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Hodder set MT on the road to ruin | ||
Tags: Michel Thomas | Language Program | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| 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 1 of 19 20 May 2011 at 3:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
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So I got an email from Amazon this morning, telling me a new Michel Thomas course was about to be launched: Perfect Italian with the Michel Thomas method. 7 CDs and 1 CD ROM. Sounded odd.
Anyway, there wasn't much information on the Amazon page, so I went to Hodder's Michel Thomas homepage and found this. Basically, it looks like they've split the vocabulary courses in half and put the first two discs together with the Foundation course and rebadged it as "Total", then stuck the other two discs in with the Advanced course and called it "Perfect". (The Language Builders are now called "Masterclass".) So soon it's going to be impossible to get just the standard MT stuff without the vocab courses thrown in. And the vocab course, which was designed as a unit, is now split in two. I'm guessing the vocab courses weren't selling well, so they saw combining them with the main courses as I way to justify a price hike... which I have to say is a bit daft right now, as the Paul Noble courses must be putting them under price pressure anyway. Oh, and finally, you may have noticed that the "Start" courses are only one hour long, as opposed to the two hours the Introductory courses were. You may have noticed that the free samples are an hour long. You may also have noticed that on the new product page there is no link to the free samplers. That's right, no more free samples. The old page is still there, but the links are dead (and I never downloaded the Greek one -- damn). Am I the only one who thinks this is a bad idea? How many times have we bickered here about whether MT is suitable for a particular learner, and how many times have I linked to the samples page so that the poster can try it for himself? The free samples were the best marketing they had online, and they've killed it...! 13 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5585 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 2 of 19 20 May 2011 at 3:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I always thought those courses were sub-par for the time invested. I've never listened to the vocab courses, mainly because so many members here hate them :D
I think they've taken the route of Rosetta Stone, sucker as many people as you can out of their money before they figure out whats wrong with your product. The fact that they took the free samplers away makes this^^ more plausible... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| exscribere Diglot Senior Member IndiaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5279 days ago 104 posts - 126 votes Speaks: English*, Danish Studies: Mandarin, French, Korean, Hindi | Message 3 of 19 20 May 2011 at 3:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm also not thrilled with the fact that Hindi is being delayed *another* year, when it's really the only one that I want to pay attention to. I'm on the Michel Thomas FB friends page, and they're clearly trying to interact with their audience; I would suggest making a post on the page about the free samples & some dismay, and see what response you get.
I kvetched at them about their unbelievably old site (with the "coming in 2009!" materials), and they responded and showed a few images of the new site. Give commenting on Facebook a shot, where they'll be pressured to respond, and see what response you might get. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| jazzboy.bebop Senior Member Norway norwegianthroughnove Joined 5418 days ago 439 posts - 800 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Norwegian | Message 4 of 19 20 May 2011 at 4:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I completely agree with you, Cainntear. It's almost like Hodder want it to fall apart.
Killing the free 1 hour sample is just stupid given their circumstances, and replacing the 2 hour introductory course with a 1 hour Start course that you need to pay for is even worse. The move to split the vocabulary course and attach half of it to the Foundation course and half to the Advanced seems really strange to me and will probably break up the flow somewhat should you listen to the Foundation then half the vocab course, then do the Advanced and then the other half of the vocab course. It just doesn't seem to make any sense. What also confuses me is how whoever dealt with the michelthomas.com site has not updated it with the fact Michel Thomas is dead! More than 5 years after his death and they still haven't bothered to alter that site to reflect this and you can still send off the form requesting a class directly with MT. Would make an interesting séance... 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 5 of 19 20 May 2011 at 4:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Whoa, the table almost makes it looks as if they were selling some new electronic tablet.
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 6 of 19 20 May 2011 at 4:37pm | IP Logged | |||||
It looks like some courses, such as the old Polish foundation and advanced courses, will remain the same. There was no vocabulary course after the old advanced course. So it looks like the old foundation becomes "total" and the old advanced becomes "perfect". R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| HMS Senior Member England Joined 5107 days ago 143 posts - 256 votes Speaks: English* | Message 7 of 19 21 May 2011 at 12:42am | IP Logged | |||||
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I had this same trouble when i went through my Kylie Minogue stage :(
;) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5956 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French | Message 8 of 19 21 May 2011 at 12:55am | IP Logged | |||||
Absolutely in agreement with you.
I love the MT materials for both French and German, and fully intended to sample all of the offerings just for fun but never got around to it, dern'it. Edited by Spanky on 21 May 2011 at 12:56am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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