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Why I like Michel Thomas Dutch | ||
Tags: Michel Thomas | Dutch | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Tabula Rasa Newbie United States Joined 5721 days ago 7 posts - 12 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Greek | Message 1 of 3 10 April 2011 at 5:12am | IP Logged |
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I made it through most of the Michel Thomas course for Dutch before switching to Pimsleur German (for
practical reasons; I still hope to return to Dutch some day). I know there are a zillion Michel Thomas threads floating around, but I thought I'd throw in my two cents specific to Dutch. I will do some apples to oranges comparisons, mainly because I switched from one method in one language to a separate method in a separate language. Bear with me. - MT Dutch covers a lot of ground, particularly in sentence structure and verb conjugation. After about 8-9 hours (7 out of 8 CDs), I felt like I knew quite a bit of the language, more so than the equivalent time I've put into Pimsleur German (currently on lesson 20). It is psychological; my ability to hold a basic conversation in either language is still nil, but simply *feeling* like I'm making progress is a powerful motivator. On the downside, MT is not practical for driving because of the need to pause after each line. The built-in gaps make Pimsleur more more convenient in this regard, although I know that hardcore language learners despise the spoon-fed feel of this. - The teacher in MT Dutch has excellent enunciation and a pleasant yet authoritative voice. I cannot stress this enough. So easy to understand what she is saying whether I'm listening on my laptop on a quiet couch, Ipod while working out, or in the car. The main reason why I'm not using MT German is because the master himself is actually kind of painful to listen to. I would be all over MT German if the Dutch instructor were to record it. Incidentally, I just watched a video of the Dutch course on the MT website, and the teacher looks *nothing* like I envisioned. Neither do the students, for that matter. Funny how we paint pictures of voices in our heads. - Words are spelled in MT Dutch. This is vital; I'm one of those people who spends so much time focused on written grammar that I never learn how to actually use a language. I have a hard time processing speech, even in English sometimes, so language learning has always been an uphill battle for me. I was fairly skeptical of audio-only courses when I started my first Pimsleur language two years ago, until I realized that writing everything down actually hindered my learning. Still, a word won't stick if I can't see it. One of Pimsleur's weaknesses is that it's not always clear what people are saying. The male will pronounce it, then the female will pronounce it differently, and was that a "g" or an "m"??? With MT Dutch, the instructor spells each word she introduces, so I "see" it in my head. It is awesome. - MT Dutch is a good price, maybe $40-$50 if you buy it new. Compared to Pimsleur, it is a bargain. Doubly so considering there aren't a lot of Dutch language resources in the United States, and the MT course is such high quality to get a beginner off the ground. I did do the Pimsleur basic course in Dutch. It was okay, not such a great selection of scenarios...lots of focus on using a telephone and asking for an area code, and talking about my wife (I'm a 30-year-old female; I have neither a wife nor a need to use a pay phone). Pimsleur Dutch vs. MT Dutch, MT wins hands down. I imagine German is the same, but as I said earlier, I didn't care for Michel Thomas's voice in the sample I tried. Pimsleur German can be a bit irrelevant, but considering that my library carries the entire course, I'm willing to stick with it. In conclusion: Would buy MT, would not buy Pimsleur. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| arturs Triglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 5272 days ago 278 posts - 408 votes  Speaks: Latvian*, Russian, English | Message 2 of 3 10 April 2011 at 7:41am | IP Logged |
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- I should agree that at some points MT is quite better than Pimsleur, because MT gives you vocabulary and some examples, so you can make up your own sentences in order to practice. Pimsleur is like a phrasebook, just pure audio.
- I praise Michel Thomas as a person, who started this learning program, but he had a voice that just didn't suite for audio recordings, so it is kind of annoying listening to his kind of like munching style of talk, plus that he became very testy towards the students. They should re-record some of the MT languages with a different teacher. - I like the fact that they also spell the words used, so that you can be aware already of the proper pronunciation, if you see a similar word in a different situation. And I had imagined some of the students and teachers a bit different too. I thought that Mahmoud Ghafaar on the Arabic Lessons is like a 30-year old guy, when I saw the video that he's like around 50 or maybe older. Edited by arturs on 10 April 2011 at 7:56am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| megazver Triglot Newbie Lithuania Joined 5995 days ago 34 posts - 52 votes Speaks: Lithuanian, Russian*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Polish | Message 3 of 3 11 April 2011 at 2:07pm | IP Logged |
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Hmm, I don't know.
I really enjoyed Michel's voice. He sounds grandfatherly and his speech pattern is slow and measured in a way that makes me fall into a sort of a learning trance, which I really appreciated. Maybe that's just me, though. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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