Michel Thomas method review

Book review

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• Thomas
• Foreign
• languages
• Pimsleur
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[pdrums777]

i thought you were a chick with them nails.. eww

[laoshu505000]

@pdrums777 Cool. How do you like them?

[frenchbecomesyou]

But after viewing your videos, and seeing the advanced progress you have made, it would be wonderful if you could produce the next level. You will have millions of customers. LOL but I'm serious about that.

[laoshu505000]

@frenchbecomesyou lol That's funny

[gogaijin]

I like these CD's a lot. I have the Japanese one of course... LOL...

[laoshu505000]

@gogaijin how long have you been using it for Japanese

[pdrums777]

@laoshu505000 SEXY!!! :D

[saesuicide]

I have the introductory, foundation, advanced and vocabcourse for russian (which is another advanced course that focuses on the cases) and I love it. I listen to them everyday, especially the advanced and vocab course because I need a lot of work when it comes to using the cases. Far more simpler to speak, hear it and get a feel for what sounds right and wrong when speaking.

[littlemonyou]

I think it is great but the teacher`s english with strong accent was too confusing for me to follow the lesson... :/

[VictimOfBoredom]

@frenchbecomesyou And even more so, the Portuguese course is explicitly modeled directly from the original courses. Virginia Catmur even uses many of the same exact sentences Michel used (that any MT enthusiast would instantly recognize).

So, yeah. Methinks you may either have too much worship for Michel Thomas or too little appreciation for his worthy successors. In fact, many are of the opinion that the original MT courses have indeed been *improved* upon.

[VictimOfBoredom]

@frenchbecomesyou That's at least 10 useful verb patterns multiplied across at least a dozen verbs (that's a minimum of 120 different verb patterns for the mathematically challenged), complemented by a plethora of useful adjectives and idiomatic phrases. How this amounts to "a few extra words and the ablility to say hi" is beyond me.

[cont]

[VictimOfBoredom]

@frenchbecomesyou Moreover, NONE of the courses I've listened to have stressed or even mentioned "hi". The Japanese course does a particularly excellent job of teaching the verb conjugations for the following: I __ / I don't __ / won't you __? / let's __ / shall we __? / I want to __ / I didn't __ / I didn't want to __ / while __ / __ and / and probably a few more I can't recall.

[cont]

[VictimOfBoredom]

@frenchbecomesyou Did we listen to the same courses? Michel scolds the students for improper pronunciation in the German course, while in the Mandarin course, Harold regularly overlooks the students' ludicrously incorrect pronunciation.

The fact that you don't like the Dutch course even though it was literally adapted DIRECTLY from the German course suggests your judgement may be clouded by just a *hint* of bias.

[cont]

[frenchbecomesyou]

@VictimOfBoredom

I don't like any of the new courses that bear Michel Thomas name but not his teaching. They miss the forest for the trees by focusing too deeply on pronounciation and vocabualry acqusition. So instead of learning the basic grammar to form sentences right away and actually start speaking with people, you are left with knowledge of a few extra words and the ablility to say hi in the target language like a native. Much of the brilliance of the original has been stripped.