Customer Reviews

Michel Thomas Method™ French For Beginners, 10-CD Program (Michel Thomas Speak...)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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

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.

I just love that Michel Thomas beats out Rosetta Stone and any other over priced software. He doesn't have you repeating like a parrot, and you actually remember what you say. Maybe because it's really fun.

You actually form sentences right away, which is what you need to learn and speak a language. Yes you need phrases and words, but in the end you have to make up your own phrases and sentences, not just repeat what you hear. It all has to come naturally.

Michel Thomas does just this. What also impressed me is that he didn't start off with what everyone else starts off with. The greetings, hello my name is... etc etc. Just goes straight into "what do you want to eat for dinner tonight", and you will be amazed at how you will say that phrase, in french.

What goes on in the Audio CD :

You are pretending to be the 3rd student in his class. There's one male and one female. This can be a little annoying, but again it's like a classroom where you are subjected to anothers mistakes or mishaps, which is fine. You see they are struggling too if you are struggling. But if you get everything right away, this can be a bit troublesome. Luckily their mistakes and mishaps don't lasts TOO long.

He tells you the phonetics and words and grammar. He has a language builder which I highly suggest. You would know how to make sentences. Now you just need more words! Get that and a dictionary, and you're set.

Now, this is why I knocked off 1 star, his accent. It can be hard to understand what he's saying. 90% I do understand, but I hate having to rewind a little just to hear what he had to say.

In all : His method is effective. He came up with this, and it's more effective than most programs out there. The only other program is probably Pimsleur. To me though, Pimsleur has you repeating a lot, which can get boring. With Michel Thomas it doesn't get boring at all!

Highly recommended.

I was skeptical at first and joked about this method of learning. I was using another CD based product and was taking 1 on 1 lessons (my lessons stopped and I felt stuck with the other program). Once I started using this program I immediately noticed my vocabulary increase and my comprehension of the spoken language improve.

I listen to the cd's for 30 minutes at a time, twice daily. I love it and recommend this to anyone interested in learning French as a second language, or simply going on a vacation to France (or any french speaking local), use the product everyday for a couple of weeks and you will notice the change in your ability to speak and understand French.

This was good and bad, It covered a lot of material and explained basic rules and word usage in a learnable way. The main reason I wanted a disc was for the native speaker. Mr Thomas is very good, but he isnt a first language English or French speaker. Some of his English sentences were poorly constructed. No native speaker would construct a sentence that way, but he was not teaching English, he was teaching French. He missed entirely the familiar form in French. What if we need to speak to children or were in less formal situations? Also he had 2 "students" on the tape and spent far too much time having them speak and figure out the words. I can pronounce French badly all by myself. I don't want to listen to students struggling. The female student was especially annoying,The sentences were long and complex and I wonder if his French sentences were as poor as his English ones. Overall, he did impart a lot of basic info, the CD was inexpensive, but I think a good class would be needed to build on this. A native speaker is a must.

After reading reviews on both sides of the fence, I decided to take the plunge, given the relatively low price. It's the reasonable cost that saves this product from a lower star rating for me.

For those familiar with other language programs, you will find this method a kind of low-rent Pimsleur course. As other reviews have exhaustively detailed the structure, I will not do that here. For me, it's a useful tool to have in your arsenal, and there are some valuable tips given. In sum:

Pros:

1. Inexpensive
2. It takes a lot of the mystery out of French (even something as small as his story about Alexander Dumas saying English is just "French spoken badly" helps)
3. The structure of the grammar is demystified a bit
4. It's something you can throw on as you drive or chill out with a glass of wine
5. His hints about emphasizing the accent at the end of a word was helpful to me, personally

Cons:

1. The Polish accent has to be addressed: I didn't care. It's not really a pro or con, in my opinion. I get that he's not a native speaker. At a beginning level, even I know enough to know there may be a better way to pronounce certain words. This course isn't about that, I don't think. If pressed, I would say the course could be made better by remaking it with a native speaker - but it's not that big of a deal.
2. He's kind of a jerk to the woman on the tape. Granted, she's got terrible pronunciation, but still...
3. His entire philosophy isn't wrong, it's just he seems to misunderstand basic concepts of memory. He goes out of his way in the beginning to say, "don't memorize anything!" Then, when the woman struggles with recalling (read:memorizing) a word he mentioned 10 minutes prior, he says, "DON'T GUESS!" Well, if I'm not memorizing, and I'm not guessing, how exactly am I supposed to get you that word you asked for? Like it or not, memory IS involved. I supposed what he's saying is that he wants everything to soak in on a subconscious level, and for our existing language skills to just "connect" with the French language. Who knows, the guy's a little nutty.

All that said, it's worth both your time and money for this course to supplement other things - for me, it's Tell Me More French. For a serious study of the language, THAT program rocks.

I did not believe it would work, but it did. After reviewing the introduction, advanced, and vocabulary builder, I went to France and got along quite well - asking directions, ordering food, purchasing things, bargaining in the market, reading the signs, asking about hotel reservations, and so on. I was quite surprised since the time spent studying really was only a few days. I asked people if they understood me and they said "yes, you speak perfectly clearly, and without an accent". There are many secrets of his teaching method, but one key element is the focus on verbs. Another is his almost hypnotic implantation of pictures into your mind that makes you instantly learn a concept and not forget it. The key is to stay relaxed and don't try to remember. It just goes right into your brain. I'm not kidding, this really works.

Like others who have purchased this product, I found the woman on the CD to be annoying. For the price, I did learn quite a bit of French. I have not finished the program. The last two CD's are suppose to be a good review of the program. It has served the purpose of teaching French while I drive one hour each way to work every day. I have a friend who is a French immersion teacher, so I have referenced him for corrects etc. Michel only uses "vous" for "you", and this is a VERY formal way to talk to people. "Tu" should be used on a less formal, friendly basis. This is something that he has yet to point out on the CD. I wish there was more pronunciation of the vowels, and the different types. I am also a visual learner, so I did make cheat sheets for myself, looked up spellings on translators, etc. Once I saw how the word was spelled, I felt I learned it better. Again, overall the system worked well for me. I can make sentences, and function in French.

I got this last week, after going through the Pimsleur method which I got from the library. What a difference! There is no rote repetition with Michel Thomas, like there is with Pimsleur - you actually have to think! And that engagement of my mind makes me think about French all day. Maybe it's because I have studied linguistics and I have an interest in language and how language changes and is constructed - I don't know. But as an adult, an adult who knows my own language - English - and who knows a bit of French from some study (not much), this method is perfect. I feel confident speaking. I'm eager to practice. And I can't wait to get to France! I love this method - I feel confident, relaxed, and eager to speak French!