|
 |
Michel Thomas & a Dictionary | ||
Tags: Michel Thomas | Dictionaries | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Monte Cristo Newbie United States Joined 5180 days ago 26 posts - 37 votes Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 7 24 June 2011 at 5:37am | IP Logged | ||
|
I was wondering if anybody has completed the foundation/advanced & vocabulary courses of
Michel Thomas and just picked up a dictionary and went from there. If that is possible. It seems like he goes through the ends and outs of grammar. I see people doing like 5,000 different language learning programs but I am wondering if someone here has kept it simple, such as doing only Michel Thomas, and moved on to reading online material in their target language with a dictionary, etc. Edited by Monte Cristo on 24 June 2011 at 5:37am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| nway Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/Vic Joined 5414 days ago 574 posts - 1707 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean | Message 2 of 7 24 June 2011 at 8:52am | IP Logged | ||
|
It certainly depends on the language.
MT French, German, Portuguese, and—I presume—other languages that use the Latin alphabet all feature audio spellings of certain vocabulary. The MT Russian course teaches the Cyrillic alphabet. The MT Mandarin, Japanese, and Arabic courses do not teach hanzi, kanji, and Arabic script, respectively. Edited by nway on 24 June 2011 at 8:54am 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 3 of 7 24 June 2011 at 1:27pm | IP Logged | ||
|
It certainly does depend on the language, because only German, Spanish, Italian and French are genuine Michel Thomas courses.
The Polish course not only doesn't teach spellings, but it also makes no attempt to teach the difference between some phonemes. In fact, I couldn't use the course without stopping and looking up the dictionary to try to find out whether some words were sz or ś, for example. On one occasion I even heard ż as ś, which is very wrong indeed. I personally went on from the MT Spanish to a book of grammar drills (Practice Makes Perfect Spanish Verb Tenses) for extra practice and (crucially) to pick up a few more words. A book can be really hard going if you keep having to stop and check a dictionary, so getting a handle on a few of the more common words is definitely worth doing if before attempting novels. Anki and a frequency list of your chosen language should help. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4908 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 4 of 7 24 June 2011 at 6:57pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I think what the op was asking is whether anyone uses Michel Thomas alone to learn a language, completed the course and was ready to tackle the language with just a dictionary. In my opinion it would be difficult, but not impossible. Although MT himself would have disagreed, I think his courses work better as a compliment to another way of study (e.g. textbook).
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Luai_lashire Diglot Senior Member United States luai-lashire.deviant Joined 5827 days ago 384 posts - 560 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto Studies: Japanese, French | Message 5 of 7 25 June 2011 at 1:38am | IP Logged | ||
|
It depends on your preferred way of learning. For me, I find studying without the guidance and structure of a
course to be a frustrating endeavor. When I'm using a course, I do also study other things on the side and look up words I'm curious about and use native materials; but I find having the course there helps ensure that I'm moving forward quickly and learning the most useful things first instead of spending a long time learning unusual and advanced material while at the beginner stage, when I'm not ready for it. So, consequently, I would not be ready to move into pure native-materials-and-dictionary studying after MT. It just doesn't take you far enough. Someone else who doesn't need as much structure, however, probably could do it. 2 persons have 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 6 of 7 25 June 2011 at 9:04pm | IP Logged | ||
After completing Michel Thomas, I didn't feel ready to tackle a proper book. I occassionally read some internet news articles, but it was tough going and I didn't keep it up. Only much later did I start again, with a lot more study under my belt. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5021 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 7 26 June 2011 at 3:31pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I completed Michel Thomas Spanish 1 - 8 with no other study apart from listening to a few Spanish songs.
In fact at around that time I think I did buy a dictionary. Trying to read Spanish fishing magazines was hopeless.Other than obvious cognates, I would have to consult the dictionary for almost every word. I have heard of people who have attained a good level in Spanish using only the MT course, but I struggle to see how that is possible. I think it is somewhat more likely if someone had studied a language before. My problem when studying with MT was that I didnt understand the importance of what I was learning.I naively thought I would learn everything I needed from this course, which is just not the case. For example, if you used only this course, you wouldnt know any numbers, any days of the week, colours, etc. I didnt understand that I was being taught structure. MT is a great course, but for me made very little sense as a stand-alone course. Now that I have had more exposure to the Spanish language, listenening to MT seem much more helpful. Regards moving from the foundation to the advanced course. I tried to, but found that it was too big of a jump, and made little sense. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
