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Books : Michel Thomas Foundation Course: French (Michel Thomas Series)
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Rating: 
- Very good approach
There's some truth to the comments about recording quality, but I thought the ambience was ok - although they do seem to set the female student up more often than the guy to make mistakes so that you can learn from them which seemed a bit harsh.
I don't think the French has a German or Polish accent to it, seems actually far less strong than his accent when speaking English. His French vowels seem pretty accurate to my limited knowledge.
The technique works really well, it absolutely works with the logical parts of your brain rather than being a memory challenge.
Rating:
- Puts you right off!
I agree with the previous review and I can't get anywhere with it. I think that there is good information in the recordings but the whole ambience is really awful. Thomas comes across as quite basic but very opinionated and the accent is not helpful. The students are painful also.
If I hadn't sold this on Amazon pretty quick then I would have been quite unhappy about buying this course. It seems though that a lot of people get along with it though so you might too!
Rating:
- French with a German accent
I agree with all those who say that Michel Thomas has revolutionised language teaching. However, I have two serious gripes with this set of CDs.
First, I must confess: I'm a recording engineer; so I was disappointed (but not surprised...) to find a poor mono recording, very clumsily edited.
Second, Michel Thomas is clearly a wonderful and charismatic teacher, but despite his Polish origins, he speaks American English with a pronounced German accent, which surely means he speaks all other languages with a pronounced German accent.
This is fine for those wishing to learn German, but it seems a pity for English people to initially learn German mispronounciations to overlay their own English mispronouciations of French. You can hear the English student's momentary confusion when on the second CD, M.Thomas suddenly seems to be talking about a 'battle'. It soon becomes clear that this is a German spin on 'buttle', which in turn is American for 'bottle'... My final gripe is that when this naff recording was made, M. Thomas was already an old man with fairly noisy dentures...
The American female student has clearly been picked for her serious lack of natural ability to learn another language, which may be why many people find her annoying; but this must have been a deliberate decision to ensure that even the least talented person can keep up with the course.
Ideally I'd like a similar course in which the teacher is a native French speaker, trained in the Michel Thomas method. I'd also like a decent recording that has not been incompetently edited.
However, for the time being, if you want to learn French faster and more securely than you might have thought possible, Michel Tomas is your man, so GO BUY IT...
Rating:
- Amazing!
I need to try and learn French for some future work opportunities. I've tried to learn a few languages before, but never made it past the first couple of chapters. So I was very sceptical about a course which has no books and tells you NOT to try and memorise anything. But it is amazing, within a couple of hours I was putting sentances together and feeling like I could already speak basic French.
Because you don't need to memorise or write anything down, I've got all the C.D.'s on my iPod and in my CD changer in the car. I actually look forward to my hour commute home from work now, as I know I'm going to learn something really useful.
This course is worth ten times the price Amazon charge. So if you want to learn French, just buy it!
Rating: - This man was a genius
I failed French O-Level, miserably, 26 years ago. Since then I have made intermittent attempts to rectify the situation - taking a job in an Anglo-French company, private lessons, numerous visits to France and intensive private tuition at the Institut Francais in London. All have been more or less unsuccessful.
Now, the marvellous Mr Thomas. All I can say is that he seems to have cracked it. If I had had this bloke teaching me in school, rather than the useless shower who had us chanting verbs, I would now be fluent not just in French but doubtless in Spanish, German and Italian as well. The way he builds the grammatic structure of French (which is much trickier for English speakers than is supposed) is extraordinary. Best of all, for a lazybones like me, this course is quick and efficient. I am no way fluent but I would say that the 10-12 hours I have invested in these CDs was one of the best investments in time I have ever made. No, I don't work for the publishers, but I am happy to say that these are cheap at the price. Now for Spanish ...
- Very good approachThere's some truth to the comments about recording quality, but I thought the ambience was ok - although they do seem to set the female student up more often than the guy to make mistakes so that you can learn from them which seemed a bit harsh.
I don't think the French has a German or Polish accent to it, seems actually far less strong than his accent when speaking English. His French vowels seem pretty accurate to my limited knowledge.
The technique works really well, it absolutely works with the logical parts of your brain rather than being a memory challenge.
Rating:
- Puts you right off!I agree with the previous review and I can't get anywhere with it. I think that there is good information in the recordings but the whole ambience is really awful. Thomas comes across as quite basic but very opinionated and the accent is not helpful. The students are painful also.
If I hadn't sold this on Amazon pretty quick then I would have been quite unhappy about buying this course. It seems though that a lot of people get along with it though so you might too!
Rating:
- French with a German accentI agree with all those who say that Michel Thomas has revolutionised language teaching. However, I have two serious gripes with this set of CDs.
First, I must confess: I'm a recording engineer; so I was disappointed (but not surprised...) to find a poor mono recording, very clumsily edited.
Second, Michel Thomas is clearly a wonderful and charismatic teacher, but despite his Polish origins, he speaks American English with a pronounced German accent, which surely means he speaks all other languages with a pronounced German accent.
This is fine for those wishing to learn German, but it seems a pity for English people to initially learn German mispronounciations to overlay their own English mispronouciations of French. You can hear the English student's momentary confusion when on the second CD, M.Thomas suddenly seems to be talking about a 'battle'. It soon becomes clear that this is a German spin on 'buttle', which in turn is American for 'bottle'... My final gripe is that when this naff recording was made, M. Thomas was already an old man with fairly noisy dentures...
The American female student has clearly been picked for her serious lack of natural ability to learn another language, which may be why many people find her annoying; but this must have been a deliberate decision to ensure that even the least talented person can keep up with the course.
Ideally I'd like a similar course in which the teacher is a native French speaker, trained in the Michel Thomas method. I'd also like a decent recording that has not been incompetently edited.
However, for the time being, if you want to learn French faster and more securely than you might have thought possible, Michel Tomas is your man, so GO BUY IT...
Rating:
- Amazing!I need to try and learn French for some future work opportunities. I've tried to learn a few languages before, but never made it past the first couple of chapters. So I was very sceptical about a course which has no books and tells you NOT to try and memorise anything. But it is amazing, within a couple of hours I was putting sentances together and feeling like I could already speak basic French.
Because you don't need to memorise or write anything down, I've got all the C.D.'s on my iPod and in my CD changer in the car. I actually look forward to my hour commute home from work now, as I know I'm going to learn something really useful.
This course is worth ten times the price Amazon charge. So if you want to learn French, just buy it!
Rating:
- This man was a geniusI failed French O-Level, miserably, 26 years ago. Since then I have made intermittent attempts to rectify the situation - taking a job in an Anglo-French company, private lessons, numerous visits to France and intensive private tuition at the Institut Francais in London. All have been more or less unsuccessful.
Now, the marvellous Mr Thomas. All I can say is that he seems to have cracked it. If I had had this bloke teaching me in school, rather than the useless shower who had us chanting verbs, I would now be fluent not just in French but doubtless in Spanish, German and Italian as well. The way he builds the grammatic structure of French (which is much trickier for English speakers than is supposed) is extraordinary. Best of all, for a lazybones like me, this course is quick and efficient. I am no way fluent but I would say that the 10-12 hours I have invested in these CDs was one of the best investments in time I have ever made. No, I don't work for the publishers, but I am happy to say that these are cheap at the price. Now for Spanish ...