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Michel Thomas | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7013 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes  Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 49 of 405 29 August 2006 at 3:27pm | IP Logged | |||||
Forum member AML is already transcribing the German version so that's one less for you to worry about :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| cadomniel Groupie Canada senseandsanity.com Joined 7193 days ago 88 posts - 90 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Esperanto, French, Italian | Message 50 of 405 03 September 2006 at 1:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I have three hour presentation given at an NLP Conference about Michel Thomas, his life, his language teaching methods etc. Wyatt woodsmall and his wife modelled his language teaching for 4 or 5 years and I believe were planning to write a book about it.
I haven't listened to the entire presentation yet but will let you know what I think of it. Edited by cadomniel on 03 September 2006 at 1:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| cadomniel Groupie Canada senseandsanity.com Joined 7193 days ago 88 posts - 90 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Esperanto, French, Italian | Message 51 of 405 03 September 2006 at 9:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Finished listening to the presentation.
The first 45 minutes or so is a biography on Michel Thomas, including his war time heroics and how he eventually decided to become a language teacher. The next section is describing Michel 's method, and philosophy. If you have heard the CD's you'll know what it is. He stresses that the responsibility for the teaching is on the teacher and not to get frustrated or angry if you don't remember something. Many accelerated learning people emphasize relaxation, however relaxation is a conscious activity. Michel believes that tension is the greatest hindrance to effective learning, so the teacher must eliminate all sources of tension such as: physical tension, trying, the tension created by expectation (of knowing the answer). Michel encourages guessing with vocabulary but not with structure. You must think out the answer, and he could tell when the students were guessing the answers. His face to face language courses were $25,000US and lasted five days. They guaranteed enough knowledge of the language grammar and vocabulary to comfortably read, write and speak in all verb tenses, without any memorizing or taking notes. To say that Michel Thomas could teach more in five days than a university couree teaches in 3 or 4 years sounds ridiculous, and most people are rightfully skeptical. However, my own experience listening to his CD's and university courses certainly makes believe this is possible. Michel didn't believe in taking breaks! (ie ten minutes every hour or something) he would hammer you with his questions "how do you say....." non-stop until you asked him for a break! Unless you asked him he could go 8-9 hours straight , even when he was 90 years old... His students didn't feel like taking a break because learning was fun and exciting and they could see the amount of progress they were getting in so little time. Michel wouldn't tell you of your mistakes, he made note of the mistake and would retest/reexplain to you later. you never have to worry about 'being wrong" He stressed the importance of the students to calibrate the listeners response so the student knows when he is being misunderstood vs not understood. The rest of the CD is about the education system in General (including Michel Thomas' views--he calls it the Mind Prison"), and modelling with Neurolinguistic programming. Michel believed learning is on eof the greatest instincts of human beings and the education system slowly takes that instinct away, by taking the fun away. In his five day courses: Michel would teach the first three days. It would be very similar to his 8 CD course plus the Advanced course, and you would have a basic vocabulary and all the verb tenses. During the next two days you would work with one of his instructors and read varios passages, and practice conversation. Edited by cadomniel on 03 September 2006 at 9:14pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| makaveli1989 Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6741 days ago 69 posts - 73 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 52 of 405 04 September 2006 at 6:30am | IP Logged | |||||
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Thank you for sharing that with everyone. $25,000!?!!!!?!!
Did the presentation say how Michel learned all of these languages during war times? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| andee Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 7075 days ago 681 posts - 724 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Korean, French | Message 53 of 405 04 September 2006 at 8:20am | IP Logged | |||||
Born in Poland (Jewish family), moved to Germany as a child. Left Germany for France in 1933 when Hitler came to power. Drifted between Poland, Germany and Austria before having his passport cofiscated and fleeing to France. In the French Army/Resistance, he worked with the Allies and US from 1944 or so. No mention on his website of Italian or Spanish though. http://www.michelthomas.com/ As for the $25K pricetag - look at the testimonials page to see the type of clientele ;) Edited by andee on 04 September 2006 at 8:24am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| lengua Senior Member United States polyglottery.wordpre Joined 6682 days ago 549 posts - 595 votes Studies: French, Italian, Spanish, German | Message 54 of 405 04 September 2006 at 11:06am | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm not sure which 11 languages he knew. These are the ones I've got so far:
Polish, Yiddish, English, French, Italian, Spanish, German. But that leaves at least three. Possibly four. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| braveb Senior Member United States languageprograms.blo Joined 7195 days ago 264 posts - 263 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 55 of 405 04 September 2006 at 10:29pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It's strange that it would cost 25,000 for his language program. From using his basic and advanced courses, I didn't think his methods were that revolutionary. One only needs to take a look at the transcripts above to figure this out. Of course his methods are great, but I think a gifted language hobbyist could put together a language program similiar to Michel Thomas's.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7013 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 56 of 405 05 September 2006 at 7:36am | IP Logged | |||||
Regardless of how good Michel Thomas was at teaching languages, US$5000 per day still sounds like an exhorbitant fee, irrespective of the learner's wealth. If I were spending that (wishful thinking!) then I'd better be pretty damned good after five days or I'd have some 'polite' words with the teacher.
It might not be as easy as it appears or else the market would be completely saturated with these types of programs. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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