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Michel Thomas French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Keilan Senior Member Canada Joined 5088 days ago 125 posts - 241 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 1 of 9 31 October 2011 at 8:10am | IP Logged |
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Hello all,
I've going to Quebec (French-speaking Canada) in 6 months, and would like to learn as much French as possible. I'd like to avoid spending too much, and as such the $50 for a Michel Thomas course over the $300+ for a Pimsleur one seems promising. However, anytime I see claims like "Speak French in 2 hours!" I get suspicious. Is the Michel Thomas course any good? Or is it all marketing hype and appealing slogans? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6013 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 2 of 9 31 October 2011 at 9:21am | IP Logged |
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Michel Thomas is pretty good, because it covers a heck of a lot of grammar very quickly, but the pronunciation is a bit iffy. It's still worth doing, but stay sceptical....
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| Keilan Senior Member Canada Joined 5088 days ago 125 posts - 241 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 3 of 9 31 October 2011 at 3:12pm | IP Logged |
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That is good to know. So it's probably a good idea for a crash course in beginner grammar... but I should get my pronunciation elsewhere? (Thankfully I live in Canada, so finding native speaker audio isn't too hard)
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| jazzboy.bebop Senior Member Norway norwegianthroughnove Joined 5420 days ago 439 posts - 800 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Norwegian | Message 4 of 9 31 October 2011 at 6:30pm | IP Logged |
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I would advocate an Assimil New French With Ease and Michel Thomas combination. Assimil teaches a lot of useful language in quite a humorous way for many of the lessons and the recordings are of excellent quality and all in French.
Michel Thomas is great for getting your head around a lot of grammar quickly and gets you forming your own sentences. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Hideout Newbie United States Joined 4795 days ago 20 posts - 23 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Japanese, French | Message 5 of 9 31 October 2011 at 7:32pm | IP Logged |
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For all the Michel Thomas courses I've tried, the French was probably one of my favorites. I definitely suggest it.
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| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5264 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 6 of 9 31 October 2011 at 9:13pm | IP Logged |
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I don't know anything about Michael Thomas. @Cainntear always recommends it for grammar and he knows what he's talking about. Many people here say MT is great! When multiple people are telling you the same thing here on the forum you should probably listen. There are several resources for free French learning available here- check out this link French- where to start a few days ago here on the forum for some help and advice. Nothing wrong with using multiple resources for learning, in fact that's what I do.
I saved a link (which I plan to use when the time comes) to Tokyo University Foreign Studies who has a very basic 40 unit (5 mins a unit or so) Quebecois audio/video introduction with transcript: TUFS Quebec French Don't get freaked out by the Japanese script. Click on the "EN" in the upper left hand corner and you can navigate in English. The dialog will only be in French, and the transcript can be in French and/or Japanese. Hey, there's Google translate for both languages- copy and paste! The thing with "free" is, well, it isn't easy. Everything isn't handed to you but you don't have to pay for it. Assimil will run you about $40US on ebay/amazon.com. Pimsleur can be had via an inter-library loan. Since you are Canadian, I am sure your librarian can give you a lot of help in finding available French resources at the library. Bon Chance! Edited by iguanamon on 31 October 2011 at 9:27pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Keilan Senior Member Canada Joined 5088 days ago 125 posts - 241 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 7 of 9 31 October 2011 at 11:42pm | IP Logged |
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Thank you all for your help. :) It dawned on me today that my parents do not know what to get me for my upcoming birthday/Christmas... and so I may get both Michel Thomas and an Assimil course that way. Beyond that, thank you all for the resources, I will definitely see what my library has to offer, and will check out some of these online sources.
Thanks! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lecavaleur Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4779 days ago 146 posts - 295 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish | Message 8 of 9 01 November 2011 at 3:14am | IP Logged |
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If you're in Canada, Keilan, you can watch TONS of French language TV on Radio-Canada's replay site TOU.TV. There you will start getting used to Quebec pronunciation.
Also, go to the library, whether the municipal library or a school library. They have tons of stuff. You might not have to buy anything at all. If there is a university where you live, you can usually go into their library and squat their stuff on site. You can't borrow though, unlees you take a membership. Edited by lecavaleur on 01 November 2011 at 3:15am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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