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Michel Thomas | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6012 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes  Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 257 of 405 03 August 2009 at 8:03pm | IP Logged |
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I tried the one-hour Mandarin sampler from the website, and I didn't like it either. I've never studied a tonal language and I studied Italian at school before taking the MT Italian course, so I don't think it's your previous experience that was the problem. Like most of the newer courses, it uses too many words, and they get in the way of learning the structures. The colours and pointy fingers for the tones seemed really odd to me. (As others have stated, it must be worse than useless for a synaesthete who already associates colours with musical tones.)
Costco had MT courses going cheap a while back -- I got German Foundation and Advanced for about 15 or 20 quid each. I also picked up the Mandarin Foundation for £25 at a second hand shop, but I'm not sure when I'll get round to doing it. I've still not finished the Japanese either, cos it bored me silly.... Edited by Cainntear on 03 August 2009 at 8:05pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Kugel Senior Member United States Joined 6539 days ago 497 posts - 555 votes Speaks: English* | Message 258 of 405 03 August 2009 at 8:19pm | IP Logged |
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Looking back at the Mandarin course I've realized that the content of the course works, but the English word-by-word prompts throws it off balance. The prompt should just be given once in one full complete statement, not "I...be...good...person." And if the course was done via software or pen and paper, then the material could be effectively covered in half the time it takes to do the 8 hour course with audio only. The speed of the material, however, is good if you are multitasking such as driving down the highway with little traffic.
I didn't have a problem with the amount of words, and I thought the tones with fingers was pretty effective. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6012 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 259 of 405 03 August 2009 at 8:50pm | IP Logged |
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I don't suppose it's the amount per se that I object to, but more the relative usefulness. "English" and "American" also give us "beautiful" and "brave", but they're not exactly bread-and-butter vocabulary, are they? Michel himself stuck with the most general and reusable stuff he could think of. I want it. I don't need it, but I want to buy it. I wanted to buy it. etc
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| orion Senior Member United States Joined 7022 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 260 of 405 03 August 2009 at 11:05pm | IP Logged |
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I have worked through the Mandarin foundation course and also found the word by word prompts to be quite irritating. The teacher will ask you to say something, then as you are beginning to, he interupts with word by word prompts. I also did not find the colored-finger method helpful for learning tones. The female student in this set is extremely annoying.
I am working through the Japanese foundation course and agree with Cainntear that it is extremely boring. In addition the male student in that course sounds exactly like a guy I know, who happens to be a complete jackass! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Belardur Octoglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5612 days ago 148 posts - 195 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2, Spanish, Dutch, Latin, Ancient Greek, French, Lowland Scots Studies: Biblical Hebrew, Italian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Korean | Message 261 of 405 04 August 2009 at 9:37am | IP Logged |
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Personally, I'm a huge fan of the method. I worked through the Italian (foundation, advanced, and language builder) and went straight to native material afterward (granted, I had studied a bit before, but not much, about half of an A2 textbook). I'm currently working through the French advanced, and I can understand a lot of what I read and hear after only the foundation (well, and 3 lessons of FSI, but I'm impatient). I've also started the Dutch course, I'm only on CD 2, and I'm reading a bit online without too much problem (again, not quite a good example, as I already speak German, and there's something like 70% cognates to Dutch between German and English).
I'd love to take it for a language that I know nothing about, and don't know any of a related language - I really think that using the foundation, advanced, language builder, and vocab course would let you move on to native stuff and acquire naturally from there. I more or less believe the claim (or what I infer the claim to be, as they actually claim "A-level" usage, which I believe is equivalent to US AP, or 1-2 semesters of University level study, to which the supposed goal is...) of B1 usage by the end of all the courses. I think I'm going to get the German one for my dad, and make him do it before he comes over here to visit me. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6012 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 262 of 405 04 August 2009 at 12:15pm | IP Logged |
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Sorry, Belardur, but you're going to be disappointed: there are no real Michel Thomas courses in any languages you won't find immediately familiar. The new courses really are quite far removed from the real thing, with the exception of Dutch and possibly Portuguese. Both of these work because they've just cloned the existing courses in the related languages, but they didn't do this for the other languages (Arabic, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Polish and Greek), claiming that they were too different, so they've gone off in another direction to varying degrees of success (but never anywhere close to what Thomas did).
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| Woodpecker Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5812 days ago 351 posts - 590 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Arabic (Egyptian) Studies: Arabic (classical) | Message 263 of 405 04 August 2009 at 1:59pm | IP Logged |
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I must say, I have never done a "real" Michel Thomas course. I look forward to using the complete French course in the near future. However, I have used the (Egyptian) Arabic foundation and advanced courses. They are far from perfect, but they are still the most helpful resource I have encountered for a beginner by far. Also, the foundation course starts out much worse than it finishes. At the beginning, the teacher comes up with a mnemonic for everything, but by the second lesson or so she almost completely stops. She does tend to spoonfeed English too much, but the easy way to deal with that is to use the pause button after the full sentence is first stated, which you should be doing anyway. If the French is really that much better, I think it must be an amazing course.
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| Belardur Octoglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5612 days ago 148 posts - 195 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2, Spanish, Dutch, Latin, Ancient Greek, French, Lowland Scots Studies: Biblical Hebrew, Italian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Korean | Message 264 of 405 04 August 2009 at 2:03pm | IP Logged |
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Yeah, the only candidate for a totally unknown and unrelated language for me was Arabic anyway.
I have noticed a bit of a difference in the Dutch course, too. One big thing of note is that the two "students" have had at least a little German, because some of their "mistakes" are attempts to use German words. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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