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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| learninglover Newbie United States Joined 6685 days ago 22 posts - 22 votes Studies: English | Message 73 of 405 12 October 2006 at 10:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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After starting with Behind the Wheel Spanish and not feeling it was providing a firm foundation I moved on to Platiquemos but a few lessons in I thought I was in over my head.From there I completed Pimsleur 1 and found it gave me a nice introduction to pronounciation but after 14 lessons became quite boring to me and a chore to finish.. It was then on to Assimil Spanish with Ease which I still use but I wasn't retaining the lessons. Michel Thomas Spanish Deluxe has been a revelation to me. I am remembering grammar rules and structure I never thought I would. I know the program has its flaws but before I found out about it on this site I was about to give up on my quest to learn a new language. It does get costly trying so many different programs before you find the right one for you.
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| lengua Senior Member United States polyglottery.wordpre Joined 6685 days ago 549 posts - 595 votes  Studies: French, Italian, Spanish, German | Message 74 of 405 12 October 2006 at 11:45pm | IP Logged | ||
Hey John. Yes, the French course is great. But the other programs are as well. All of the beginner courses I've tried so far (Sp, Fr, It) will give you a solid introduction to the language, to the present tense, and at least one form of the future and past tenses (as well as a good knowledge of placing objects, and the capacity to form your own sentences). The advanced courses (I've tried Sp and Fr and will start Italian in the next few days) will take you through all the tenses, and by the end, if you master the material on the tapes, you should be able to construct sentences in any tense of the language, providing you have the vocabulary. In terms of quality differences between the tapes, the only quibble I have is that the students in some of the beginner tapes make a lot of mistakes (the male Spanish beg. student is hilariously bad), but the students in the advanced courses are much better. Also, in the Spanish adv. course, MT encourages stretching of certain words (haaablo) a little much. Otherwise, the material covered is solid. When learning French, I never cracked open a grammar book - he explained the tenses that well in the adv. course. When I went through his Spanish advanced course, I learned things in a few hours that I was *never* able to understand after four years of high school Spanish. It's ridiculous. I am currently working through the beginner German course, and even though I've been through three of his courses already, I'm still in awe of how easily he gets you speaking in the next one. Suffice it to say that all the advanced courses will give you more than your money's worth if you work through them enough. The main weakness in the MT courses is that they don't teach aural comprehension, or much vocabulary (although he does go through a lot of useful transitions and mood expressive phrases in the language builders). Also, there are no native speakers on any of the tapes, for any of the languages (although his German accent is the best of the four). Also, there are certain things I wished he'd gone over in more detail (like the "tu" form) - but there are only so many things one can cover in a certain amount of time, I guess. However, after getting through a beginner course twice or so and an advanced course four or five times (~40h in total), you will have a pretty good sense of how the language is put together, and from there, reading, a dictionary, or lots of radio (the method I swear by) will be all you need to start amassing the vocab. I don't advise using the program (or any program) in isolation, but it can be a very handy tool. I honestly believe that if this man had learned Chinese, his MT course on it would have made him world-famous. Edited by lengua on 13 October 2006 at 12:12am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 6891 days ago 909 posts - 942 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian | Message 75 of 405 13 October 2006 at 3:26am | IP Logged | ||
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I suppose the Michel Thomas courses are fairly good, although they're not really my cup of tea. I do like the fact that students are heard creating their own sentences but I don't like the lack of native speakers on the courses. I heard a sample of the Spanish course the other day and was cringing at how they all seemed to be speaking it with an Italian accent!
Nevertheless, I do agree that it gets language learners thinking in the language and creating their own sentences on the spot. It's a lot better than repeating the same sentences mindlessly with Pimsleur. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Farley Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 7093 days ago 681 posts - 739 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, GermanB1, French Studies: Spanish | Message 76 of 405 24 October 2006 at 3:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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Amazon UK is also offering two new types of courses, a Foundation Review and an Advanced Review. It is supposed to be just you and Michel with all the main teaching points and no students. They are reasonably priced. Curiosity got the better of me and I just ordered the German Foundation and Review courses. I'll see what they are like and post a quick note.
Additionally, I found a link here saying that Hodder Education is planning to release an additional vocabulary course with native speakers (and no students) in 2007. Vocabulary Course Review Course 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| makaveli1989 Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6744 days ago 69 posts - 73 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 77 of 405 28 October 2006 at 8:59am | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you for that news, I look forward to hearing your opinion of the German review course. I believe that vocabulary course is a great idea and will definitely be purchasing that.
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| Sir Nigel Senior Member United States Joined 7105 days ago 1126 posts - 1102 votes 2 sounds | Message 78 of 405 28 October 2006 at 10:02am | IP Logged | ||
My sister ordered those for French. I'll be interested to see how the German and French courses compare. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Roger Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6593 days ago 159 posts - 161 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Indonesian | Message 79 of 405 09 November 2006 at 9:59am | IP Logged | ||
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i have completed the italian one and am very pleased to say the least.
regarding the future coming vocab courses does anyone know how many words will be on it. someone told me 1000 but that seems alot for only 3 hrs of cd 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| aldo Triglot Groupie Thailand Joined 6597 days ago 50 posts - 52 votes Speaks: English*, French, SpanishB1 Studies: Italian, German, Dutch, Mandarin, Thai, Khmer, Malay | Message 80 of 405 09 November 2006 at 10:19am | IP Logged | ||
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In the World of Professional Language Teachers, MT's method is part of the cognitive approach. This involves your right hemisphere to connect with the passive left.
MT was a high end language teacher (why not?) and his results are legendary. Of course he was not going to allow his 25K methods and time to go out for a fraction (his royalty) of that with the CD set costing only 80 US dollars. There are several of his trainees that still are around and you can buy "the actual tapes" (not the ones people are talking about on here) of the process for about 4K. His approach is more long term than Pim's approach. Again, both approachs would be far stronger in person and in a classroom setting. Edited by aldo on 09 November 2006 at 10:20am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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