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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6910 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 153 of 405 09 July 2007 at 1:52am | IP Logged | ||
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I've only listened to a couple of the CDs, but even though the accent leaves much to be desired I think MT's method is quite impressive. No method alone makes wonders, and for pronunciation one should probably do a lot of chorusing, get one-on-one tutoring with a native speaker et.c.
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| Languagelover1 Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6430 days ago 63 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 154 of 405 09 July 2007 at 2:03am | IP Logged | ||
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I disagree with the last few comments, personally, as I have learned four
languages with the Michel Thomas method. This method is excellent for people who have never studied languages before because it dispenses entirely with the kind of grammatical terminology that one finds in most language courses and presents all the tenses of the language in a way that it easy and extremely fast to assimilate. Personally I've never used any Michel Thomas course for pronunciation practice. It has to be said that in three of the four foreign languages Michel recorded he could be described as a non-native speaker and as such heavily accented. He began speaking German as a child (Polish was his native language) so probably had little or no discernible accent speaking German and certainly, to my ear, he sounds like a native speaker in that language. The beauty of these courses is that you pick up enough of the language in such a short space of time (a matter of hours) so that you can then move on to authentic sources for input in the form of films, TV and radio. It is from these sources that we are going to pick up pronunciation. You only need to listen to the course once through and then you're done with it Anyone who has listened to the Michel Thomas courses and the vocabulary course would be able to go away and start immediately into reading material written for natives and understand through context, I know because I've done it. This is achieved in a few hours not the six months required with Assimil, which many people on here appear to promote. I think that if you are already an accomplished learner of languages this method is not quite as useful I can understand how listening to novices learning might be excruciating for you, but I found their mistakes to be a comfort to me, that it is ok not to be perfect when beginning to learn a language. One is always going to make mistakes, in fact I'd go as far to say that the mistakes ARE learning the language. Their mistakes, as English speakers are likely to be the same as my mistakes and hearing the correction aids the learning process. In the past the method was dominated by the man himself and he didn't want to let anyone else have control of it, now that he has passed away I believe that there are three more lanuages in the pipeline that use native speakers either as the teacher or with the teacher to ensure a perfect pronunciation model. The languages recorded I believe are , Arabic, Mandarin and Russian and will be published in September. Perhaps the people who hated the method will enjoy it more when they used one of these or listened to the German course. Do give it a go as they helped me to learn where all else failed. Edited by Languagelover1 on 11 August 2007 at 4:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| egg_uk Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6419 days ago 203 posts - 204 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 155 of 405 09 July 2007 at 11:48am | IP Logged | ||
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anyone know if there are any transcripts out for the new vocabulary courses? or do they come with them? thanks
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| Languagelover1 Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6430 days ago 63 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 156 of 405 09 July 2007 at 11:58am | IP Logged | ||
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There are no transcripts as yet, it's my one gripe with these although there is
quite a comprehensive index of content that comes with the courses Each course has three areas of teaching, the first section is cognates, the second section improves the range of verbs that can be used and practices applying these in different tenses and the third is everyday expressions such as telling the time, weather, hunger, thirst and learning words by pairing them with their opposite, ugly and beautiful, large and small etc 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cage Diglot aka a.ardaschira, Athena, Michael Thomas Senior Member United States Joined 6625 days ago 382 posts - 393 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Portuguese | Message 157 of 405 09 July 2007 at 12:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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Languagelover1 i agree with you that the MT method is good just can't get into non native speakers speaking the lessons. These new courses with native speakers do sound interesting and worth checking out. Perhaps the other 4 will have native speakers in future editions.
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| Mezzivi Newbie Joined 6349 days ago 36 posts - 36 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French | Message 158 of 405 09 July 2007 at 2:40pm | IP Logged | ||
I love these courses, and the basic courses. In fact its how ive started all my languages, apart from Portuguese. I find the Spanish vocabulary course great, Rose is very good in that course, but I found her to be terrible in the Italian one. With regard to the transcripts, I was also annoyed that they werent supplied, but im going to make my own, it gives me a good excuse to go through the courses again. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Eve Triglot Groupie United States Joined 6676 days ago 67 posts - 67 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, Spanish | Message 159 of 405 09 July 2007 at 2:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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I went thru the most of Michel Thomas' courses for Spanish and I'm on my 4th CD in the new course. I have to agree with previous reviewers about too much time spent on cognates. Also we have native speakers now and it good to the ears.
But advantage of original course having two people LEARNING language in the same time with you is exactly that - you have classroom like environment and can learn on mistakes of others. Especially I like the Advanced course where students are also advanced. I found that I definitely didn't have to repeat the same stuff in the original ( or advanced) course ( may be some of it) and I have to go back too often in the new course. When the pupil made a significant mistake answering Michel Thomas question MT always put some other points for better understanding and you remember it forever. So it is two way street - we are gaining on pronunciation and loosing on the other parts that I feel is more significant because you can get TV, radio, other courses on MP3 etc for pronunciation after ( or during) you go thru understanding and /or memorizing the key points of the language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| stultus Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6345 days ago 8 posts - 8 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 160 of 405 15 July 2007 at 4:54am | IP Logged | ||
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Does anybody have a copy of the Michel Thomas-related NLP presentation on mp3? I am a secondary school Spanish teacher in the UK and we are going to be using the Michel Thomas method to teach three of our Year 7 (first year) and Year 8 (second year) classes next academic year. We will be using the new course called ¡Es Posible! by Paul Howard which uses the original foundation and advanced Spanish courses by Michel Thomas and adapts them for use in the classroom. I am looking for as much information as possible about the method (even though I have been a "fan" for over five years) in order to better inform my own teaching, but also to convince a somewhat skeptical Senior Leadership Team.
Thanks, Martin 1 person has voted this message useful |
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