Why I don't recommend the Michel Thomas Method for language learning
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- Опубликовано: 5 май 2017
- Read my full article here: www.mezzoguild.com/michel-tho...
See my list of preferred language resources here: www.mezzoguild.com/tools/
In this episode, I share the results of my detailed review and analysis of the Michel Thomas Method (Total and Perfect Arabic specifically).
Overall I don't recommend it and here are the reasons why I reached this conclusion.
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I posted a video update to this podcast in response to the endless waves of ignorant criticism I've been receiving here and on my blog.
One thing's clear: people are religiously devoted to the MT method and will argue till they're blue in the face about how effective they believe the method is. I'd wager every single commenter below who talks about how amazing MT is has never actually had personal success using the method.
Learning *about* a language does not equal *learning* a language.
Learning *about* the syntax of a language does not mean you've *acquired* it.
All those who here and on my blog who have argued about how much MT taught them are doing so because MT leaves learners with a "sense" of having learned a lot. You feel as though you've progressed after an MT session when in actual fact, you've learned almost nothing.
You haven't acquired the language.
Your comprehension level has not changed.
You've learned a handful of words at best while listening to a recording that is 90% English.
*BTW - why are you here searching for Michel Thomas reviews if you're already convinced it's amazing?* Does make me wonder.
You are complaining about how little the mt course teaches when Michel Thomas clearly says it's a basic course for beginners, a foundation to build on. Are you delusional or paid by someone to bash the mt method? No course is perfect and if a person has gained something out of it that they use in the real world, which many people have done then obviously the mt course succeed in teaching a language
It provides many people with a basic grounding. I only listened to a short bit of his Spanish course some years ago and can still remember the handful of phrases I heard.
You overlooked one thing here. His early life has been called into question. While I'm sure he was affected by the horrors of war, they say it didn't play out the way he claimed.
@@scraw3I agree. MT is very good for beginners, one of the best for sure. In reality, it's quite effective, not the opposite. In 20 hours, it performs better than most other courses. In many instances it's superior to Pimsleur. I would learn it first and then try Pimsleur.
Incidentally, if we make comments, please do not call them ignorant. You do not call students’ comments ignorant even if they are indeed ignorant. We accept all comments and discuss them together.
this guy is clear bent on proving other people wrong. Doesn't even understand how RUclips algorithms work. you don't need to actively search for MT to be recommended this video. This isn't google search where people are typing in exactly "why MT is awesome" and the first result is your ignorant critique video.
I don't know why people have so much hate about this guy? I wanted to buy his CD-s but when I red some internet reviews I was discouraged... But I bought them regardless and it was the best thing that i could buy for my German learning progress... I've learned so much from it, and it gave me confidence to speak up... Michell Thomas is a great teacher, and a nice person too
I think the biggest reason is that people think a “method” covers the entire language. In reality, it’s like puzzle pieces or building blocks. Michel Thomas is ONLY for gaining comfort ability with a language and getting the grammar into your hear naturally. Vocab / conversation practice requires other targeted methods
I used MT for Russian and found it excellent
I agree with all of you. I used it to causually learn french years before I visited france, and I was doing well thanks to what I learned.
I also learned a lot from MT method both In French and Nihongo. The MT method is not enough to be proficient in speaking a foreign language. We call this method survival French or survival Nihongo. I tried using this method in my french class and my student loved it. It was very tiring though. But it was just a part of my class, after an MT clip, i unlock difficulties for vocab, syntax, grammar. And then we go on to a short dialogue and then work on tasks.
Michel Thomas’s method is leagues above modern high school’s French curriculum. I learnt more in 6 hours than in 4 years.
Either. I made 2 years of a French Course and I absolutely learned more in a couple hours with Michel Thomas.
His method is brilliant. Who's this guy anyway.
Hi.I just found they uploaded Spanish and French!!!
Lol, I come here for the criticism of Michel Thomas' method and after reading the comments I'm convinced to buy his CDs now! :)))
Same here lol
Did you like it?
I've actually got a couple. I think it would be probably better for European countries.
The Michel Thomas courses are amazing for a jumpstart in a new language.
Obviously the closer you are to the language the easier it is, i.e. since I'm Romanian all the romance languages are much easier Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese.
Agreed and it was a fantastic jump start for me in the rules of the language. Highly recommend Michel Thomas!
For a beginner Michel Thomas method is brilliant ! He just engraves the basics in your brain.
way beyond just the basics, the CORE FOUNDATION that frustrates people about language learning!
The Michel Thomas method is amazing! It burns the basics into your brain. 8 years after first listening to his Spanish course, I can still hear his voice and remember cute mnemonics he used and it brings me joy just to recall his voice. I can't say the same of the other audio courses I listened to at the time, Pimsleur, etc
Absolutely same
I can only speak for the French course, but it was fucking awesome. I learned a ridiculous amount and enjoyed every second of it.
KrayzieBone=The GOAT , same here, highly recommended; I’m so glad I got to learn from the man himself, (at least his recordings from before he passed).
Are you now fluent in French?
I’m tryna use it for French as well
Sorry I totally disagree. I went to an A1 Japanese class for 16 weeks and really struggled with the basics of vocab and grammar. However, listening to the MT Japanese, I felt that I was able to digest the grammar concepts better than being in the class. It has been a few months now, and I still remember the parts that I learnt!
The reason he says "Don't try to remember" is because he takes you through enough interval recall and spaced reputation that it absorbs into long term memory. Think about it; most of us were in a school play at least. You memorized the lines and probably within a few weeks, those lines were out the window. Even a couple of months later, it's safe to say you won't remember much of the lines. But, when you were a young kid, and your favorite song came on...most can say they never really tried to actively remember the lyrics. (Some may have) but years later, even as an adult, if the song came on, you'll probably be more than likely be able to sing along to it. May be not the whole thing but good chunks of it. And you never tried to cram the lyrics of the song like the lines of a play. This is the type of memory he is developing within the mind.
What????
@@peterinmalaga Seems like it is too complicated for you. Maybe just give up trying to learn a language with this method.
I've found the Michel Thomas method more effective than most of the foreign language classes I've taken
Michel Thomas's method gave me more confidence in Spanish in 8 hours than I got in four years of studying at school. It gave me the platform to become fluent when I live in Spain. The best thing it does is give you the confidence to speak. When you speak, other people help you out. You don't have to worry about the accent. Everyone has an accent unless you live in the country for twenty years. Sometimes even then.
Lol , Michel thomas method is brilliant. I learned Japanese on my own but it took me lots of time, after that I developed shortcut of my own which vastly correlated to Michel thomas method. I have learned a lot from his way to further improve my own learning process.
Same story here but with Spanish. I was already fluent (self taught) in spanish when I finally tried the French course. It mirrored many of the shortcuts I took years to craft and when uncheck back to the Spanish course, he indeed had the same quality in there. I use it to enter brand new minds into the core of the language, in my spanish tutoring
I've learned Spanish for years the formal way... and struggled and never made much of a headway with the language. After finishing the course I was able to speak with native Spanish speakers (whom I spoke with on Skype after contacting them via a language exchange website) and I was able to have comfortable, intermediate levels of Spanish. Literally all the Spanish speakers I spoke told me they understood me and that I was very advanced. I struggled with some words, idioms and uncommon verbs but that was literally it.
Michel Thomas made me jump after 15 hours of audio to a level that years and years of traditional reading and learning failed to do so.
You've take care to pin only the comment that agrees with your viewpoint. Have the courage to pin a comment that disagrees with you too.
Ok. I’m buying the Michel Thomas French course now!
Where do I buy his courses?
Sadly he treid to promote it to the Education system in the UK and they decided that it would not work unless HE was teaching it which is absolutely cobblers. What they really meant was, they don't want to have language teachers learn how to teach, so sadly again, schools are lumbered with the pointless language lessons they DO have and so hardly anyone leaves school actually able to say a few words. Mr Thomas of course needed to make a living as do most of the people who wish to teach or help you to learn. He was bold enough to try his luck in Hollywood and it panned out. I find a great many of the language promoters on youtube are massively critivcal of others who ask for money for the privelidge whilst ....well asking for money for the same thing themselves. Michel Thomas was the first audio course I learned from and it gives you such a boost because there you are speaking sentences in your new language . 7 years of school french and I cant remember how to say please ,thank you or hello. 5 minutes with michel thomas and I could say 'I want it,I need it and why cant I have it now?' ' When can i have it? Its very important for me to know.' ETC.
Michel Thomas and Pimsleur are good to make you go from "What the hell am I looking at" to "Ok, now I know a bit of grammar and some words", specially on courses like Japanese or Chinese, so it makes perfect sense to have a lot of english in it.
It's great for absolute beginners, but it won't make you nowhere near fluent
I listened for 6:30 minutes more than enough negativity. Michel Thomas Method is fantastic! I learned more with MT foundational Spanish course than I did with high school spanish, Pimsluer, Rosetta Stone and other self learning combined. Its a great place to start learning a language that you can actually feel confident in using right away. Seriously.
The Michel Thomas method is fantastic. He really engrains the basics into your brain.
How many words? 50?
ibarix
500 words actually. Thomas based his teaching method on the amount of individual words that would appear in daily publications.
He mentions that The New York times individual word count averages 500 words.
If you follow his recordings they really get into your head.
@@RedRebel8 I did his entire French course in early 2016, including the vocabulary course done after his death.
But I'd forgotten 3/4 by early 2017, when I had a French work colleague.
But I have revised it later a couple of times, and much more of it has stuck. So it wasn't a complete waste of my time. What I've found is that: It is good for allowing me to talk in some pretty basic sentences with native French speakers: Small talk. But I can't understand very much of dialogue between French speakers and French films for very long. Nor can I understand very much of French on websites nor even basic French books.
I definitely wouldn't recommend paying for it. I downloaded mine for free from the pirate bay hehehe.
An excellent and accurate critique of the MT method and that all users of the method should hear as the claims create unattainable expectations. MT is correct when he says that the responsibility remains with the teacher - what he omitted was the the teacher is in fact the student! This said, a responsible and self motivated student should be able to use (and manage) MT knowing that it takes about 700 to 900 hours to become fluent in a language and therefore the 8 hour course is just that, a useful and short stepping stone to help you to build a simple sentence, and in the case of the Romance languages, how to conjugate verbs - a real challenge for the native English speaker. MT is a good short intro and I believe that the English explanation is very useful for the new language learner. After the MT intro the student would need to move onto other courses - and that MT on its own is very limited. He teaches how to say prompted "idomatic-free" sentences which do instill some confidence when starting - but you WILL be left high and dry when the foreign speaker answers you!
I started learning Italian from scratch, after 2 years of traditional language classes I learned next to nothing useful and could not form a sentence of my own. I then bought Michel Thomas lessons and after 6 months I was conversational. After 12 months - with Michel Thomas additional lessons I was fluent. So you can say whatever you want about is method, but it does work. It did for me at least. It is expensive, but worth every cent!
The Michel Thomas Method is *the* best way to learn a language, and I highly recommend it to anyone, before signing up for a proper language course. It'll give you a HUGE headstart. This is particularly true with German, and it's quirky ordering of the words. He doesn't just introduce new words, verbs and rules, but he explains it, tests it with students, and repeatedly comes back to test them (and you, the listener). It actually sinks in.
Rosetta Stone is just painful, and painfully slow to make real progress with.
Oh, and Rocket German is pretty damn good aswell.
I found the MT method amazing. Far better than the crappy language learning in the "modern" classroom or any other methods I've tried. It really depends on the individual. No one is the same. Everyone learns differently and a method that works well with one person may be frustrating to someone else.
Emma Tree I love how nice you are to modern education; giving it benefit of the doubt in adding that everyone learns differently. In my opinion and experience. Modern language courses are a complete joke. It teaches nothing but route memorization. If anyone learnt French from modern education, it’s because they put in the hard work outside of class.
@Tim 0341 I only have experience with the systems in North America and Asia. Hope your right about this new method. It’s criminal how much a waste of time some language classes are.
It’s difficult to recall a RUclips video where more people have totally disagreed with the person posting the video!
The originals are awesome French Italian German and Spanish. They will immediately bring you up to conversational level. You'll learn the modals(can,must,will) almost effortlessly and conjugation will just click. But the other languages in the series just aren't that good. With the exception of the Russian one. Michel Thomas does some sort of hypnosis/nlp thing where you just sort of absorb the language. The other instructors try to emulate him but they don't have his technique.
So is the Russian one good?
@@TheNewAgeGamer97 So far so good! I am up to Track 15 out of 19 on CD 1 from 2007, this is my first day trying it
Could not disagree with you more. Every single person should try it. Michel Thomas' method is the best teaching method of a foreign language i have ever tried. You learn so much in such a short amount of time. I generally find teachers that don't like it are just sour that they didn't come up with it! I learnt Italian and spanish with this method and can hold good conversations in the languages, now trying French. Don't hesitate to try them!
This guy. For around 20 hours of teaching material, Michel Thomas’s method is a masterpiece. Why for the love of god is it being compared to modern education method where it take years to teach you rote memorization and not abilities to speak. I’m also disappointed the Michel Thomas is not longer but who can expect such quality content to be spewed and mass produced. Have you even listened to his tapes???????? He says he can’t teach you each conjugation and word but that you should grasp the concept he teaches and extrapolate from there. What a joke this review is. Criticizing for the sake of criticizing.
He uses etymology in explaining the words in French . Root words make you remember new french words. I have been an avid language learner first because I am an English teacher . I studied in a french and japanese language schools but I didn’t get much from them. Celce-Murcia , a renowned linguist also did and she wrote her comments on why she never learned from them.
I like his CDs they’re easy to listen to and definitely better then boring pimsler
MT French blew my mind with how good it was. I haven't really had much experience with ones not done by him though
I was delighted with my experience of the French course several years ago but have recently tried the Polish course, which was not recorded by him, and it was completely different. The technique was not accurately replicated and the result was, for me, a course that I just couldn't carry on with. The teacher's questions were hopelessly confusing and there was no feeling that anyone being taught except for the two students on the recording.
I've used Michel Thomas audio to learn some basic Spanish. I listened to various Spanish audio classes and this was the one that clicked with me. Everyone is different I guess but MT's method worked for me. I found it really beneficial for my trip to Spain five years ago. I felt confident enough to string a few sentences together to say book railway tickets or ask directions. More importantly I could order a cold beer. lol Sure I was greeted with blank stares from time to time which was disheartening but a major bonus was that many locals were happy to speak in English with me after I made an effort. In contrast my experience at school learning French was horrendous. Michel Thomas isn't a miracle worker and some of the claims re his course are a bit overblown IMO. e.g. I need to hear the course material a number of times for it to sink in. However I can see the logic in how he approaches the task of learning a new language and it works for me. Just because it is an old method doesn't make it bad. Personally I don't rate education in Australia these days in the main. We have slipped in the international rankings so I'm not persuaded by the bitter rants of some Aussie language teacher who sees MT a threat to his livelihood.
I was interested in a good review of Michele Thomas as I was skeptical to some degree. I found your review very very strange. I think you need to rethink how to structure your critiques. I cannot understand why you started this review with an attack on who has endorsed him. It might be important to some that so and so has endorsed such and such but as a serious language learner this is not my first concern. In fact I couldn't care less about it and in fact was unaware of this fact. Next comes an attack on his background. Again, why should I give any moment of concern about if and why he used his life experience to endorse himself. I mean I ONLY care if and why the method and NOT Thomas is bad or good. I have personally listened to his German Audio and found the grammar nicely explained. I can understand that he has not focused on listening skills but in my opinion, listening skills cannot really be taught A to B but more so from actually listening and of course a decent knowledge of vocabulary. As for your recommendation to only learn from a native speaker: I must say it made me cringe. I am not a Native English speaker but understand and understood the rules far better than many Native English speakers. More importantly, I can explain them better than a Native speaker. As an example I cannot explain much of the Farsi (my native language) grammar rules to anyone. Anyhow, that was my opinion of your review.
Cheers
منم کاملا با شما موافقم. میتونم بگم متد میشل توماس زندگیمو تغییر داد. دانش زبانهای تارگتَم رو تو مغزم گونجوند و بعد من بسطش دادم تا حد تدریس.
Well said, obviously his critiques aren't well grounded. He has an affiliate link in the description (I have nothing against that) which makes his opinions biased (there no method that works, just use the website I'm promoting so I can make some money)
Well it worked for me and I'm just a regular nobody, I now speak a high level of spanish thanks to Mr Thomas.
Paul Davies excelente
Really
Did french at school and have had lessons on and off over the years. Found the Michel Thomas on RUclips and it was a revelation. I've learned so much more in the last few weeks than I thought possible. Obviously can't speak for other languages and I did have a head start. We should all be like Holland, one day a week schools teach in English. Wish uk schools did something similar with French or Spanish. My grandson goes to a welsh primary school and speaks both Welsh and English, he is 5.
I'm all for questioning products and you dig deep into it. However I've learnt spanish with MT and it was a lot of fun and easy to pick up. Of course it won't make you fluent, but you can nail the basics and a load more on top.
I hope you don't make a lot of people deter from the MT method, as it's helped me a lot.
I can't comment on other languages but the spanish is great.
This is a very objective and scienctific critic about Michelle Thomas method. As a visually-impaired person many things are quite works for me (like istening classes) but I do agree with you that you would need suplementary material to advance and support your language learning process... Thnak you for the video
After viewing this video, I HAD to use this MT method so I bought his method for Irish and tried it out a bit - I found it marvelously efficient! I never use “only one” method, so what I don't find in one method, I will find in another one ... This video seems biased to me.
He is very biased against it. I agree, it is worth seeing what works because not everyone works the same way. Someone who is dyslexic may benefit more from an audio based course.
Funny thing is that all the comments below are complimenting MT and saying that the method works and you are the only one saying that it doesn't.
Somehow I think he knows more than the commenters (who are feckless Michel Thomas fanboys).
I have tried Portuguese & French and it was extremely useful it was really really really good! and thanks for bad traffic as i was learning while i was in the car. (I am Arabic native speaker)
I strongly recommend Michael Thomas and disagree to most of the points you have proposed.
But thanks for the review :-)
Very thoughtfully presented! I know how much making a presentation takes. Thank you.
Intellectually I agree with Mezzo, but somehow, in practice, I found Michel Thomas method to be truly brilliant. I would be as critical as Mezzo if Michel Thomas course was the ONLY course in the whole world that is available, but it isn't. And it is an excellent way to get introduced into a new language relatively stress-free, have fun, and have it done in a orderly methodical way.
Similar language teacher is Paul Noble. Another brilliant teacher, who is putting huge amount of effort in their teachings, and you can tell by the amount of effort that they had put into their language programs. Both are great teachers. Both argue that they will take on the responsibility of your education! I don't find this to a contentious thing to argue about and get upset about. It isn't a troublesome thing, but rather an honorable attitude of a great teacher. I know it is increasing popular to get students to form small groups, and come up with their "unique" answers, and have a rep chosen from the group who will have to present to the class.... To me that takes much fun out of learning unless you enjoy that sort of learning.
Learning a language isn't like two attorneys at law making their water-tight cases. Not at all. It's simply a transmission of knowledge. There isn't much to argue about what is right or wrong, although that could be a very small part of it. Learning a language requires an orderly transmission of knowledge passed from one who has acquired it, to one who hasn't yet. And later, as one module of transmission is completed, and the responsibility would shift to the student as fluency is a result of the disciple/student to hammer in their learnings to their perfection.
I can't help but agree with everything you have said... and that's the incredible thing about MT's method - it still works!!!
I totally disagree as well. I did Michel Thomas for Spanish after having studied for two years. That took me through 4 months of backpacking through Central America, many times in the company of folks who did not speak English. I did amazing. I shocked myself. Somehow, after that audio, I was able to speak Spanish.
This was a great review. Thanks for posting, I was consiering Michel Thomas. This is one of the best reviews I have heard on language learning.
(1.) Just the breakdown of grammar so that it's comprehensible is valuable. Many people have paid a lot more money for courses or spent a lot more time in classes and still been confused by the grammar. MT, Paul Noble (which is cheaper but teaches less material), and Language Transfer (which is free) might be helpful to many people. MT has been helping me with my Russian and German grammar.
(2.) As you know, it's rare if not impossible to learn a language from a single course or resource. MT is merely a stepping-stone early in the process, which makes the courses afterward easier and probably more effective.
(3.) Although there is no listening practice in MT, there is a useful amount of speaking practice. In the course of each hour of study, a learner has created (via translation from English) and spoken aloud many sentences (not merely repeating the same sentences over again, as with Pimsleur). And then they should repeat after the native speaker to improve their pronunciation a little or correct their errors. As an introvert, I find it difficult to convert most courses into speaking skills. But by the time I finish MT's first two levels (that is, before the vocabulary module), my tongue is loosened, and I find myself getting the urge to talk to myself in the language. I follow up MT with practice in talking to myself with the help of a pocket dictionary until it starts becoming easier, and then I do a lot of listening practice with the help of Innovative Language podcasts (which also have a dialog-only track) and other sources. Then I feel ready to start practicing conversation with tutors.
This is why I recommend MT to others. The drawbacks that you mention are worth informing people of, however, so thanks for posting this review.
could you give a link to that innovative language podcast pls?
@@cluelessangel5292 Sorry, I can't. Every time I try, my reply gets deleted by RUclips.
@@andymounthood is it innovativelanguage.com?
@@cluelessangel5292 Yes. I wonder why you could post the link and I couldn't.
@@andymounthood I didn't. I typed it ;) (also, dropped the www. from the beginning)
Hi there, I certainly agree with almost all of what you said apart from one point. You clearly have a good grasp of what it takes to learn a language and modern techniques and have taken the effort to be objective. But you said that listening comprehension takes longer to form than spoken production. I can say subjectively I did not find that to be the case and objectively as an English teacher for many years I have not seen that in my students either.
What would you recommend by the way? One thing I will say is, although I agree with your observations, I did despite all that find him really quite helpful.
Thanks for your thoughts :)
I think it's a good course for beginner.As a beginner I think it should have more english than the language you learned but there's no way that the course make you fluent
I learned more advanced Italian from this Frenchman than I learned from native Italian speakers! He is amazing.
I think he was Polish...
I don't know from where you got that consensus about not correcting mistakes immediately. The most detrimental thing to the learner's motivation would be learning bulls hit and being happy about it, only to get embarrassed and corrected afterwards.
I am surprised at the critical tone of this critique. You refer several times to what you seem to regard as a deal-breaker problem/weakness: having separate individuals in the role of (English-speaking) teacher / course director and native-speaker giving the Arabic responses. Since you feel strongly about that, it would have been good to verify whether that occurs in the other courses or is only a factor in the Arabic course. I've gone through the Spanish (all levels) twice, the Russian (all levels) three times, the Greek course (one level), once. I have also skimmed through a bit of another course in a library, but don't remember, I think it may have been the French course. Anyway, I never heard more than the teacher and the two students in those courses.That being said, many of your reservations about the MT courses are justified. I automatically discount publicity by stars, but (unlike you) don't hold that against MT, I simply don't count it as a recommendation. Likewise the stories of his experiences in the resistance, whether true or "exaggerated", just don't matter. I do not accept MT's restriction against my learning and reviewing "outside of class", I know I need to do it, but I appreciate the low-key, low-stress approach. I provide enough pressure on myself, the teacher is welcome to back off as far as I am concerned. Your statement that MT students are likely to have unreasonable expectations is right on target, but for an introductory course, I really can't praise the method highly enough. It gives you a strong network of connections, makes you think things through rather than just parrot back phrases, capitalizes on associations between related terms and concepts, and uses your native language to provide hooks to connect to the new material. But at the end of it you have a quite limited vocabulary and must immediately start building on what you have or it will all evaporate, the time spent will have been wasted.One criticism I will add refers only to the MT Spanish course: Michel's accent in Spanish is rather strong and non-native, although he insists on fixing the students' pronunciation (and rightly so). But I believe that Michel gets right the important things, what you need in order to be understood, even though I still find the bad accent in Spanish distracting. In contrast, the teachers in the Russian and Greek courses are native speakers, excellent teachers following the MT methods.Again, the MT method will only get you to the advanced beginner level, but it does that very quickly, and it's a great foundation to build on. May their tribe increase!
I enjoyed using his cds. His method is good but you need to use other methods. I learned German in part using his cds alongside cds such as learn German in your car as well as studying German with the Open University.
I also used Duolingo and now use Memrise and Ling which are all very good giving comprehension as well as target language production tuition and practice.
good video, honestly michel thomas is great if you want to feel like youre learning a language but if you actually want to learn a language look somewhere else
I learned German from Michel Thomas . The best that I found.
I agree!
I made fantastic progress with his Spanish course.
This video contributed in guiding me to a better method/source of learning Korean. I never really thought about the celebrity endorsement thing. I just didn't find it logical to endorse a language course book with celebrities. Its like Sylvester Stallone endorsing a calculus book, its just completely irrelevant.
I also compiled a teaching method for Arabic, as I am a native speaker and many of my non-Arab friends kept complaining about how difficult the language is and how they want to learn it, but it has a different alphabet from the Latin languages. So the method I came up with (probably already used and developed, but I just compiled it from my own experience from learning languages, so there's a 98% chance its not an original method) covers the basics of understanding pronunciation and the alphabet, then basic grammar structures, then implementing what they learn in conversations, using music or Arabic audio to differentiate words (simple word counting nothing more) to help recognize when a word begins or ends and familiarizing themselves with syllables and the like, then reading and listening to an audio of the same script simultaneously, then after that would be intense concentration on grammar and vocabulary and in the same time using both in creating more advanced sentences.
Again, this may not be something new, but thats the method I use to teach some of my friends.
Question: what do you think of the method described above? also if you were to improve it what would you add/remove from it? on what aspect of the language do you think is most important to focus on in the early stages of learning a language?
Question: From your videos I found that you learned Korean, I am in the process of doing that too, do you have any tips in approaching the language? What were the major difficulties that you faced when learning the language?
Iyas Al-Talafha why would u learn korean??!
"I luhrve ma calculus*
@@tabularasa9576 why not
@@thursoberwick1948 lmfao haha
This is the first time I'm trying learn more about this method. Not sure, but I understood that this is a method to teach languages starting from the English language. I am Portuguese and, to learn German or whatever, I need to speak English?
I can't speak for the Arabic course, but at least the Swedish course has a native Swede teaching it. I think it's overall well taught and I can't really find a critique. I haven't found another course like it, so I think it's a refreshing alternative, but I would also recommend using a host of other resources when learning a language on a daily basis.
Michel Thomas Method needs to come with edited versions of the course which removes the students from the recording but retains the instructor and native person as well as a final version that is only the target language. The Mandarin MTM I used was great but I still wanted to just have an L2 version to review without the hassle of painstakingly editing it myself. The Japanese MTM is one of the most annoying and stressful language learning experiences I have ever had because of the one in studio "student".
I agree with most things you said, but I think you can easily learn a language without trying to memorize. My method is simply listening to a lot of beginning level conversations. There are so many courses online (some free on RUclips) that you can get a very nice coverage of basic phrases and vocabulary and get to a very high level by following them. I skim some explanations online as an aid, but actually it's usually more clear to see a lot of examples than to read the exact nuance in text.
Lol I listened to MT language cds for 4 weeks before a trip to France. Native French speakers could not believe I was not from France. They said my pronunciation was flawless. The method as presented by another instructor for Japanese produced the same results. If you have a better method I’d like to try it!
You were so good after 4 weeks of listening to MT that native French speakers mistook you for being French? Wow. That's so believable that I've changed my mind about everything and will proceed to sign up for all of Michel Thomas' courses right now. Thank you.
@@mezzoguildmy mom commented this lol
My honest opinion on MT. You learn a lot. The rules and grammar are often nicely explained, and there are several good tricks to help you remember many individual words by breaking them down into visual images. This is a decent system and very useful when you need to remember a lot of content in a short time. However, what I find to be... undesirable, in the MT method is that each course quickly turns into a crime scene. I often try to follow-up on the students in the courses to see if they have begun serving their jail sentences for the numerous words that they unapologetically butcher throughout the several hours that each course lasts. In fact, it seems that early on they give up on any notion of trying to imitate or replicate the actual accent of the language, and just plough through with a broken slew of mashed syllables and vowels pulled right out of the English language and hammered into the general shape of the foreign word. This is not only distracting when you are trying to master the accent, but it is also time-consuming, having the teacher correct them so often, and having them keep repeating the same sounds and making the same mistakes over and over again. Sometimes, it just feels like you are listening to a special needs class rehearsing for a kindergarten play rather than 2 functioning human adults seriously trying to learn a language. Great for content, grammar and vocab. Crap for pronunciation and accent.
I also don't recommend Michel Thomas but for different reasons than the ones you mentioned. I mean, I'm aware of the limitations of the Audiolingual method. Its core is not to teach you any of the four skills nor vocabulary, its goal is to make you internalize the grammar in an oral way. Even with this in mind, I don't consider MT a good audiolingual course and I believe Pimsleur is better just because it doesn't have the deep flaws that I found in MT.
There are two thinks that I seriously dislike about MT courses (I used the German course which was one of its originals). The first thing is this whole dynamic of trying to reproduce an artificial language classroom while you listen to other students trying to speak the language. I honestly find this very irritating for a number of reasons. In the German course there's a male student and a female student, the male student constantly makes a lot of mistakes and a good chunk of the lessons is MT correcting him and slowly loosing his patience with him. You can clearly hear the stress and frustration of MT and the student as the lessons get more difficult making the recording uncomfortable to listen to, at least for me. In my opinion (and experience as a language teacher) MT is going way too fast for him.
The other thing is, despite this is mainly an audio course, there's a lot of bad pronunciation going on in the lessons which I find really detrimental. MT is not a native German speaker, sometimes he pronounces certain words funny but what I find really damaging is the pronunciation mistakes of the students and sometimes MT doesn't correct them. For example, when they're practising words that end with -r, I was so glad that I already knew beforehand that in German the -r at the end sounds almost like a vowel, the students of MT were always pronouncing it as an English r, which is a totally different sound and MT didn't correct them! This is a huge mistake and honestly it's enough for me to not recommend the course. Learning bad pronunciation is the worst thing that can happen to you.
Lastly, as the lessons move forward, MT makes you construct longer and longer sentences, which is ok, it's part of the Audiolingual method to internalize grammar, my problem is how long you have to wait to get feedback. For example, when he asks you: Try to say "I wasn't able to give it to you today but I will be able to give it to you tomorrow evening". You stop the recording, build this long ass sentence in your brain and right after that you immediately want to know if you got it right before you forget it, it's a long sentence. So you resume the tape and you have to wait for the student to build the sentence, most of the times he makes a lot of mistakes and by the time that MT says the correct sentence, you have already forgotten the original sentence that you thought of and you're not quite sure if you got it right or not. I found that extremely frustrating.
That's why I recommend Pimsleur, I don't have to deal with any of that with Pimsleur. I only listen to native speakers, there's tones of repetition, I just have to deal with my own mistakes and I get immediate feedback.
I totally recommend it specially if you're an auditive learner. Be consistent and just repeat the lessons once or twice so as to internalize the language. Two years with little to medium effort gave me a significant knowledge of Russian from where I've been able to develop higher skills easily.
Japanese course is also a masterpiece. Of course you'd better complement it with another resource so as to learn some writing.
It is not expensive. A worthy investment.
As for the Arabic course it has the added value that is an audiocourse for Egyptian dialect. So is inperative in case you'd need to just communicate in Egypt by conversing, and you don't need to waste time in writting or learning MSA.
Daniel Franco As I listen to his review, I thought to myself, " this method isn't for me". I'm a Visual learner and need to remember because memorizing is my strength.
I highly recommend the intermediate Spanish course. I learned a lot about the language and how to teach effectively.
*from a RUclipsr who is neither rich, nor famous ;)
Me and everyone in the comments section disagree with you lol for me, I've tried plenty of ways to learn my languages, and I can guarantee that Michel Thomas is by far, by far, the best one. It's the best 15 hours or so you can invest in language learning.
Ahahah ???
I’ve been trying to learn spanish since 10 years ago at school .... By many ways , belive me nothing was working ...
And now ,
I learn spanish perfectly in 3 week just by listening michel thomas method . And now I speak french , english , spanish and actualy learning Russian !!!!
Many method but only one fit for me and maybe it’s the same thing for others , so please don’t say that the Michel Thomas is bad or wathever
I’ve completed Pimsleur Spanish level 1 and found Michel Thomas spanish to be very useful. The main downside to Michel Thomas spanish is there are no native spanish speakers for the student to mimic, therefore risks adopting a strange foreign sounding accent
I had some Michel Thomas courses, both levels in European Portuguese and Polish. It was OK for getting a foothold in the language and pronunciation. I bought the courses at greatly reduced prices, but those paying full price are not getting their money's worth for the little content that they're getting, especially in the target language. In both Michel Thomas and Pimsleur courses, you're not getting a lot of vocabulary, but what Pimsleur does right is use spaced repetition. When I purchased Assimil's B2 German course (with CDs and MP3s) for about half of what it normally sells for, I got my money's worth and then some. The audio was all in German and the book explained grammar in bite sizes. Michel Thomas, Pimsleur, and Assimil are all around the same price per course, but I'd rank Assimil higher than Pimsleur and Pimsleur higher than Michael Thomas. I'd rate even Teach Yourself and Colloquial higher than Michel Thomas. With that said, I didn't have any of the courses that Michel Thomas himself taught (Spanish, French, German, maybe Italian too?), and those courses get high reviews, so perhaps he was a good teacher, but judging from the lack of hours that one gets in a Michel Thomas course, a learner isn't even going to get a 625-word vocabulary from both levels combined.
I found Michel Thomas method brilliant. It brought me to a conversational level quickly and easily. I think that after completing Michel Thomas course you have to concentrate on listening skills.
You are right to some extent, bravo.
I have the sample CDs for Polish. The most annoying thing about the program are the students talking and making mistakes which interrupts the learning flow.
Paul Noble uses this method for Spanish but no students are used. I would try his material if learning that language
Yes, Paul Noble is GREAT for beginners, because he uses the good things about MT program and makes it useful. He (Noble) filters out the mistakes, which would disrupt the learning flow, AND he starts out with language learning that will give you enough of the language so you can function as a traveler.
Listened to about 6 minutes and nothing about the course itself just a senseless critic. MT gets you the basics and up and running very quickly. For those that are daunted by writing and reading you can make good use of the courses. French and German were quick and easy to pick up BUT you have to put the effort in and use it with other techniques to expand.
Your points about hearing a native speaker is very valid and comprehension are very valid... but while you referred to NLP, you don't sound familiar with the fact that Michel Thomas would seem to have been evasive about his technique and using celebrity endorsements because he was approaching language from the angle of a hypnotherapist very aware of how people often really obstruct themselves, especially with language learning. Case in point, his mentions of not trying and not testing oneself outside the 'classroom' etc. What do a lot of people do if told not to do something? Their unconscious kicks in to assert its ability to do the thing. Also, 'not doing' is an hypnotic strategy. It is used for relaxing people for instance. Some people tense on being told to calm down, but if told to definitely not try to calm down, they start to relax. So if you are going to question why so many people respond well to his technique and absorb a lot with less effort, you need to know hypnosis. Even the endorsements are a form of hypnosis and advertisers have known this for years. The reality that hypnosis has started the moment you read the endorsement from a celebrity you identify with, because you process their success as part of your own capability and motivation. Hope that helps clarify some angles.
I wouldn't call it pure hypnosis, but it is partly subliminal, not in a sinister way.
Well how come I learned German then?
John Magar richtig
John Magar the moron behind this channel can’t answer that. He just criticises without offering an alternative solution. A trademark of a keyboard warrior.
Well it worked for me.
can anyone who learnt korean from MT method give a review??
I think that you're asking way too much of a 16 hour recorded language course. The courses have never marketed themselves as offering full fluency or any intensive listening comprehension or anything like that. In fact, Michel Thomas himself has said that he lays the foundations, but it's up to the student to decorate the house, or words to that effect.
The course offers a language course, and in the opening remarks of the CDs, he explicitly points out that he will be teaching structure, which is why the original German, French, Italian and Spanish courses make a lot of use of cognates. The courses have never made any mention of learning conversation skills. It is a common misconception of language teachers and language learners that conversational skills are naturally acquired along with language skills.
You claim that the course offer nothing in the way of real world skills, but then what beginner course *does* teach real world skills? If you took any foundation course in any language, you'd find it quite difficult, if not impossible to maintain a conversation with a native speaker. Does Pimsleurs or Paul Noble teach up to C1 level? I don't think they do, but you seem to take this as a major failing of the Michel Thomas course.
If you compared Mozart with children enrolled in a Suzuki school, then Mozart would be fairly unremarkable these days, it's not surprising that teaching methods improve over time, and some techniques in mainstream schools and language centres become more effective as time goes on..
Michel Thomas marketed himself as a tutor, and in the real world taught over a series of days - the video that brought him to the attention of Hodder was a BBC Horizon documentary called "The Language Master" where he teaches a small group of British schoolchildren French in 40 hours, considerably longer than the 8-16 hours that the recorded courses offer. At best the recorded courses that he released with Hodder are an effective introduction, and aren't to be considered a complete course that educates the listener to an advanced level.
Word is bond
Chris, You have given very good useful comments on language learning. Can you give some advice on how to acquire and develop conversation skills and get into the real world, given that there will be that initial fear, shock and frustration.
To be fair, they do market themselves with exaggerated claims, that doesn't mean they aren't good, but it's part of the deceptive marketing practices all over the place these days.
You're right about that listening comprehension thing ...
The Michel Thomas methods are going to help me learn 12 languages in my lifetime
I remember listening to MT's French for beginners many years ago and particularly (particulierement), the first two chapters in CD1 that are turned over to highlighting how much of the French language we are already familiar (familier) with - even though we don't necessarily (necessairement) know it. That one insightful 'gift' has stuck with me and took much of the mystique out of the equation. By the by, have YOU ever come up with anything as useful and motivational as that? I suspect not. Even your review gets a pitiful 2.1/5. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion but I concur with the majority of comments that have been left. It is SO EASY to criticise and find flaws in things. His stated goal was to give a decent working knowledge of the language in a relatively short time and painless way. I think he pretty much achieves this. We all work differently and it seems you're not a fan of his style. Thank goodness this platform gives the opportunity for others to give opinions on what YOU'VE had to say. And that he charges for people to buy his learning materials? What's wrong with that or are you one of those rip-off merchants who thinks everything should be free or mega-cheap? The official TOTAL course costs £85 through MichelThomas.com . How far would £85 get most of us with private tuition, or by enrolling in night-classes? Vive la france, vive Michel Thomas.
And the drawbacks of this method are the also the commeon drawbacks of many video lessons on youtube, where a blogger uses his or her native language to a very great extent and very little of target language.
This video is great and I thought pretty fair. Obviously the comments have been hijacked by either employees or people persuaded to come on here and defend MT (usually in a very similar way to one another). "Just ready the comments and they've actually convinced me to buy all his CD's (lol!)" "Good video but I have to disagree, I am now fluent in 6 languages because of MT, I'm not going to demonstrate any of these in my comment as I don't want to show off." It stinks to be honest. You've got yourself another subscriber mate and I'll be sure to advise alternatives to MT to others,
Learned f***all but I don't blame Michel
I'm sorry. But i have2 admit MT was is will b my hero in langs knowledge
It seems to me that this guy's problem with the "Michel Thomas Method" is that it is the "Michel Thomas Method", and not some other method he has in mind.
Wow, the comments are in interesting contrast to the video. It seems like MT is worth considering for learning the basics of a new language.
Great teacher !! Love him !! My daughter said :!?
Once I realized that the guy is the native speaker and that I could trust the teacher, it all made sense, hehe. I also wonder if MT always uses what people call the standard forms of a language,
huge mistake that my friend also made. I'm the one speaking the foreign language now!
I'm honestly a little worried Michel Thomas paid some of these commenters LMAO I've bever seen such a disconnect between video and comments
The only reason you wanted the English speaker to shut up and let Mahmood talk is because you already speak the target language.
I would say that the Michel Thomas is absolutely the best method that exists AS AN INTRODUCTION. If you do Michel Thomas for a week and feel that you can speak the language you are mistaken but in only a week you can have the best grounding ever. Then go on to another method, improve your vocabulary and because of having done Michel Thomas you will find the second course a hundred times easier.
I think you're talking complete nonsense. I didn't know anything about Michelle Thomas when I acquired his French course in 2007, but was blown away by the speed and ease at which I learned the structural basics of French when in my entire school life I was unable to do so.
I can only conclude, that, your astonishing hostility to the "Michelle Thomas method", has rather more to do with your own business aspirations than an honest review of these excellent courses.
Sheesh, your whole rant is so ridiculous. Having learnt Spanish with Michel Thomas, I have to assume you are either being disingenuous or plain facetious. Maybe you got off on the wrong foot with Mr Thomas, I don't even remember any celebrity endorsements or persecution tales, I just got on with learning a language after being lucky enough to find it. I sincerely hope that you don't put anyone off with your BS.
i was sad and livid about deceptive this stupid video is! I've not found a language learning method anywhere close to Michel Thomas' !
Pimsleur
@@franchardlelo2023 Not in the same league! I've tried both.
The celebrity endorsements are certainly a major part of his advertising. I don't have an issue with the courses though, not perfect, but pretty good.
I found his Spanish course interesting; not sure whether it's the only one he does himself?
Found him annoying & one of the students was a lot better than the other - is that a common theme so that those finding it difficult know they're not alone?
Was using the MT course for Japanese, but have, at least temporarily, switched to Duolingo as practising the characters is easy there (also trying Greek & learning from a book was taking an age to learn the alphabet!) .
I don't think learning from a native speaker is better than learning from an English speaker who has an excellent command of the foreign language...at best I can hope to sound like the teacher, not the native speaker...there are sounds in Japanese which don't exist in English, so the hope is the teacher has the best compromise.
I assumed that the MT course aims to teach the structure of the language...adding vocabulary should be relatively easy: definitely wouldn't pay for the course!
Got a Pimsleur course for Czech while living in Prague...found it awful...ending up cramming for exams at evening class, which I passed, without feeling I could communicate well (left after six months)
Tried learning German from books initially, but really had to go to evening class to make progress...followed by moving to a German-speaking country.
Learnt French at school (up to 16)...think in the UK they try to give a good grounding in the grammar, with much less emphasis on communicating, but when I came back to it as an adult, found it so much easier than learning German.
Tried to learn as much German as I could at the beginning, thinking I would probably abandon it after six months & hoping I'd learn enough to get by...ended up speaking it fluently, but had I known that was going to happen, would have taken more time to learn it 'properly' from the start - including the gender of nouns!
So, the main lesson is: know why you're learning the language & use a method that's appropriate for your objective....which might include MT or might be simply a few phrases for your first two week holiday there!
Es una buena forma para iniciar a aprender un idioma, después si quieres especializarte estudia gramática, vocabulario, aprende a escuchar, apúntate a una academia y continúa.
I just tried MT French course and its really amazing! I wonder if Mezzo has a conflict of interest here because its so critical of MT while praises the exact ditto copy app Language Transfer. The double standard makes no sense. something seems fishy about this
No disrespect but you have no idea what you're talking about, I personally learnt several languages using Michel Thomas method and then supplemented more vocabs using Memrise, it is the best method I have found for myself and I'm around B2~C1 in 4 languages.
I love Michel Thomas's method.
This poor guy does not understand michel thomas ,michel is not teaching you all of the language he is teaching you the bones of the language
Languagetransfer.net is like Michel Thomas but it's free. Check it out
I strongly disagree! The MT method is excellent for beginners. It breaks down complex concepts into easy-to-understand chunks. While it may not be the only resource you need, it can be a great starting point that can be supplemented with other courses later on. Give it a try, and you'll see the positive impact it can have on your language learning journey! I used it for Italian, Spanish, French and Japaneese and loved it!
This is interesting because I used Michel Thomas on a plane ride to Italy from the USA and when I got there I was actually able to communicate. Having never learned Italian before (but being a pretty good language learner), I was quite impressed and it's interesting because it basically gave me a foundation to build on.
So I totally disagree that it shouldn't be recommended. I think this video kind of undermines your authority on language learning, honestly.
I found the audio slow, tedious, and totally missing emphasis native pronunciation. Maybe it makes you feel like you've learned a lot, but I really didn't find it.
One correction. He mentioned that Modern Standard Arabic isn't really spoken anywhere. Modern Standard Arabic is spoken in Iraq, Kuwait and to some extent in Syria and Jordan and in Arabic countries which don't speak it, it's still widely understood. While the Egyptian dialect is only spoken in Egypt and parts of Sudan and many people in the Arab world have difficulty understanding it.
Arabic was a bad place to start. European languages would have been better in this caee.