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Michel Thomas Documentary Now Online | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| ericg1977 Newbie United States Joined 5603 days ago 15 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English* | Message 33 of 47 18 May 2011 at 10:57am | IP Logged | |||||
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If I, as someone who has learned 3 other languages in addition to my native English, had 9 hours a day to dedicate to a new language, I would spend a big part of it reading newspapers, books, magazines, etc (assuming we're not talking about Chinese), using a dictionary to look up words, and naturally learn high frequency words. The words that constantly appear (ie. pronouns, high-frequency verbs, etc) I would learn by seeing that they appear more frequently. I believe that after 9 hours a core vocabulary. The rest of the time, I would spend listeing to dialogues and news broadcasts. I have been very successful learning languages this way, I'm now using this "jump in the water" method to learn Russian. As long as I read everyday and listen to radio broadcasts, it works. The only thing I'm missing is the speaking.
I don't think that serious language learners take Michel Thomas or Pimsleur (all audio methods) very seriously because we want to have an understanding of grammer, and we're not happy unless we can pick up a newspaper and start to read it and understand. I understand that this documentary shows students who had trouble with learning languages, perhaps that is the target audience for this method. I would use an all audio method as a supplement perhaps, but I wouldn't call this "learning the language". What do other serious language learners think? 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6582 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 34 of 47 18 May 2011 at 11:02am | IP Logged | |||||
I don't consider myself a serious anything, but I'm finding Michel Thomas Spanish useful right now. I started by listening and reading, much like you, and I got some decent understanding (heck, my passive reading ability of Spanish was pretty alright even before I studied it). MT is good for solidifying this and activating it. MT gives me a solid grasp of the grammar in a way that an all-passive approach doesn't at the same speed. EDIT: Pimsleur, however, I have trouble getting anything useful from. Edited by Ari on 18 May 2011 at 11:03am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| etracher Triglot Groupie Italy Joined 5334 days ago 92 posts - 180 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish Studies: Modern Hebrew, Russian, Latvian | Message 35 of 47 18 May 2011 at 11:44am | IP Logged | |||||
I suppose that I would call myself a "serious language learner". I have used different courses for various languages. I have used both Michel Thomas and Pimsleur in addition to other courses and books. Personally, I cannot say that I found Pimsleur to be particularly useful (but I don't want to turn this into a Pimsleur v. Michel Thomas thing). For this reason I can somewhat agree with ericg1977 when he writes that "I don't think that serious language learners take . . . Pimsleur . . . seriously because we want to have an understanding of grammar." An understanding of grammar is one thing that Pimsleur does not provide by itself. That said, however, I also know people whom I would consider "serious language learners" who swear by Pimsleur, and I don't believe that they are any less 'serious' for that. However, I am somewhat perplexed to find Michel Thomas in the sentence I quoted above. I say this because it seems to me that the main objective of the Michel Thomas courses is precisely to provide an understanding of grammar. And this is something that they seem to do rather well, in my humble opinion. Edited by etracher on 18 May 2011 at 11:45am 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 36 of 47 18 May 2011 at 3:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Michel Thomas can be useful for quickly getting a decent basis of the structure of the
language as the main point of the courses is to teach grammar/structure above all else. My father who is a very serious language learner started learning French and Italian using MT's courses and then carried on learning from there using podcasts and reading online newspapers with a braille reader (he is visually impaired) and online dictionary and after a couple of years is now at an advanced level in both languages. He is also learning Polish, Arabic and German and again used the MT courses as his start for each language and, as a visually impaired person, finds them the best way to learn a lot of grammar in a relatively easy way via audio. The MT courses might have some embarrassingly hyperbolic marketing around them but they can be genuinely useful, especially for coming up with your own sentences and getting to grips with grammar quickly. There are better overall courses out there in terms of the amount of content you learn and for learning natural sounding language, but if you like audio courses or have little choice but to use audio, they're a pretty useful start imo. 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 37 of 47 18 May 2011 at 6:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
Do you mean "serious, or did you really mean "self-important"? Because it really is patronising when you talk that way. Why is it that your 3 languages make you qualified to assume that I am not a "serious language learner"? Will I be worthy of the title serious in October when I've finished my 7 year part-time language degree? Would I have qualified as "serious" if I'd stuck with English teaching rather than going back into IT 3 years ago? Will I qualify as serious when I get commissioned to do a professional translation? As etracher and jazzboy.bebop say, MT is a great way to get a quick and thorough introduction to the grammar of a language. Any serious learner would do well to study the way Thomas taught -- he was successful because his method was effective.... 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5381 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 38 of 47 18 May 2011 at 6:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Anyone has experience *teaching* the way Thomas did?
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| etracher Triglot Groupie Italy Joined 5334 days ago 92 posts - 180 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish Studies: Modern Hebrew, Russian, Latvian | Message 39 of 47 18 May 2011 at 6:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
If I had a pitbull, I would name it Cainntear. 3 persons have 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 40 of 47 18 May 2011 at 6:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
I've only done the Polish series from MT, but I can certainly say they helped me. The advanced course didn't come out until a year later, so there was a break between foundation and advanced. The advanced course, in particular, would have saved me a lot of grief had I had it available right after the foundation course. It covered cases (quite effortlessly, I might add), which I found really difficult to wrap my head around with something like Teach Yourself, at least initially. Much less so had I just gone and started reading newspapers. As for Pimsleur, I also found that useful for Turkish, because I was so unfamiliar with the language - I had absolutely no exposure to the language prior to the course. It was a good primer, containing basic tenses (past, present and future and even dubitative moods to a degree). Had there been an MT course available for the language, I probably would have sprung for that too, just based off my experience with the Polish courses. BTW, what the heck is "a serious language learner" anyway? You either learn the language or you don't. R. == Edited by hrhenry on 18 May 2011 at 6:27pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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