Comments on: Review | The Michel Thomas Method

By: Dr. Kwyatt

Dr. Kwyatt — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 06:40:59 +0000

I learnt most of my Japanese grammar from Michel Thomas CDs and I’ve had a strong foundation in grammar ever since, as well as great pronunciation (not that Japanese is very hard in that regard). I think using Michel Thomas for grammar first, and then supplementing it with a nice grammar textbook that can be sampled in bite-size chunks is a good idea. The grammar textbook then becomes less about learning grammar, as it does about understanding it, and rather than presenting a flood of rules that cloud your brain, becomes a great collection of “AhHAHH~” moments.

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By: John Fotheringham

John Fotheringham — Mon, 28 May 2012 01:33:57 +0000

Better for me, yes. Better for everyone, not necessarily. If people have the means (or access at their local library) I suggest trying both and seeing which works better for you.

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By: Jared Romey

Jared Romey — Sun, 27 May 2012 12:49:05 +0000

So you see the Michel Thomas materials as better than the Pimsleur?

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By: John Fotheringham

John Fotheringham — Fri, 25 May 2012 19:13:11 +0000

That’s great! Thank you for your good deed; good karma is on the way!

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By: acutia

acutia — Fri, 25 May 2012 13:05:32 +0000

Okay, for my good Samaritan deed of the day, I’ve uploaded the audio in 3 parts to Youtube. If you like it, feel free to embed it above. Part 1: http://youtu.be/mWecqzopwXA

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By: acutia

acutia — Fri, 25 May 2012 00:20:43 +0000

No. As far I know it’s not available on YT or to stream. I got it on a free to air radio torrent tracker. The zip file is one I uploaded myself. I’m 100% sure there’s no viruses in the mp3 or the text file but you don’t know me from Adam so you probably won’t take my word on that. I considered uploading it to YT but thought the fileshare link would be more straightforward. I forgot about ifile’s popups and ads; I’ve automatically blocked such ads for so long I forgot what it’s like to deal with them. If I have time I’ll look into another method – maybe soundcloud or audioboo.

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By: John Fotheringham

John Fotheringham — Thu, 24 May 2012 23:53:23 +0000

Thank you for your kind feedback and the link to the documentary. Do you know if the doc is available on YouTube or other streaming sites? I avoid downloading media files as general rule to avoid potential viruses. To those visiting the link, beware that the iFile site tends to have spammy pop-ups so it’s a good idea to have the “Block Pop-Ups” setting enabled first in your browser.

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By: acutia

acutia — Thu, 24 May 2012 11:21:09 +0000

Nice review John. I liked that you included something about his life. If you are curious to know more I’ve uploaded an excellent BBC documentary on him from a few years back. It’s less about his language teaching than the more tragic aspects of his life, before he moved to the US.

http://ifile.it/4xb1rq3 (Links to a zip file containing an mp3 & text file.)

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By: John Fotheringham

John Fotheringham — Thu, 24 May 2012 03:40:49 +0000

I know exactly what you mean about Pimsleur; I went through Russian 1 a few years back, and through I find it effective, it was a bit tedious. For future languages, I will definitely use Michel Thomas materials if available.

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By: Jared Romey

Jared Romey — Wed, 23 May 2012 22:32:21 +0000

Thanks for the article John. I ran across Michel Thomas’ name a few years ago. I seem to remember that a week of language learning with him was about US$30,000. His school cost about $6,000 a week. At the time, I remember thinking that anyone charging those numbers needs to know something about learning languages. Ever since, I’ve been intrigued about what he did that was so different in his teaching methods, but have never had the time to look into it further.

With your review I think it may be one of the next softwares I try out. I’m currently working throw Pimsleur Italian and am enjoying the style, although since I speak Spanish and Portuguese, I too, am a little bored at times about how slow it goes. I just finished a 30-minute lesson on numbers 1-13 and how to say “at X o’clock”. It was about 20 minutes too long for me.

Thanks for taking the time to do the review.

Jared

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By: John Fotheringham

John Fotheringham — Wed, 23 May 2012 20:28:10 +0000

Ha! Yes, I had the same experience. If you watch the Language Master documentary, you can actually see one of the students in the video getting really frustrated when another student doesn’t know the answer and she does.

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By: J

Wed, 23 May 2012 20:19:36 +0000

“Other learners can slow things down.” That was my only issue with the Russian edition of the Michel Thomas method: the other students could be somewhat dim. So many times I wanted to shout, “No you idiot! You’ve been corrected a thousand times, why can’t you remember?!?” But then I’d only be shouting at myself.

While it is an audio-only program, I found myself taking notes nonetheless because if I forgot anything or wanted to review something, I would have to scan through hours of materials to find what I was looking for. Otherwise, these CDs make for a really good (but expensive!) introduction to any language.

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