Customer Reviews

Speak Spanish with Michel Thomas (Speak... with Michel Thomas)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Who's Michel Thomas you ask - an old man who slobbers constantly on the recording who fought with the French Resistance and is the foreign language professor du jour of the stars. I mean, if Emma Thompson can pick it up, surely you can - right? Right. We're talking Michel Thomas here - he doesn't mess around. I have studied Spanish books, but it never really sank in until I heard it pronounced properly by Michel Thomas and his astute and sexy female student - and then butchered mercilessly to death by the ingrate male student.

Michel Thomas is overly patient with the moronic male student - almost to a fault. Thomas almost loses it when, on the 2nd CD at the end, the male student says "mas o menos" repeatedly when asked to say "mas tarde." Not to be missed. I laughed out loud on more than one occasion at the idiocy of the male student - he provides good comic relief and, in turn, helps with the learning process in a strange kind of way. If he can learn(if that's what he's doing), then anybody can. Undoubtedly, I consider Michel Thomas THE preeminent teacher and this CD set to be the sublime paradigm of Spanish audio learning for beginners.

I have been married to a native Spanish speaker for 6 years, and have never been able to pick up Spanish until I put these 2 CDs on in my car. He alternates English and Spanish, in a conversational style and I was able to jumpstart my learning in about 10-12 hours. Highly recommended.

This is an excellent way to learn Spanish. I think more educational programs ought to go this route. I mean, how do we teach kids to learn English? By propping a book in front of them and forcing them to memorize it? No, by conversactional English. THEN, do the writing. That is essentially what this CD set is doing.

Yes, sometimes it is hard to under Michel at first. Then, you get used to his speaking. Having actual students makes it really handy. The lack of "pressure" helps things sink in. I tried some terminology CDs and they just don't work as well.

If you want to learn conversational Spanish, especially if you have kids or friends that are learning Spanish, try this out (and consider the 8 CD set as well).

I loved what Mr. Thomas said in the beginning: "Don't try to memorize, learn by rote, or mindlessly repeat over and over." That's one of the best lines I've ever heard regarding a language course! His approach is very memorable as he has a student who is very good and another that is pretty bad. This is a refreshing break from having one or two people saying something in Spanish then translating it with a small description of how it was used. His course, though it won't make you fluent in Spanish, will definitely get you on your way and making some simple and vital sentences.

I was convinced I could not learn by listening to tapes or cd's because of all the money I wasted trying different audio products which I just couldn't "get". This was driving me crazy because the only free time I had to learn a language was during my commute so I needed something I could listen to. That all changed when I took one more chance and bought Speak Spanish With Michel Thomas. All I needed was the right teacher and Michel Thomas was that teacher. The audio quality is great, the method is incredible, and most importantly I am finally learning Spanish!

I think this is a great way to begin to learn spanish, but it is not nearly enough to make you close to fluent. I bought it as a refresher before taking some college courses after taking three years off of Spanish. It worked very well for my purpose. I bought the 2 CD version first and then ended up buying the 8 CD version as well. I'd reccomend spending the extra money and buying the 8 CD version to start. Easy to use in your car or anywhere else, highly reccomend this as a supplement to other spanish learning.

This is a 2CD-introd pack - which is excellent in leading the learner, together with 2 students, under the real-situation guidance of Mr Thomas - you will be eager to learn, urge to know more and confident to get it wrong and right. I'm a Chinese with only half-fluency in English -and Spanish is going to be my third language, and it really can help - and advise you to buy the full-pack -not like me, only the intro - otherwise, you need to buy it again for full-pack....it's really excellent and beyond other words to tell more. Remember - no book and no pen for this course. However, you can grasp the basics - the sentence structure and so you can make your own sentences step by step. GLEE

I didn't like these learning Spanish CDs. I wouldn't recommend them to any one that really wants to learn Spanish on his own. To be honest, I think these lessons will do more harm than good. That's because they don't help you develop a real speaking Spanish accent. In fact, they will cause you to develop an awful speaking Spanish accent. Michel Thomas is from France or somewhere. He's definitely not a native Spanish speaker. To make matters worse, he's about 80 or 90 years and he speaks like it and sounds like it. What I mean is that it's very difficult to understand even his English. There are two students on the Michel Thomas course. But they are both beginners -- definitely not someone who you'd want to copy their Spanish pronunciation. I am by no means an authority on how to learn Spanish. But I do know that it is extremely important to take Spanish lessons or Spanish classes from a native speaker or learn from a course recorded by natives. It's the only way to get a Spanish accent that sounds real. If you are a person that learns visually, then I would recommend the Rosetta Stone Spanish course -- www.rosettastone.com If you are a person that likes to learn naturally by learning how to speak Spanish before you can read and write it, then I'd recommend that you learn Spanish with the Learning Like Crazy Spanish plan at www.learningspanishlikecrazy.com

it works but the male student is too annoying to get around. You remember when you were in school and there was always one student in your class that couldn't understand the simplest commands and couldn't remember from one class to the next and you really, really wanted to get up from your desk and hit that student over the head with your textbook? that's this guy, trust me.

First of all, If you think this is hard to follow/understand, then I will bet you will never learn NO matter what program you get. Did negative revierws really expect to learn spanish( or any language) by listening to 2 cds ?!!!!!. Thomas did a great job of introuding people to language essentials, common words, and practical use of verbs. Not only that but you will end up with confidence to start practising and speak the language(in a limite way).Great learning program for people to start with. I found out I could borrow the cds from many public libraries, which is what I did. I would say this is the best 4 hour-series I have come across. Knowing thousands of words will not do you any good till you start putting them into practical use (which is what Thomas teaching you to do).