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Mistakes in Michel Thomas courses | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| boon Diglot Groupie Ireland Joined 6158 days ago 91 posts - 177 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Mandarin, Latin | Message 25 of 52 25 October 2009 at 1:43pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I listened to his Spanish, German and French courses. I like them quite a lot. However, the pronunciation is pretty dire. Especially in the German course when he introduces a new word and does an exaggerated, and wrong, pronunciation. For example, "aber". He keeps saying "AH-BEARRRR", with a French "r" at the end. But the "r" isn't pronounced! And the second vowel sound is wrong! It's more like "AH-BUH". When he's not exaggerating his pronunciation, he's considerably better.
The Hugo Beginner's Course has an excellent guide to German pronunciation at the start. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| elvisrules Tetraglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5468 days ago 286 posts - 390 votes Speaks: French, English*, Dutch, Flemish Studies: Lowland Scots, Japanese, German | Message 26 of 52 10 January 2010 at 6:47pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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How can he pronounce German wrong if it's his native language and clearly has a German accent when he speaks English?
The Irish woman on Japanese "Advanced" had an awful accent when she spoke out the Japanese. It sounded something like Irish English that happened to be similer to Japanese... Thankfully there was a native speaker voice-over after her. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Paskwc Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5676 days ago 450 posts - 624 votes Speaks: Hindi, Urdu*, Arabic (Levantine), French, English Studies: Persian, Spanish | Message 27 of 52 10 January 2010 at 6:57pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I think his native language is Polish. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| ChiaBrain Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5807 days ago 402 posts - 512 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish* Studies: Portuguese, Italian, French Studies: German | Message 28 of 52 10 January 2010 at 7:28pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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It must be a regional thing because I would always use "no debes" for "you must not" and
"no tienes que" for "you do not need to". 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| elvisrules Tetraglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5468 days ago 286 posts - 390 votes Speaks: French, English*, Dutch, Flemish Studies: Lowland Scots, Japanese, German | Message 29 of 52 10 January 2010 at 7:39pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Well maybe, but he did live there for a long time and he clearly has a German accent, unlike that of Poles I have known. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| ChiaBrain Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5807 days ago 402 posts - 512 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish* Studies: Portuguese, Italian, French Studies: German | Message 30 of 52 10 January 2010 at 7:45pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Maybe its a German regional thing how he pronounced it? Anyway... I like his courses as an introduction to the structure (grammar) of the language that I can listen to while I do other things. Later I look up what he has taught in a grammar book and seeing it in writing and in tables helps it stick. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6010 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 31 of 52 10 January 2010 at 11:44pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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It may be that his goal was to give students first and foremost an accurate map of the phonemes -- there is a danger that if you reduce or remove sounds early on in lessons, phonemes start to get confused. It certainly seemed fairly easy to me to adjust my accent in Spanish once I knew all the phonemes. The one problem I did have was S vs Z, because I learned Spanish from the MT Spanish course which doesn't make that distinction.
3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| boon Diglot Groupie Ireland Joined 6158 days ago 91 posts - 177 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Mandarin, Latin | Message 32 of 52 13 January 2010 at 2:33pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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"I listened to his Spanish, German and French courses. I like them quite a lot. However, the pronunciation is pretty dire. Especially in the German course when he introduces a new word and does an exaggerated, and wrong, pronunciation. For example, "aber". He keeps saying "AH-BEARRRR", with a French "r" at the end. But the "r" isn't pronounced! And the second vowel sound is wrong! It's more like "AH-BUH". When he's not exaggerating his pronunciation, he's considerably better.
" Just to clarify, he only really mispronounces the German when he introduces a new word. Imagine telling a foreigner the English word for butter and pronouncing it "booot -AIRRRR!" and rolling the r. That's pretty much what he does. When he uses the new word in a sentence he pronounces it properly. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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