ikinaridango Triglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6128 days ago 61 posts - 80 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, Italian Studies: German, Polish
| Message 9 of 14 26 August 2011 at 2:23pm | IP Logged |
Maybe I'm just not familiar enough with Michel Thomas and his method, but when I saw the
heading 'Russian Michel Thomas foundation?' my first thought was that a foundation for
the continuation of his work, possibly funded by his own estate, was being set up in
Russia!
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nogoodnik Senior Member United States Joined 5572 days ago 372 posts - 461 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Modern Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew, Russian, French
| Message 10 of 14 27 August 2011 at 7:53am | IP Logged |
Christina-
I think that you would enjoy the Michel Thomas courses. Having an idea of your level, I may skip directly to the
advanced course first, because if I recall it briefly reviews everything on the beginner as well. It helped me fill in
gaps and understand grammatical ideas that were not explained in Pimsleur. I actually kind of enjoyed doing the
courses and they didn't feel as tedious as Pimsleur or rote memorization of cases.
Good luck!
Léah
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leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6553 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog
| Message 11 of 14 31 August 2011 at 6:07am | IP Logged |
hobbitofny wrote:
The Vocab course covers the cases not presented in the first two courses. To me, that is the
basics of the grammar. I will be interested to read your report. |
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I take it back. It covers a lot more grammar in the vocab course. I'll do the last disc tomorrow, but I think everything
that I'm aware of, as a beginner, will be covered by then. Without the vocab course, this is clearly not the case. I'm
really not qualified to say if all basic grammar is there, but I'm impressed.
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hobbitofny Senior Member United States Joined 6236 days ago 280 posts - 408 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian
| Message 12 of 14 31 August 2011 at 3:32pm | IP Logged |
The labels used for the MT Russian courses are misleading. The Vocab course should be called part two of Russian Advanced Course. Natasha Bershadski needed extra time to cover the grammar. I assume this means the Russian course covers less vocab over the three courses compared to French or German MT. However, I have only used the MT Russian and do not know.
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newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6382 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map
| Message 13 of 14 31 August 2011 at 4:12pm | IP Logged |
Same for the Mandarin course. The vocabulary course is just a continuation of the advanced Course.
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leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6553 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog
| Message 14 of 14 01 September 2011 at 9:20am | IP Logged |
Ok, finished the last disc. Telling time isn't covered. до isn't covered. As was noted by someone else, it doesn't properly cover verbs of motion. It does more than scratch the surface, but
it's still inadequate. And there are at least a few major topics that are barely touched. I found the explanation of when to use the "есть" in "у меня есть" possibly the worst explained point
I've ever heard in any MT course. She corrects and explains it many times throughout the courses, but I'm still baffled.
So while it covers a higher percentage than Mandarin course (and yes, I did the Mandarin vocab course too), it doesn't cover as much French.
Keeping in mind that I'm not qualified to make such a statement, IMO percentages of basic grammar covered are roughly:
Japanese 25
Mandarin 50
Russian 75
French 90
I still recommend the Russian course. It's the quickest, easiest way I've found to get a grasp on a large amount of grammar. I didn't count, but I
think roughly the same amount of vocabulary is covered as the French course. And DON'T BUY THE FRENCH VOCABULARY COURSE. One of the
worst language products I've ever used. Japanese doesn't have a vocab course, as far as I know, which is too bad. It's actually a good program;
just not enough time to cover the almost endless Japanese grammar.
Edited by leosmith on 01 September 2011 at 7:54pm
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