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Learning a language in two days | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5669 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes  Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 17 of 49 19 May 2011 at 3:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Paul Noble has two advantages over MT:
1: He is still alive, so he can teach courses face-to-face. Some people prefer this interaction over listening to CDs. 2: He is VERY patient. MT was quite grumpy at times, and some people found this off- putting. PN is a very calm person and forgiving of mistakes. Some people need this. Now, in terms of the actual material. I agree, it is clearly copied from MT and (at least the French course) covers far less than even the MT foundation course. Again, however, some people may benefit from this slower pace (for example, the woman on the MT french course - who was hopelessly lost at times). 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 18 of 49 19 May 2011 at 3:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
Can't criticize the method, as I generally like the MT method, but hopefully he's taken the time to train native speakers and let them do the teaching, rather than teaching himself. A while back I watched a short youtube video from some British documentary about him. They showed him teaching Spanish. His pronunciation is cringe-worthy. Really. "Eh vizitahdoe" R. == 1 person has 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 19 of 49 19 May 2011 at 3:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
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No doubt, the addition of a native speaker is essential.
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 20 of 49 19 May 2011 at 4:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
No, he doesn't credit MT at all in that article. He said in an article in the Daily Mirror back in 2007 before he had a language school that the Michel Thomas French and Spanish courses "completely changed his life": 19675520/">Article After that article Paul Noble doesn't credit MT despite the fact he has completely adopted MT's core methodology. On the Collins website for example: "Eventually, after teaching himself 6 languages, he went on to develop his own top secret technique". All he did was construct his own course based on MT's method, borrowed a lot of stuff from the MT courses and then makes as if he developed all this himself. It is just plain dishonesty. He may have improved on a couple of things like pronunciation, but the fact he teaches far fewer grammatical patterns which is basically the point of that type of course kind of defeats the purpose. I wonder how much he borrowed from the MT Method Mandarin course in creating his own course. 1 person has 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 21 of 49 19 May 2011 at 4:29pm | IP Logged | |||||
MT was reluctant to show his method to the cameras because he knew this was not patentable. Teaching structures and words in a specific order is something anyone can do, as long as you have the appropriate personality to be an engaging teacher. There is no need to credit anyone with anything and it's highly unlikely that MT was the first one to give a similar oral-based course. Though he likely was the first to create such a lucrative business out of it. Edited by Arekkusu on 19 May 2011 at 4:33pm 4 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 22 of 49 19 May 2011 at 4:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
Hmm, you do have a good point. It just annoys me to see someone claim they've freshly developed something incredible and unique when they simply haven't but it's not really worth getting annoyed over. Life's too short. Edited by jazzboy.bebop on 19 May 2011 at 4:43pm 1 person has 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 23 of 49 19 May 2011 at 4:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
That's why there is a strong public figure behind each gimmick; that's all you can really market. However, I just watched a video of him teacher. Oh man, it's so patronizing... he's treated students like children. Morever, I was very disappointed to see that he was following his notes -- I used to teach for Berlitz and I was able to teach classes and know exactly were I was going without needing any notes, and I didn't have a language school or a method named after me. Edited by Arekkusu on 19 May 2011 at 5:12pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| alang Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7221 days ago 563 posts - 757 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 24 of 49 19 May 2011 at 5:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
If Mandarin is marketed for two days, then I can see "Speak Spanish in two hours!", "Speak Esperanto in 2 minutes!" and "Speak Toki Pona in two seconds!" Paul Noble is implying something that will not happen, but it will grab the attention of people. It is no different than the lie Pimsleur support wrote that if you do all three comprehensive programs a person will reach 99% fluency. Surely with a Spanish IV now out it can cover the 1% left, but there will be some technicality to get out of it in one form or another. One more thing I do think Paul Noble ripped off MT, but he probably won't be the only one. LSLC copied the Pimsleur method, even though I think LSLC is also a high quality program. I just hated the aggressive marketing the company did when it first started. Edited by alang on 19 May 2011 at 5:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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