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Review
"Ideal for any business traveller who needs to be able to get around confidently." (Sunday Business )
"Five minutes into the first CD, you already feel like you're winning." (Time Out )
"Michel Thomas is a precious find indeed." (The Guardian )
"Thomas makes it simple" (Sunday Times )
"Hugely inspiring" (Red )
"Michel's methods will teach you effectively and easily" (Daily Star )
"His logical, structured approach engages with your intellect." (The Telegraph Weekend ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
"Five minutes into the first CD, you already feel like you're winning." (Time Out )
"Michel Thomas is a precious find indeed." (The Guardian )
"Thomas makes it simple" (Sunday Times )
"Hugely inspiring" (Red )
"Michel's methods will teach you effectively and easily" (Daily Star )
"His logical, structured approach engages with your intellect." (The Telegraph Weekend ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"Ideal for any business traveller who needs to be able to get around confidently." (Sunday Business )
"A great way to learn; it's fast and it lasts". (The Daily Telegraph )
"Five minutes into the first CD, you already feel like you're winning." (Time Out )
"Michel Thomas is a precious find indeed." (The Guardian )
"Thomas makes it simple" (Sunday Times )
"Michel's methods will teach you effectively and easily" (Daily Star )
"Hugely inspiring" (Red )
"A great way to learn; it's fast and it lasts". (The Daily Telegraph )
"Five minutes into the first CD, you already feel like you're winning." (Time Out )
"Michel Thomas is a precious find indeed." (The Guardian )
"Thomas makes it simple" (Sunday Times )
"Michel's methods will teach you effectively and easily" (Daily Star )
"Hugely inspiring" (Red )
"Excellent for learning ... This entirely audio course is easy to use and quickly results in some useful ability in the new language. Great for the car."
(Adventure Travel )"Moving along at a relaxed, slow pace, punctuated by amusing anecdotes and jokes from the teacher, the new words, phrases and language rules are gently introduced and reinforced through subtle repetition without ever being tedious. In fact, despite a distinct emphasis on non-work, the course proves very effective and enjoyable, and its format is ideal for learning anywhere you like. So, if you only want to learn to speak the language, this course is highly recommended."
(Top Real Travel Product, Real Travel )
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
58 of 58 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Michel Thomas is almost as good a language teacher as he is a boaster, and that is saying a lot! Don't be put off by the boasting - this course really has a lot to offer, despite some serious flaws. I'll list the main strengths and drawbacks, as they seemed to me.
Strengths
1 Thomas concentrates on structures, especially the verbs in their various tenses. We really do learn very quickly how the language works.
2 He teaches these structures quite systematically, despite his apparently rambling style.
3. He explains things simply and clearly.
4. He involves us all the time - there is no passive listening.
5. And we really do (OK, I really do) remember what he has taught us.
Drawbacks
1. His Spanish accent is not good - especially the way he stretches out stressed vowels. Every native Spanish speaker I've heard makes them short and sharp. This course needs to be supplemented for pronunciation by recordings of native speakers. But this is not as big a problem as it might seem. Spanish pronunciation is not difficult - above all, the relationship between pronunciation and spelling is incomparably more simple and consistent than in English.
2. His teaching method consists entirely of getting us to translate sentences, which he provides, from English to Spanish. There is no practice in listening to Spanish, no conversation in Spanish, and indeed no opportunity to produce Spanish speech of one's own. But I find it much easier to go on to practice and engage in conversation and speech production now that I have Thomas's basic structures firmly in my mind.
3. The vocabulary we learn is very limited. Again, this needs to be supplemented from other sources - such as phrasebooks. But the phrasebooks are much more useful in the context of the structures we have learnt from Thomas.
4. Thomas teaches Latin American Spanish. This is not in itself a flaw, and he does mention some of the differences between this variety and that of most of Spain - eg in the pronunciation of the soft 'c'. But he omits to point out that in Spain (unlike Latin America), verbs have a second-person intimate form in the plural(with vosotros), parallel to the second-person intimate form in the singular (with tu). Thomas uses the 'ustedes' form for all situations in the plural, intimate as well as polite, without mentioning, let alone teaching, the 'vosotros' form.
5. He doesn't cover all the tenses and moods in this course - particularly the subjunctive, which is left for the 'Advanced' course that builds on this one, and is even better. (Avoid his 'Language Builder' course, though, which is difficult to use and adds little or nothing to this one.)
6. Finally, many people have been irritated or worse by the male student on the recordings, who is described by several reviewers in rather derogatory terms. In fact, he seems to me to be every bit as quick a learner of structures as the female student, though he unquestionably has problems with his pronunciation. (My guess is that he visualises the written word from Thomas's pronunciation, then tries to 'read' that written word in his mind, rather than directly copying the sounds that he has heard.) But this really need not and should not be allowed get in one's way.
All in all, then, this course is only a beginning to one's study of Spanish. However, I think it is an excellent beginning.
Strengths
1 Thomas concentrates on structures, especially the verbs in their various tenses. We really do learn very quickly how the language works.
2 He teaches these structures quite systematically, despite his apparently rambling style.
3. He explains things simply and clearly.
4. He involves us all the time - there is no passive listening.
5. And we really do (OK, I really do) remember what he has taught us.
Drawbacks
1. His Spanish accent is not good - especially the way he stretches out stressed vowels. Every native Spanish speaker I've heard makes them short and sharp. This course needs to be supplemented for pronunciation by recordings of native speakers. But this is not as big a problem as it might seem. Spanish pronunciation is not difficult - above all, the relationship between pronunciation and spelling is incomparably more simple and consistent than in English.
2. His teaching method consists entirely of getting us to translate sentences, which he provides, from English to Spanish. There is no practice in listening to Spanish, no conversation in Spanish, and indeed no opportunity to produce Spanish speech of one's own. But I find it much easier to go on to practice and engage in conversation and speech production now that I have Thomas's basic structures firmly in my mind.
3. The vocabulary we learn is very limited. Again, this needs to be supplemented from other sources - such as phrasebooks. But the phrasebooks are much more useful in the context of the structures we have learnt from Thomas.
4. Thomas teaches Latin American Spanish. This is not in itself a flaw, and he does mention some of the differences between this variety and that of most of Spain - eg in the pronunciation of the soft 'c'. But he omits to point out that in Spain (unlike Latin America), verbs have a second-person intimate form in the plural(with vosotros), parallel to the second-person intimate form in the singular (with tu). Thomas uses the 'ustedes' form for all situations in the plural, intimate as well as polite, without mentioning, let alone teaching, the 'vosotros' form.
5. He doesn't cover all the tenses and moods in this course - particularly the subjunctive, which is left for the 'Advanced' course that builds on this one, and is even better. (Avoid his 'Language Builder' course, though, which is difficult to use and adds little or nothing to this one.)
6. Finally, many people have been irritated or worse by the male student on the recordings, who is described by several reviewers in rather derogatory terms. In fact, he seems to me to be every bit as quick a learner of structures as the female student, though he unquestionably has problems with his pronunciation. (My guess is that he visualises the written word from Thomas's pronunciation, then tries to 'read' that written word in his mind, rather than directly copying the sounds that he has heard.) But this really need not and should not be allowed get in one's way.
All in all, then, this course is only a beginning to one's study of Spanish. However, I think it is an excellent beginning.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This is an excellent, confidence building introduction to Spanish with a great teaching technique. There are many good reviews by other contributors to read but I like two in particular; one is entitled "Michel Thomas - Learning Through Understanding" and the other is "He should have ditched the English guy". I agree entirely with them both and do not wish to repeat what they already say very well but would only wish to emphasise two things:-
1. The male student is an absolute tin eared, hesitant, stammering buffoon who, four hours into the lesson, still can't get even the most basic pronunciation correct. A lot of time is wasted trying to get this berk to say things correctly and if you want to repeat the early lessons as a refresher you might well find it very frustrating waiting for him to get it right. It rather spoiled the course for me. The female student is entirely normal!
2. There is very little vocabulary so you will still need a phrase book and a dictionary.
1. The male student is an absolute tin eared, hesitant, stammering buffoon who, four hours into the lesson, still can't get even the most basic pronunciation correct. A lot of time is wasted trying to get this berk to say things correctly and if you want to repeat the early lessons as a refresher you might well find it very frustrating waiting for him to get it right. It rather spoiled the course for me. The female student is entirely normal!
2. There is very little vocabulary so you will still need a phrase book and a dictionary.
61 of 64 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Like many other reviewers, I would agree that Michel Thomas gives you a clear feel of how Spanish works,he gives you confidence to try those long sentences for which he is famous,and amazingly what he teaches does seem to stick. It is great for the car or the ironing, with a nice slow pace, and so plenty of thinking time. Joy of joys there is no jingly jangly music to divide the sections.
There are some downsides. As with many other reviewers, I want to throttle the English guy ( and I think Michel does as well), whereas the girl is a good role model for the course. What it means is that you are paying for a fair amount of silence,or listening for the 10th time for this man to say "puedo" correctly. I found some of Michel's meanderings into the history of English a bit boring( because I'd already heard them on the French c.d.) Another thing to be aware of is that somewhere along the line some serious vocacabulary learning will need to be done, and that is not provided in this course.
There are some downsides. As with many other reviewers, I want to throttle the English guy ( and I think Michel does as well), whereas the girl is a good role model for the course. What it means is that you are paying for a fair amount of silence,or listening for the 10th time for this man to say "puedo" correctly. I found some of Michel's meanderings into the history of English a bit boring( because I'd already heard them on the French c.d.) Another thing to be aware of is that somewhere along the line some serious vocacabulary learning will need to be done, and that is not provided in this course.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Spanish the easy way
I bought this to help me with my spanish language. Find it amazingly easy to understand and it helps with the everyday language required.
Published 1 month ago by spanish doll
Gives confidence and fluency
I will just add my brief opinions to the detailed reviews already on the site. I I learned quickly and easily with Michel Thomas whose lessons are classroom-style with two... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Doc Barbara
Great easy & enjoyable method.
I studied Spanish for five years, thirty years ago for my Leaving Certificate. It is my understanding that they are the equivalent to the UK, A Levels? Read more
Published 7 months ago by HiFiMan
Better and more beneficial than my 1 year university course
After a year of learning Spanish at university, I went to Spain and lived with a family for a few weeks and just could not communicate at all. Read more
Published 8 months ago by crafedog
Great introduction to learning Spanish
Michel Thomas foundation course: Spanish is a great way to start studying a language.
Michel Thomas' method is not your typical listening tape method of "The word for... Read more
Michel Thomas' method is not your typical listening tape method of "The word for... Read more
Published 8 months ago by JP
Great
This is a great product for anyone who wants to learn Spanish-for business, pleasure or other-but just does not know where to start. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Mink Trapper
Michel Thomas Review
A genuinely great way to make a quick start to learning a language. I found that it gave me confidence within the first hour and it's a fun and easy way to learn.
Published 10 months ago by Richmonk
The best language course that I have come accross
The Michel Thomas method really works for me. It really made me feel like I was learning at a fast pace. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Stuart
Perfect if you are serious about learning the language
I've been evangelical about Michel Thomas since getting the Spanish discs in 2004. I've subsequently been through several of his offerings but Spanish is the one I feel best... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Mr. N. R. F. Smith
Awesome Spanish Course!
This is the second spanish course I purchased. Within 2 hours, I understood the basics and am now able to construct sentences and communicate.. Read more
Published 13 months ago by explore-uruguay.com
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