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Michel Thomas and repetition | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Zwlth Super Polyglot Senior Member United States Joined 5037 days ago 154 posts - 320 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Dutch, Swedish, Portuguese, Latin, French, Persian, Greek | Message 1 of 12 28 July 2011 at 3:55am | IP Logged | ||
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The instructions for Michel Thomas courses state specifically that you should not make any conscious effort to remember the content. They also quite strongly imply, in stating that you can listen to the material again at a later date if you feel like it, that you should probably be able to get everything out of the course at a single listening.
Now, I have gotten a great deal out of a Michel Thomas course. But, in order to do that, I had to listen several times. And, in order to listen several times, I had to edit out the slow error-and-correction voices of the students so that I could just listen to the teacher. Thus, I am clearly using the material in a modified form and not as intended, and I probably spent 50 or 60 hours working with it before moving on to something else. What I would like to know is, is there anyone out there who can honestly say: "Yes, I learned via Michel Thomas without repetition. I listened to the foundation course and the advanced course only once through each, and in those 12 hours, I thoroughly internalized all that was there."? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| The Stephen Diglot Groupie United States Joined 4863 days ago 65 posts - 77 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Czech, Hungarian | Message 2 of 12 28 July 2011 at 7:14am | IP Logged | ||
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I did the German course without reviewing. I thought that was one of the amazing things about the program; how much I retained after relatively little time working on it. Although I was careful not to do too much in one day (even though the recordings were made in just two). Between all the fixing of the students' mistakes and the repetition of the sentence structures throughout the lessons, I found it more than enough to grasp the underlying grammar, which is what he's teaching. The only problem I had was towards the end of the Advanced course, when he seemed to speed up a bit and covered a lot of ground unusually fast, so I think I did review that part once (this was a couple of years ago so I don't remember it too well) but that was it. In fact I found that if I tried to review something, I still remembered enough that the review was too boring to actually trudge through just to pick up an extra word or two. This all isn't to gloat or anything, it's all just the admiration I have for this program.
Which course are you doing? Is it one of the original four (German, Spanish, Italian, and French)? From what I've heard there is a huge difference between the courses featuring the man himself and the ones carried out after his death. And are you using the pause button and really thinking through everything, not guessing or anything? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| jean-luc Senior Member France Joined 4771 days ago 100 posts - 150 votes Speaks: French* Studies: German | Message 3 of 12 28 July 2011 at 10:04am | IP Logged | ||
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I had to edit out the slow error-and-correction voices of the students so that I could just listen to the teacher.
If you don't have it in your package, there is the Foundation Review Course which is basically the course edited from the students and the correction part (ie only question + answer from MT). It may save you time. Btw I really enjoy the course, but after hearing for the 100th time, nicht pronounced as "nikt", I start to be pissed of by the students :) (but I still think that non native students are a good idea) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5822 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 4 of 12 28 July 2011 at 2:36pm | IP Logged | ||
I didn't start out that way. I listened to discs 3 and 4 of the Spanish foundation course several times over, but then I realised that I was starting to say "saler" instead of "salir". As I recall, this mistake is only made once in the entire course, so I figured I had to stop relistening. From then on, the only relistening I did was to "overlap" sessions -- relistening to the last track or two from the previous day's listening to remind myself of what I'd been doing. This is the approach I took with the second half of the course, and with the Advanced course. I then did the same with the Italian and the French (although I'd already learnt some of both of those languages at high school). It stuck well enough. I tried the same thing with German, but I never use it, so I've recently gone back to relearn it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5376 days ago 938 posts - 1839 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 5 of 12 28 July 2011 at 2:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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I probably go through an MT course three times in terms of go back and forth (it probably takes me 30-40 hours to do the Foundation and Advanced courses until I am satisfied with them). I also use the review course whilst doing it to test myself to ensure I have got it.
I then never go back again, with one exception - I do the French advanced course every year or so because I find it the quickest way to revise the more obscure tenses that crop up less frequently in conversational French. As to the German - the 'nisht' of the woman upsets me more than the 'nikt' of the guy. Edited by Elexi on 28 July 2011 at 2:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Neil_UK Tetraglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5073 days ago 50 posts - 64 votes Speaks: English*, German, Esperanto, Welsh Studies: Polish, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Scottish Gaelic, French | Message 6 of 12 21 August 2011 at 10:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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There are review courses available for the MT Spanish, Italian, French and German. For
each of these languages, there is a 2 hour/2 cd review for the foundation course, and a 1 hour/1 cd review for the advanced course. I have them all, and have found them vital to help me consolidate and maintain what I've learnt. Review courses are not available for the other languages in the MT range, but by using an editing program on your pc you can easily edit out the fluff and create a review of the main points yourself. I intend to do this myself for the MT Russian, Polish, etc. Edited by Neil_UK on 21 August 2011 at 10:43pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6056 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 12 24 August 2011 at 9:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am currently doing Spanish Foundation course, and so far I've been listening to each
lesson twice. Usually in groups of three - so track 2,3,4 and then repeat 2,3,4 before moving on. So far I didn't need this repetition, but I figured listening to it twice might help me internalise more just in case I missed anything the first time. I'll probably carry on with this throughout the whole course. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5192 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 8 of 12 24 August 2011 at 9:52pm | IP Logged | ||
I always assumed that was only to remove the element of stress in the students. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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