28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good aside from grammatical errors and Michel's German-Polish accent, January 2, 2011
This review is from: Michel Thomas Method™ French For Beginners, 10-CD Program (Michel Thomas Speak...) (Audio CD)
First, a little background: I've done the Pimsleur French course (all 3 levels), as well as numerous other materials, audio, text, and software. So this is not my first course of this type.
On the whole, this proved to be excellent for speaking practice, with the following caveats:
1. Michel Thomas' approach is to teach two new students, and you listen and imitate. But the inclusion of new students in the audio program means that the listener hears not only Michel's French, but also the mistakes of the students. For me, this was not a big deal, but had this been my first experience with the French language, it probably would have been.
2. Michel is not a native French speaker. He was born in Poland and lived most of his early life in Germany, and his accent is obvious in both English and French. Again, if you have some prior French language experience, this may not be a big deal, but I would certainly not advise anyone to imitate Michel's accent.
3. In addition to the students' mistakes, Michel himself makes numerous grammatical and pronunciation errors (aside from his accent) over the course of the program. For example, he repeatedly states, "Personne est..." where the correct form would be "Personne n'est..." he even states explicitly that the "ne" is not used if "personne" begins the sentence, which is simply not true. He also states that "un" and "une" are pronounced the same in rapid dialogue, which he describes as a "brief touching of the n," but the "n" in "un" is never pronounced unless the following word begins with a vowel. He also states that French words are accented on the last syllable, but this is also technically incorrect - officially there is no stress accent in French, and what stress does appear in actual dialogue is very loose. Once again, if you are at least somewhat experienced with French, these issues may not matter particularly, but if you are new to the language, there are a lot of bad habits that you could pick up from this course.
Aside from all of these problems, this course does provide quite a lot of conversational practice, and the vocabulary is markedly different from that of the Pimsleur course, which for me meant a lot of opportunities to learn new words and refresh vocabulary that I'm not used to using very often. Michel does go through a lot of vocabulary very quickly, though, and he definitely does not review to the extent that the Pimsleur courses do, so if you are starting out in French I would recommend beginning with the Pimsleur course if it's available to you (check with your local library - they frequently carry them, or can order them at least). Then, once you've got the basics down, you might give this course a try.
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I am living proof that this method works, July 21, 2010
This review is from: Michel Thomas Method™ French For Beginners, 10-CD Program (Michel Thomas Speak...) (Audio CD)
I have been living in Luxembourg, where the main language is French, for the past five years. Two years ago I bought Michel Thomas's French course, because I was tired of not being able to communicate while taking care of daily tasks. Within a few days I was having a go at the language. No books, no writing, just listening to the course on my half hour commute to work and back.
After completing the course I immediately bought the advanced course which I also strongly recommend. I now converse daily in French and have no problems taking care of day to day task in French.
The measure of language learning is if you can be understood. This is what you will achieve with this course. There has been a lot of criticism from people regarding the lack of vocabulary in this course. This is not a problem. The most important thing is that you understand how sentences are formed and how to use the verbs. Vocabulary will come all by itself (just start reading Tintin commics after you've completed this course like I did.)
Do I make mistakes? All the time. Am I useless at French prepositions? Absolutely. Am I understood by the natives. Perfectly. Tell me. What more can you ask for from a language course?
You learn to speak French and have a learning curve that is very steep indeed. This will get you there, all my English colleagues are still in awe of me. In my mid thirties and I have learnt to speak a new language, you can do it too, it's a fabulous journey. Good luck
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You won't be disappointed., October 10, 2010
This review is from: Michel Thomas Method™ French For Beginners, 10-CD Program (Michel Thomas Speak...) (Audio CD)
I have tried Berlitz & Pimsleur, Pimsleur being far superior to Berlitz, but I have to say that this is by far the best teaching tool out there. I read all of the reviews prior to purchasing and was a little hesitant because some said that the instructor had a thick accent and the students were distracting. Others thought that the last two Cd's were identical to the first 8 without the students. First let me say that while the instructor does have a bit of an accent, he is very easy to understand and his teaching technique is superb. Secondly, I found that the students made the learning easier. It really feels like you are sitting in a room with a French tutor and two other people. It was very good and helped in the learning process. Lastly, you can not just skip to the last 2 CDs. They are a review and a chance to practice what you learned, but they are not instructional in nature. I just finished the entire series and am ready for the next level, which I am about to purchase when I finish this review. You should also know that you can get then lessons on your iPhone and iPad and I think that Itunes sells them as well. I bought the cd set and then downloaded them into my iTunes so that I could listen to them in my car and on my iPhone. The cost is about the same. Buy this if you really want to learn French quickly.
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