each language, but paying over 100 US dollars for 1 material is something I would rather not do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wanda Kaishin Posted December 28, 2015 Report Share Posted December 28, 2015 On 12/23/2015, 4:14:12, czarina84 said: I have never heard of him before. What exactly is his method? It's an audio course designed to give the learner a good grasp on a large portion of the target language's grammar in a very short period of time. Unlike Pimsleur, it comes with notes, and actually encourages you to pause the recording and formulate your answers. There is always a teacher (sometimes 2) and 2 students - a smart student and a dumb student. The teacher explains something, delivers a sample sentence, and the students repeat it. If the smart student repeats it, it's usually right. If the dumb student repeats it, it's often wrong, and the teacher makes a correction. Although it sounds bizarre/annoying, I've found Michel Thomas to be helpful and well worth the money. How helpful depends on the language. Here's how I rate the ones I've used: French - very good (except the vocabulary course, which is absolutely terrible) Russian - good Japanese - good Chinese - ok czarina84 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
czarina84 Posted January 8, 2016 Report Share Posted January 8, 2016 Have you tried the Spanish course? That is the language that I'm currently learning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wanda Kaishin Posted January 8, 2016 Report Share Posted January 8, 2016 5 hours ago, czarina84 said: Have you tried the Spanish course? That is the language that I'm currently learning. No, but I've heard it's pretty good. That one was created by Michel Thomas himself (he is the teacher in the recording), and all of those have a reputation for being quite good. czarina84 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agentzero Posted January 9, 2016 Report Share Posted January 9, 2016 I don't think this would work for me. I'm pretty much a visual learner and I don't I could learn a language completely based off audio. Not even little snippets. Maybe if there was some additional video material, or even just text, but not only from audio. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
czarina84 Posted January 9, 2016 Report Share Posted January 9, 2016 19 hours ago, Wanda Kaishin said: No, but I've heard it's pretty good. That one was created by Michel Thomas himself (he is the teacher in the recording), and all of those have a reputation for being quite good. Okay. Thank you. I'm going to check that out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wanda Kaishin Posted January 9, 2016 Report Share Posted January 9, 2016 17 hours ago, agentzero said: I don't think this would work for me. I'm pretty much a visual learner and I don't I could learn a language completely based off audio. Not even little snippets. Maybe if there was some additional video material, or even just text, but not only from audio. As I said, it comes with notes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trellum Posted January 10, 2016 Report Share Posted January 10, 2016 I have the Dutch one, but I haven't gotten past from the first unit. So far I think this course is awesome, but only if you have some basic knowledge on the language, otherwise it might not go as smoothly as intended. I look forward to really get into this course again In my opinion this method is really great, specially for those learning Dutch... it makes it easier for those trying to grasp the word order in Dutch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agentzero Posted January 11, 2016 Report Share Posted January 11, 2016 On 1/8/2016, 5:23:20, Wanda Kaishin said: No, but I've heard it's pretty good. That one was created by Michel Thomas himself (he is the teacher in the recording), and all of those have a reputation for being quite good. Ah, sorry then, didn't pay attention. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OmniHead Posted January 12, 2016 Report Share Posted January 12, 2016 Never heard of Michel Thomas before until @Wanda Kaishin is telling us more about his courses. I'm actually learning German and certainly I need a boost not only with my vocabulary, but also my pronunciation and maybe his course might help me for improvement purpose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wanda Kaishin Posted January 13, 2016 Report Share Posted January 13, 2016 4 hours ago, OmniHead said: Never heard of Michel Thomas before until @Wanda Kaishin is telling us more about his courses. I'm actually learning German and certainly I need a boost not only with my vocabulary, but also my pronunciation and maybe his course might help me for improvement purpose. A bit of a warning here. While Michel Thomas's accents aren't bad, they aren't native. He has been criticized for this, and for giving pronunciation tips that aren't correct/helpful. I believe he's a native Polish speaker. This doesn't affect me, because I learn my pronunciation elsewhere before ever listening to his course. I like to compartmentalize my learning, so I'm only trying to get grammar out of them. czarina84 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
czarina84 Posted January 16, 2016 Report Share Posted January 16, 2016 On 1/12/2016 7:26:52, Wanda Kaishin said: A bit of a warning here. While Michel Thomas's accents aren't bad, they aren't native. He has been criticized for this, and for giving pronunciation tips that aren't correct/helpful. I believe he's a native Polish speaker. This doesn't affect me, because I learn my pronunciation elsewhere before ever listening to his course. I like to compartmentalize my learning, so I'm only trying to get grammar out of them. Thank you for the warning. I was not aware of that. I will look elsewhere for pronunciation, as well. If the pronunciation is wrong, that could anger a lot of native speakers, or in some cases, change the meaning of the word. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
宇崎ちゃん Posted January 16, 2016 Report Share Posted January 16, 2016 @czarina84 I could perhaps recommend you to find random YouTube videos in your target language. They may perhaps not be intended to teach you languages, but real world videos are still the best way to learn the right pronunciation, as long as you 'shadow' their pronunciation. Each time I learn a new language, I make sure my pronunciation gets as close to a native speaker as I can get, I'm therefore very specific with this (I speak Australian English, so I try to copy an Australian person as closely as I can). Copying pronunciation correctly will be hard at first (especially since you hear yourself differently than other people hear you), but the good news is, you can get used to it pretty damn quick. czarina84 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wanda Kaishin Posted January 16, 2016 Report Share Posted January 16, 2016 4 hours ago, czarina84 said: If the pronunciation is wrong, that could anger a lot of native speakers, or in some cases, change the meaning of the word. You are right to look elsewhere for learning pronunciation. But his pronunciation isn't so bad to the point where it isn't understandable. czarina84 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
czarina84 Posted January 17, 2016 Report Share Posted January 17, 2016 18 hours ago, Blaveloper said: @czarina84 I could perhaps recommend you to find random YouTube videos in your target language. They may perhaps not be intended to teach you languages, but real world videos are still the best way to learn the right pronunciation, as long as you 'shadow' their pronunciation. Each time I learn a new language, I make sure my pronunciation gets as close to a native speaker as I can get, I'm therefore very specific with this (I speak Australian English, so I try to copy an Australian person as closely as I can). Copying pronunciation correctly will be hard at first (especially since you hear yourself differently than other people hear you), but the good news is, you can get used to it pretty damn quick. Thank you. I would appreciate that. I was thinking of it before, but in the world of YouTube, it's difficult to tell sometimes who knows what they are talking about versus who just wants to be on the internet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
czarina84 Posted January 17, 2016 Report Share Posted January 17, 2016 18 hours ago, Wanda Kaishin said: You are right to look elsewhere for learning pronunciation. But his pronunciation isn't so bad to the point where it isn't understandable. Okay. I just say the part where you said that he was criticized for his pronunciation not being correct. I didn't realize you meant that his accent just interfered. I thought you meant he was giving the wrong intonation. Like saying dove (bird), instead of dove (past tense of to dive). Obviously not those exact words, but an example of what happens when you pronounce something incorrectly and change it's meaning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rz3300 Posted January 17, 2016 Report Share Posted January 17, 2016 I remember when I was taking classes in Italian before my trip there this man's name came up, and people seems to have a good impression of his work, but I have not really seen much of him or know a while lot of what he does. If he is a successful though, I am glad that he his making his services available for others to benefit from. It does sound like he has some issues with his accent though, and that would certainly make things a little more difficult if you hare trying to learn a new language. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rainhero Posted February 7, 2016 Report Share Posted February 7, 2016 I have never heard of him either. I usually use different methods for learning and practicing languages. I have tried Rosetta Stone though, and that works pretty good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kev Brown Posted May 30, 2016 Report Share Posted May 30, 2016 I used his cd to help me learn French. If you are a raw beginner you may find his method to be useful. As more time progresses you'll notice that you are spending a lot of time listening to people speaking in English. I prefer the Pimsleur system as you spend much more time listening to the language you are learning. The conversations are also graded to allow you to improve quickly if you are dedicated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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