Course Overview
- Audio-only program with a full transcription
- Foundation course (8 hours) and Advanced course (2 hours) available
- Available for: French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Polish, Dutch, Greek, Portuguese, Russian
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User Ratings
Review
This is a truly interesting audio-only course on the foreign language learning market today. You will learn your chosen language without games, videos or interactive experiences via a computer, and become part of a virtual class of three students. Your fellow students speak through the program along with the tutor, giving you a potentially fuller sense of genuine immersion than those programs which are essentially glorified point-and-click flashcard games.
Content
The program consists of audio and a full transcript booklet. And that’s basically it. Ordinarily, this would be a cause to complain, but the content here is just fantastic on its own.
The audio is of an excellent quality, and for most packages, you’ll find that they come in a handy little black case. Not that you’ll be wanting to use these outside much, as they do require a bit more feedback than usual from the actual student, but the neatness of it is pretty appealing.
The transcript booklet is the full course, which makes it incredibly easy to follow exactly what everyone is saying, not just the tutor. Still, there are no pen and paper exercises to complete, which might be exactly what you are looking for in a course, or it might be a little too alien from however you’ve previously learned in the past.
The course seems to be a relatively short one, clocking in at around eight hours for the foundation course and two hours for the advanced course, but you really can’t let that fool you. You will probably need to go through each lesson at least twice, or at least make extensive use of the pause button.
You don’t need a computer to learn this course, which might be a definite positive for some people. I know that when I am trying to sit down and learn something as complex as an entirely new language, when sitting at my computer desk, there are just so many distractions. This course can force you to take the time out and really pay attention to it.
It’s not something you can just let wash over you, you really need to be focusing clearly in order to take anything in, because without the use of the pause button, you might find that everything is going a little quickly. Again, that’s not to say that the lessons go too fast, just that you very much will need to give them your full attention, and what better way to do that than to step away from the computer.
Usability
You take your virtual lessons along with a British male and an American female, who you can also hear on the audio. The Brit ends up consistently lagging behind, while the American seemed to be around the same pace as I was. A lot of students seem to have trouble getting along with the slower British guy, as he really can hold up the class, for want of a better phrase. Still, as the lessons progress, he doesn’t feature in them quite so much, and personally I think that it is an excellent idea to have mixed abilities feature in the audio.
Whether you progress at the same rate as the man, woman, or find yourself doing better than either of them, it’s very helpful in making you feel like you’re in a real learning environment, which of course you are, but a more everyday one.
The really fantastic thing about having other voices to listen to, the voices of students who are learning the same as you are, is that you can close your eyes and it really does feel like you’re in a classroom, because of the natural manner with which everyone is talking to. It might sound odd, but you really do forget sometimes that they can’t hear you on the other end!
There’s a small point to make here, and it certainly won’t be applicable to everyone, but it can be a little strange at first to be sitting and talking so much to yourself. This course requires a lot more input from you than from others, so you will definitely need to find yourself a quiet little working space to do this, if you don’t want to feel silly, or in my case annoyed with interruptions! It’s not really the sort of course you can listen to in public, which might be something to consider if you’re picking a language course up to do on the plane while you travel, for example.
The Michel Thomas program insists that you don’t need to take notes, write in a workbook, and if possible, try to keep yourself from memorizing as opposed to learning the language. It’s a really fascinating way to go about the course, but basically what it comes down to is that you have to focus yourself a great deal on the words and phrases that are being spoken by Michel and his two other students. It might seem frustrating at first, when it seems like you just aren’t remembering anything, but if you stick with it, the language is sure to sink in.
An interesting point to note, if this is the sort of thing that might bother you, is that Michel himself is for the most part not a native speaker for the courses that he is teaching. Still, his accents are excellent, and he always stresses the correct syllable, etc. It really isn’t something that should worry you, but it might come a little out of the blue if you aren’t expecting it.
There is a strong focus on “doing” words, or verbs, and here is where the program really shines. It is absolutely spot-on with the grammar aspect of learning language. Some programs skip over these vitally important parts of language, when you really will need them if you ever want to become fluent.
Essentially, what this course teaches you to do is to break down sentences and language into the core segments of what it is trying to convey, and then putting it back together again in a way that students can understand it.
This is just the best way to teach language; in a way that inspires the student to keep on learning, because they are making the language their own. And that really is the best thing about this course. It gives you the confidence in what you are saying and learning enough to really start to understand the language.
Cost
This is one of the best things about this course. It is incredibly good value. Admittedly, it isn’t as flashy as some that you might encounter, and it certainly doesn’t have that multimedia aspect that is so popular nowadays, but it is an excellent learning tool.
This is clear from the quality from the lessons as well; you can see that the majority of the content comes from experience in taking lessons. The mistakes made by the other two “pupils” are sometimes obvious and sometimes a little obtuse, but it’s still reassuringly as though there are other pupils actually there with you.
Summary
If you know you are one of those people who need to learn with a variety of different methods, then this course is not right for you. It’s similarly not very useful for children, as it requires you to sit somewhere and pay attention to the audio for a really long time.
This can be great for adults sitting in the car on their way to work, or for those who have a quiet space to sit and learn, but I’m not sure that this is the easiest course for children to work on. Still, for an adult with a relatively good attention span, there aren’t many other solely audio programs that are better than this, and certainly not within this price bracket.
There might be better programs that offer you a wide range of how you want to learn, but the Michel Thomas package is by far the best audio-only on the market, so if you know that you can learn well by listening and using your imagination, then I would certainly recommend this package for you.
Pro & Contra
 very good for beginners |  no native speakers in the audio |
| can be used without computer | the 2 students in the audio can be annoying |
| very good way to learn grammar |
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User Ratings
I’m giving this one 5 stars for the simple reason that it works. I got the Japanese version and started today. I’ve done Rosetta Stone and was disappointed. Within 30 minutes with this new method I had a better understanding of the grammar and simple sentence structure. I really like how the material is pertinent to things I really want to know, not random crap like how to present a business card or endless phrases that run by so fast I can’t keep up.
Another point: the Japanese class is taught by a female brit, not Michel. Her accent is okay, but not perfect. In the class are a male and female and there is a native female Japanese speaker to get things exactly right. I really like the pace and the lack of perfect accent is okay by me, there will be time for that to come.
I have tinkered with Japanese for many years because my wife is Japanese. I hear it constantly at home and can understand a little. Not until today could I actually form a sentence with confidence, and this was only after about an hour. I know many nouns so I could easily substitute the ones I know for the ones in the lesson. This is actually fun. I’ll do a follow up in a week or so and post my thoughts after going through some more lessons.
If I could give this course zero stars I would. It is garbage. Worse than garbage if someone actually pays money for it rather than checking it out of a library. It is boring and the worst part is their accents, especially Thomas’ Spanish accent. How is he qualified to teach it if he can’t even pronounce the words. Horrible. He is nothing more than a con artist and the fact he was able to sell his courses to the public is a sad statement on how gullible the general public can be. Hated his voice, with his goofy sounding German accent. Look up the word payaso if you want a one word summation of what I think of him. What a complete insult to the Spanish language to have this imposter pose as a genuine teacher.
It did what it said on the tin and gave me very quick access to a working version of German which I’m using at work in Dusseldorf. He’s given me the perfect foundation to gain the platform I need to gain eventual fluency through interaction.
@sandra I think that you might be looking at things through your own experience where perhaps a man has wronged you rather than seeing the reality of things. In the French version of the course the man gets made to feel slow whilst the woman excels, it’s not helpful to our already divided society to play the misogynist card unless it’s based upon reality.
Studying Spanish using Michael Thomas is highly addictive and engrossing. I really look forward to driving my car and listening to the CDs to learn at the same time.
His technique is interactive, with this instructor who is really educating 2 students while you listen and respond to the questions afterwards while you pause the CD. After that you will listen to learn if you have responded to the questions properly. I have taken Spanish lessons when I was in high school and college and discovered that this CD is very practical and enlightening with regards to the baffling tenses.
I will have to repeat listening to the CD numerous times since it is not possible for one to recall the entire details.
Throughout my encounter, I still see the necessity for a pre-beginner language program. I would get this and the other advanced CDs that is available due to his approach and I know I will be able to absorb something from them.
I actually didn’t take this course but I think I’ve heard enough french spoken, and know enough french to say that this man should not be teaching french. Perhaps he himself would get by fine but learning from someone who can’t pronounce the language clearly is maybe a waste of your time. All you have to do is go listen to a native french speaker maybe a movie or something and compare. I didn’t even get through the first tape.