Customer Reviews

Speak German with Michel Thomas (Speak... with Michel Thomas)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I purchased the 2 CD set (Speak German with Michel Thomas) to play in my car on the way to work, and found it easy to follow. Although I have little prior experience with German, I have many German clients, and Thomas' pronunciation and inflection seem very close to theirs. I found myself mastering the vocabulary he presented quickly (more quickly, in fact, than the two students on the CD). Thomas introduces sentence structure as an exercise in getting your point across rather than a grammar lesson. One caveat: The 2 CD course is a bit short on vocabulary, and introduces only about 60 German words or so. Go for the 8 CD set (German with Michel Thomas).

I finished the 8 cd set and really liked it. One thing that was different from other language programs is hearing how the American and English students pronounced the german words with Michel correcting them. I actually found this more helpful with my pronounciation than hearing only native speakers, I don't know why that is, maybe allowed me to notice similar problems with my pronounciation and I sure miss it now that I've moved on to a different program. I learned more in the first 3 cds than 2 half semesters at community college.

I must say that I have never tried to learn German, but I took four years of Spanish in high school and learned less functional Spanish than I did in about 12 hours with these CD's. I only have the 2 CD set not the 8 CD set, but I wish I had purchased the full set and will do so as soon as I can find the money. I don't think you can learn it straight through, how I did it was listening to the CD's repeatedly so that I could absorb more.

He does not focus on nouns instead he focuses more on functional vocabulary, pronunciation and basic grammar. He begins with a simple sentence: Was wollen Sie? What do you want? and continuously builds on this adding new words and removing old words so you never learn a word without a sentence or a way to use it.

He does have a slight saliva problem, but after about 45 minutes you no longer notice it. Somebody said that the CD's were worthless and "Mann kann hier kein gut Deutsch lernen!" Well maybe I can't MASTER german using these CD's, aber ich erlernte viel, um Sie zu verstehen (I learned enough to understand you).

This was a great course (8 CDs). I was stationed in Germany for three years, but never had this mastery. Mr. Thomas teaches you how to put sentences together in a logical manner. You not only understand how, but also why. Some folks criticized the male student as irritating. I found the female student more distracting. In a course that is supposed to be purely oral, she was pronouncing some words as an English-speaker would read them. Since she had never heard the words pronounced that way, she must have been reading. But, in fairness, this was infrequent and really amounts to nitpicking. I liked this course so much that I just bought Mr. Thomas' Spanish course.

Finally, learn a language like a child - by speaking it. No idiotic drills or memorization. And you don't have to be a "rules engineer" trying to think of complex grammatical rules while simultaneously trying to speak - a method which we've all experienced to be an abysmal failure. Also, Michel has a way of building complex structures, simply, while ignoring vocabulary - which you can and do learn as a "byproduct."

These 8 CD's I found hard going because of the following reasons:

1) Michel really sounds like he is going to drown in his own saliva which after 30 mins of listening begins to get on your nerves
2) There is a script that Michel and the 2 students are following. They get simple things wrong and get complex things right the first time, its very frustrating and they are not german.
3) It is fast paced then slows to a crawl, there is no linear progression that you can follow.

Overall most frustrating. I suggest saving your money and getting another set of CD's.

The man can not even speak english clearly. I have had German before and wished to review. If one can speak German after listening to all eight CD's then I'm a monkey's uncle. Save your money and go to Pimsleur. I have to agree with one of the other reviewers, Thomas sounds like he is about to drown in his saliva. Mann kann hier kein gut Deutsch lernen!

I've had some self-taught experience learning German, and have pursued it through books only. This was my first venture into language tapes. At the end of two CD's you will have a vocabulary of perhaps twenty words (I didn't actually count them)and an ability to put together a fairly simple series of phrases into a reasonable sentence. $27.00 + for one sentence???No. There must be something out there a little more useful than this.
On the positive side, I think about thirty such CD's going to a higher level would be useful and a lot of fun. But not at the price.