As a PhD linguist and professional Spanish teacher, I adore languages and the process of language learning. I learned a little German years ago as a graduate student, but have always enjoyed using the little German I know and have wanted to learn more. Because we will be hiking in Switzerland next summer, my son suggested that I use my commute time to improve my German.
I chose Michel Thomas over Pimsleur based on the Amazon reviews and have not been disappointed. In fact, Michel Thomas is one of the two or three best language teachers I have ever encountered. I am about halfway through the Beginning course and am really having a blast, practicing like crazy during my commute and laughing out loud along with Mr. Thomas and his two students.
I don't mind Mr. Thomas' French accent or the farcical difficulties of the male student. It all helps to make what could be a sterile process more human and enjoyable.
It's interesting to compare Mr. Thomas' pedagogy with current second language learning theory. New language teachers are taught to minimize their use of English, of translation exercises, and of explicit grammatical explanations. Mr. Thomas breaks all these rules but does a great job regardless! In fact, my enjoyment of and progress from the CDs is making me question my training -- at least a little. I am curious how his techniques ramp up to a full classroom environment instead of the semi-tutorial setting of the CDs.
It's also interesting to note Mr. Thomas' radical, yet effective, decisions about which aspects of German to teach. His biggest decision was to sidestep German's nasty gender and case system by focusing almost entirely on verbs, basically omitting nouns. The pedagogical advantage of this decision is that it's easier to build fluency without trying to remember the correct gender and number for every noun you use in a sentence. The other big decision was to only introduce the formal "you" pronoun Sie, omitting familiar "du" and informal plural "ihr." The pedagogical advantage here is that Sie verb forms (at least in the present tense, which is all I know so far!) are identical to the forms for "wir" (we) and the infinitive. Again, this means fewer reasons to stop and think when trying to assemble a sentence.
My one criticism of the course was that it omits some expressions and vocabulary that are very useful for a tourist, from greetings to restaurant and hotel vocabulary. But these can easily be picked up from any decent guidebook.
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A post-Switzerland addendum: I got through most of the course before my trip and was amazed at how well it prepared me to communicate. It definitely enhanced my pleasure in visiting a German-speaking country. I'm planning to finish the Beginner's course for the fun of it and then move on to the Advanced course.
