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Any other programs similar to Michel Thomas | ||
Tags: Michel Thomas | Language Program | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| ericblair Senior Member United States Joined 4712 days ago 480 posts - 700 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 17 of 34 25 February 2014 at 10:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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Cool. Was there any particularly annoying aspect or downside to the course other than
the usual lack of attention to accent? No weird thing like pretending to ignore gender differences and such? Is it equally suitable regardless of Spanish dialect one is learning? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5376 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 18 of 34 25 February 2014 at 11:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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I did it a few years ago so don't remember everything. That being said, I did not think there were any downsides. People complain about his bad accent and his lip smacking, but those are really minor things. I do recall that in the foundations course they did not cover all aspects of grammar. I think they skipped past subjunctive and maybe some other things. I'd highly recommend MT for Spanish.
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| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5784 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 19 of 34 26 February 2014 at 12:46am | IP Logged | ||
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I want to see what happens with this new Hindi course later this year. The first post-MT courses were
rushed and used only a poor approximation of his method, but there has been a long delay with Hindi. Hodder & Stoughton have had ample time to take feedback on board and do this one well. If they can marry MT's actual method with the expert knowledege of the actual language of a highly qualified teacher (which Thomas never had), this could be really special; if not, I fear that Michel Thomas and his method will fade into nothing but a historical curiosity in the coming years, which would be very, very sad. Edited by Random review on 26 February 2014 at 12:47am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tupiniquim Senior Member Brazil Joined 6084 days ago 184 posts - 217 votes Speaks: Portuguese* Studies: English, Russian | Message 20 of 34 26 February 2014 at 11:20am | IP Logged | ||
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Personally, it's the small imperfections, informality and improvising that make the MT method so good. When I know beforehand that I'm about to listen to a very strict and mechanical delivery, I tend to drift off and miss big chunks of of the input by being distracted. With MT I stay on my toes all the time.
4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5784 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 21 of 34 26 February 2014 at 1:33pm | IP Logged | ||
Excellent point. Really excellent point. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5566 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 22 of 34 27 February 2014 at 11:50am | IP Logged | ||
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I agree - add to that the original Thomas courses work because he was a grumpy old man
with a good deal of charisma who could get away with things with the students that more professional people can't. All the technical criticisms raised ad infinitum by people like Cainntear of blessed memory all fall flat because Thomas is guilty of them all himself. Personally, I think the Paul Noble German course is a 'better' course for beginners. It teaches relevant communicative vocabulary, has a native speaker for pronunciation and explains the case system. It does that in a cogent and easy way. Likewise and the MT German vocabulary course is far superior in its explanation than Thomas himself. But what they lack is the implicit cruelty of the poor efforts of the bad student and the expectation of Thomas shouting exasperatingly NO in his thick dribbling Polish accent. Michel Thomas is therefore an experience and one you remember, the other courses are, well, courses. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5208 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 23 of 34 27 February 2014 at 3:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've done the Spanish and Italian courses and I thought they were great, especially the foundation ones. The advanced ones are useful too but they're more dense and it's hard to remember everything afterwards.
My one complaint about the Spanish course was that it doesn't teach the vosotros forms, but that's a gap you can fill in afterwards if you're learning European Spanish. I suppose it tries to be neutral regarding dialects. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5784 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 24 of 34 27 February 2014 at 7:57pm | IP Logged | ||
And we were getting on so well, too... Thomas wasn't really guitly of all the criticisms raised by Cainntear. The German Vocab course was far inferior to Thomas' own courses for quality of explanation (what does "victim of the verb" even mean, anyway?). I've not tried Noble. I don't like the sound of what he does (which is scripted) but to be fair, I haven't given him a fair trial. How does he explain the case system? Edited by Random review on 27 February 2014 at 8:11pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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