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Michel Thomas Documentary Now Online | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| HMS Senior Member England Joined 5107 days ago 143 posts - 256 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 17 of 47 14 May 2011 at 3:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think the documentary was not entirely about "languages". It was about the types of pupils and the fact that some who are often regarded as being "unteachable" are able to be taught when the correct method is employed and their attention is held. Even if they were taught just 5 words it is an achievement.
In an age where many sections of (I'm talking from an English point of view here) society and their children have low educational aspirations, and seek 'celebrity' and for riches to land at their feet, where many children aspire to be "gangstas" and idolise celebrities and affect a faux 'jafaican' accent to try and sound like a yardie,regarding success in education as being "uncool" this is something I feel is a wider problem and certainly needs addressing. Edited by HMS on 14 May 2011 at 3:28pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| HMS Senior Member England Joined 5107 days ago 143 posts - 256 votes Speaks: English* | Message 18 of 47 14 May 2011 at 4:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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About 1:40 into first part:
"So I said to Michel, either you're the biggest fraud on earth or alternatively you have been associated with more miracles than any WOMAN I have ever known". Did this person actually know who he was soundbiting for? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5130 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 19 of 47 14 May 2011 at 5:07pm | IP Logged | ||
I took that as very tongue-in-cheek. The delivery would have been much better coming from Woody Allen. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| HMS Senior Member England Joined 5107 days ago 143 posts - 256 votes Speaks: English* | Message 20 of 47 14 May 2011 at 5:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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"I took that as very tongue-in-cheek." (How do I quote on here please)
I would not be so sure - I saw a snippet on a website the other day quoting somebody who I know. No way on earth would he have used the words stated and in that way. To put it rather bluntly - he is as thick as a whale omellette but to read the quote you'd have thought he'd swallowed a management-speak neologism dictionary. Never under estimate the power of a good PR dept, or how far they will tweak things. Testimonials are a big earner.I reckon somebody never did their homework or briefed correctly. Note: Most of my learning is via the MT method so this is not a dig. I just saw this as sloppy. I accept I could be wrong though and reading too much into it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5669 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 21 of 47 14 May 2011 at 6:11pm | IP Logged | ||
I believe he said "than any ONE I have ever known", albeit with a rather strange American pronunciation. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6011 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 22 of 47 15 May 2011 at 10:42pm | IP Logged | ||
If you keep watching, it's clear he did. He was the guy who tried to get Thomas to demonstrate his methods to academics, but was frustrated by Thomas's belligerence and distrust.... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| amethyst32 Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5649 days ago 118 posts - 198 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, French | Message 23 of 47 16 May 2011 at 1:13am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi,
I've just watched it and it's really interesting. One thing though; on the last day, the students sounded like they were still struggling to make MT's sentences. I'm not saying I expected them to be fluent in 5 days, just that I'd had the impression that they were more proficient than that by the end of the experiment. I'm a big fan of MT and I think his method can deliver far more than it showed on the programme, but maybe the point was that no student is unteachable. Thanks for posting this. :-) Edited by amethyst32 on 16 May 2011 at 1:21am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jazzboy.bebop Senior Member Norway norwegianthroughnove Joined 5418 days ago 439 posts - 800 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Norwegian | Message 24 of 47 16 May 2011 at 3:42am | IP Logged | ||
Perhaps no student is unteachable, but people certainly do learn at different speeds. The kids did seem to still be struggling a little but perhaps the laidback, dim environment slowed them down a little. The fact they were in a larger group might also diminish the effectiveness of MT's method as one of the main points of the method is to actively think out the answer. If another student comes up with it and says it out loud before you think it, you won't retain it as well compared to if you had come up with it yourself. It was disappointing to see some of the kids still struggling quite a bit with some fairly basic material after 4 days teaching at 9 hours a day. Some people just don't pick up on patterns and remember them very well while others can do it very quickly I suppose. Thankfully I've found the speed of the recorded courses quite manageable, as long as my brain is at its best. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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