Really quite an intriguing talk you have there, good sir. I´d like to add a few notes. I´ve been very skeptical of the MT method, mainly because of the marketing, where you have Hollywood actors praising it (I basically don´t trust anything theay´re saying on any topic besides acting). And then there are quite a few reviews on the method to be found online, ranging from "I´ve turned myself into a native speaker in 60 seconds" to "terrible, not worth even a try".... So, that´s confusing to me, to say the least. But anyway, I wanted to learn dutch for some time, and because I really do not like textbooks I´m always on the search for other materials and as it happens, MT do have a course on Dutch. So I gave it a try. My observations: 1) it´s really good for getting you from knowing nothing at all to some basic understanding, and it does so rather painless 2) do not expect much more then a basic understanding; after I was finished with the 12 CDs, I tried to watch some movies and interviews with people, and I got quickly frustrated, I understood little... The method does not give you enough exposure for a deeper understanding of structure and vocabulary range and ideoms 3) it is neither awesome nor terrible, to me it was a very good start, from there I moved on to authentic materials and listened to TV/radio/etc. to further my knowledge of the language; I´ve been at it for about nine weeks and I would have not learned as much as I did, if it wasn ´t for a good start with MT 4) I only know the method from the CDs, I do wonder how much different it might have been in a one to one or classroom style interaction for a longer period of time 5) so in the end - I have to admit, it is a good non-textbook no exercises, no complicated explanations method for getting you started and keeping you motivated; it feels very natural and one does look forward to the lessons, and that keept me comming back rather easily One more note, there is a simillar method out there called Language Transfer made by some greek guy, the audio is at times a bit off, however it´s worth a try and is compleately free. To finish off, I am glad I used the method and it´s a shame I didn´t know about it before starting Spanish and French, might have helped a lot. I plan to use the Greek course sometime in the future. And thank you for the good news on developing a course on modern Hebrew, I was hoping MT would develop one in the future, any idea on how long before its published?
Thanks so much for your comment. I cannot vouch for any of the MT courses except my own. However, the Foundation or initial course, as you note, is only intended to get the student to begin swimming. You will not be able to compete in any competitions...at that point. What I do suggest to those who inquire about continuing on is to go through all levels available for the language. After that, get hooked up with a native speaker who will give you the opportunity to speak on a regular basis ( say weekly or twice a week). I do this with iTalki since I can pay someone a small sum to speak their language with me and only interrupt when I make a mistake or if I request some assistance. The way to learn to speak a language is to do so on a regular basis. I am currently doing this with a wonderful woman who is my teacher and I found her on iTalki. I am already planning to do this with other people from the same site. It has taken me to a level of total comfort in communicating with natives. Regarding the course I am teaching in Spoken Hebrew. I anticipate it will take at least 1.5 years for it to finally happen. Go to my website, learnetarium ( dot) com for updates and hopefully helpful posts on the process, language and other fun things. Also, subscribe to this youtube site for more updates.
It's refreshing to see such an impartial review. As someone who has been interested in language (singular) all my life and languages (plural) for about 20 years and teaching my own English for 7 years, I still consider Michel Thomas's Spanish and German foundation course to be the most exhilirating learning experiences I have ever had in my life. I went on to learn to speak Spanish and basic German, but when I finished Michel Thomas, I could say and understand very little. How could I? I only really knew a few hundred words. And yet, I knew and know that excitement was pointing at something real. Sure enough, if you go on to get lots of input and do all the usual stuff, you will feel that foundation solidifying and you will be able to speak. These days, I teach English with the communicative method and I've grudgingly come to see that it's a very good method for intermediate learners; but every day I am reminded how terrible it is for beginners and how much better Michel Thomas is for beginners (at least adult beginners). BTW, the Greek course has nothing in common with a real MT course by the way. I'm not saying it's bad, but it's not MT. It's its own thing. As for the negative reviews about MT, people still don't understand what he was doing. I used to teach grammar rules to my students and kind of gradually stopped as over the years I slowly realised that it rarely helped my students. "So that's something MT got wrong," I thought. Except... if you actually check... he rarely teaches rules as such. He mostly teaches meanings. For a concrete example of what I mean by this, check out how he teaches French clitic pronoun placement in the BBC video and I still remember the simple way he taught "wenn" versus "ob" in German. If I (something of a fan) mistakenly thought for years that MT routinely taught rules, no wonder people doing a review get that impression.
I loved the MT courses-a great teacher! And Dr. G, your MT course on Chinese was wonderful and has had a big impact for me. Thank you!
Truth is coming
Thanks for relating your first hand account of meeting and learning from Michel Thomas.
I know 10 and have learned all 10 in different ways. No one best way.
14:42 where are these recordings now?
Really quite an intriguing talk you have there, good sir.
I´d like to add a few notes. I´ve been very skeptical of the MT method, mainly because of the marketing, where you have Hollywood actors praising it (I basically don´t trust anything theay´re saying on any topic besides acting). And then there are quite a few reviews on the method to be found online, ranging from "I´ve turned myself into a native speaker in 60 seconds" to "terrible, not worth even a try".... So, that´s confusing to me, to say the least. But anyway, I wanted to learn dutch for some time, and because I really do not like textbooks I´m always on the search for other materials and as it happens, MT do have a course on Dutch. So I gave it a try.
My observations:
1) it´s really good for getting you from knowing nothing at all to some basic understanding, and it does so rather painless
2) do not expect much more then a basic understanding; after I was finished with the 12 CDs, I tried to watch some movies and interviews with people, and I got quickly frustrated, I understood little... The method does not give you enough exposure for a deeper understanding of structure and vocabulary range and ideoms
3) it is neither awesome nor terrible, to me it was a very good start, from there I moved on to authentic materials and listened to TV/radio/etc. to further my knowledge of the language; I´ve been at it for about nine weeks and I would have not learned as much as I did, if it wasn ´t for a good start with MT
4) I only know the method from the CDs, I do wonder how much different it might have been in a one to one or classroom style interaction for a longer period of time
5) so in the end - I have to admit, it is a good non-textbook no exercises, no complicated explanations method for getting you started and keeping you motivated; it feels very natural and one does look forward to the lessons, and that keept me comming back rather easily
One more note, there is a simillar method out there called Language Transfer made by some greek guy, the audio is at times a bit off, however it´s worth a try and is compleately free.
To finish off, I am glad I used the method and it´s a shame I didn´t know about it before starting Spanish and French, might have helped a lot. I plan to use the Greek course sometime in the future. And thank you for the good news on developing a course on modern Hebrew, I was hoping MT would develop one in the future, any idea on how long before its published?
Thanks so much for your comment. I cannot vouch for any of the MT courses except my own. However, the Foundation or initial course, as you note, is only intended to get the student to begin swimming. You will not be able to compete in any competitions...at that point. What I do suggest to those who inquire about continuing on is to go through all levels available for the language. After that, get hooked up with a native speaker who will give you the opportunity to speak on a regular basis ( say weekly or twice a week). I do this with iTalki since I can pay someone a small sum to speak their language with me and only interrupt when I make a mistake or if I request some assistance. The way to learn to speak a language is to do so on a regular basis. I am currently doing this with a wonderful woman who is my teacher and I found her on iTalki. I am already planning to do this with other people from the same site. It has taken me to a level of total comfort in communicating with natives.
Regarding the course I am teaching in Spoken Hebrew. I anticipate it will take at least 1.5 years for it to finally happen. Go to my website, learnetarium ( dot) com for updates and hopefully helpful posts on the process, language and other fun things. Also, subscribe to this youtube site for more updates.
It's refreshing to see such an impartial review. As someone who has been interested in language (singular) all my life and languages (plural) for about 20 years and teaching my own English for 7 years, I still consider Michel Thomas's Spanish and German foundation course to be the most exhilirating learning experiences I have ever had in my life. I went on to learn to speak Spanish and basic German, but when I finished Michel Thomas, I could say and understand very little. How could I? I only really knew a few hundred words. And yet, I knew and know that excitement was pointing at something real. Sure enough, if you go on to get lots of input and do all the usual stuff, you will feel that foundation solidifying and you will be able to speak. These days, I teach English with the communicative method and I've grudgingly come to see that it's a very good method for intermediate learners; but every day I am reminded how terrible it is for beginners and how much better Michel Thomas is for beginners (at least adult beginners). BTW, the Greek course has nothing in common with a real MT course by the way. I'm not saying it's bad, but it's not MT. It's its own thing. As for the negative reviews about MT, people still don't understand what he was doing. I used to teach grammar rules to my students and kind of gradually stopped as over the years I slowly realised that it rarely helped my students. "So that's something MT got wrong," I thought. Except... if you actually check... he rarely teaches rules as such. He mostly teaches meanings. For a concrete example of what I mean by this, check out how he teaches French clitic pronoun placement in the BBC video and I still remember the simple way he taught "wenn" versus "ob" in German. If I (something of a fan) mistakenly thought for years that MT routinely taught rules, no wonder people doing a review get that impression.