French With Michel Thomas Complete Course CD

Michel Thomas has a unique teaching style that gets you immersed in the language immediately

Allow me to get straight to the point. If you are serious about learning French, Spanish, German or Italian, and you have the money to spare, I would advise buying the full 8 hour course straight away. If you buy the 2 hour introductory course first, it will just be a waste of money, because I can guarantee you you will want to buy the full course after listening to it. I'm a Spanish graduate and so Michel's teaching style really intrigues me. It is truly unique and extremely effective. You will find that you will remember almost all of the vocabulary without much effort - compared to a very low retention rate from traditional courses. Michel focuses entirely on the spoken language and some people may find themselves fighting this method at first. That's only natural, because we are trained in school to rely on visual aids to remember things.... vocabulary lists, flash cards, videos, OHPs.... but when you consider how you learnt your mother tongue, you'll realize that our brain is wired up to learn a language in a auditory way. He spells out some of the trickier words, but for the most part you need to think of yourself as a child and absorb all of the information eagerly, not worrying about spellings. You can learn the spellings later, after you have finished the course.... just as a child learns to read and write his native language after he has learnt how to speak it. The format of the course is great; it's very informal. It is a recording of Michel teaching two students who, like you, have little or no prior knowledge of the language. You will feel like you are the third student in the class. It is vital to pause the tape/CD when Michel asks how to say something. Take as much time as you need to think of your answer... he will never ask anything that has not already been fully explained. As a language graduate, I have tried MANY textbooks, tapes, courses, videos, classes.... and I can guarantee you that this is the most effective, natural and stress-free approach to language learning that you will ever come across. At the end of the eight hours, you will find that you have a good, solid working knowledge of the structure of the language on which to build. As for further study, I would advise trying to get hold of a second hand copy of Margarita Madrigal's Magic Key to French (it's out of print now). It uses the same sort of methods as Michel, but you can see the words written down and can practise your own writing skills. Enjoy!

I'm not any good with languages and probably like other people, have always had admiration for those who are. I am a complete beginner, but my wife has studied French before. This course I thought would be basic, but it quickly gets harder. Even so, you are taught easy 'tricks' to get by in French by disk 2. We both found you have to persevere from disk 3 onwards. It takes a bit of thought and many repeats of the lessons to finally 'get it'. There is a Michel Thomas method of 'try not to remember', but we all learn in different ways, and found, yes, I was not remembering. I have to work at getting the best from the lessons by using the revision disks (7&8) and repeating. Writing notes helps visualise the lessons... your not supposed to do this. But this helped me. The concept of feeling you are learning with two other students is very clever as it really works. One student picking up the language quickly, the other less so. You find yourself in between - wanting to catch up, but not wanting to drop down. Reading about Michel Thomas also makes you have a lot of admiration for your tutor. This, for me, spurred me on. He used languages in his involvement during WWII with the French resistance. He was tortured by the Nazis and later was directly involved in the tracing and capture of Nazi war criminals, including those involved with Dachau and Malmedy atrocities. I gave the product 4/5 stars because I felt it was too biased towards English to French, and less French to English. Two weeks in France showed we could speak (enough to get by), but were stumped by any replies! The brain hadn't had enough exercise to hear French and translate - even simple stuff. I'm taking the studies further with a classroom course - to get conversation experience and exercise. Still, I would always recommend this course.

Michel Thomas’ teaching style is certainly different. And if you’re used to CDs that take you through a series of set situations – “in the restaurant”, “in the hotel”, “in the office” etc. – or CD-ROMs that include structured tutorials of French phrases and verbs, then you’re in for a bit of a shock. Because, sounding a bit like a cantankerous and meandering grand-father who’s had a couple too many glasses of wine, his style is to dispense with grammatical niceties, books, notes or even a logical sequence to his teaching, and to simply bully and cajole you into speaking conversational French properly. Structured through questions and answers so that you’re the invisible third student, sitting in there alongside a fairly competent chap and a pretty hopeless lady (bear with me, I didn’t write the script), this is about as close to “one-to-one” tuition as you can get. And it works! Sure, you get annoyed with their faltering repetition but the trick he’s using (which several other reviewers miss the whole point of) is that you end up second-guessing what they should say and, as a result, subconsciously drum into your brain the correct answer. Brilliant! And, alongside this subtle trick, he uses several others to get you there as fast as possible… for example, he explains exactly why & how a huge number of English words are virtually the same in French, just pronounced differently, giving you an instant and relevant vocabulary of over 1,000 words. Don’t kid yourself that it’s a magic solution to speaking French but it’s an extremely useful aid to fluency that a lot of other learning programmes, quite unbelievably, fail to explore and a perfect example of why his teaching method is so simple and effective. No single course can make you fluent in French but if you know the basics and want a much better understanding of what’s said to you and what you need to say to be understood then it’s an invaluable teaching aid. As he would ask, “now how do you say, I want to know how he does it?”…. not sure? Then this course is for you.

Brilliant, must have item .so different to others I’ve tried . And simply the best at explaining the French language

Michel Thomas' method is a great way to learn a language. He starts by convincing you that you already know loads of french words (because English is based on French) and then gradually builds on this knowledge with some simple vocabulary. He makes it seem nearly easy. The two characters on the CD that you hear him teaching are a bit irritating, especially the American lady who has problems with a French accent (she insists on pronouncing 'pas' as 'par'). So anyway, armed with my new found knowledge I trotted off to Paris for a few days and found that I knew bog all French. For a start, real French people speak very quickly and then, horrors or horrors, use words that Michel Thomas doesn't teach you. So you could start a conversation but you couldn't understand the answer. And then if you want to ask something complicated - like why your mobile isn't getting a signal for example - you just don't have enough vocabulary. Also, most French people seem to speak some English and even if you try to speak French will talk to you in English. So it's not easy. So, in short, great course but you need lots of vocabulary and to listen to French people speaking. I am going to try watching French films to see if that works.

I used this course a few years ago when borrowed it from the library and found it very helpful. I am not a new learner of French as I had done A level French some years ago so I cannot comment on how efficient it is for learning an entirely new language. It has certainly been a great help in jogging my memory in terms of grammar and vocabulary. I have not completed the course yet and am probably about half way through it at the moment. Michel Thomas' method means learning a gradual process and there is no formal grammar although grammar points are being absorbed as the learner progresses through the course in a similar way to how a first language is learned. It concentrates on speaking and listening and there is no reading or writing although where necessary spellings of words are given. I read the comments from some other users before buying this course and I admit that some of the phrases and sentences are probably not what would be said in everyday life eg I would like a cup of coffee please. Of course you would just say, a coffee please, but in all fairness there has to be some practice in order for it to become automatic. I would recommend this course to those wanting to revise a language as well as learn a new one. I will definitely be trying a new language using Michel Thomas' methods.

I really wish I took notice at school during French classes but it wasn't to be and now, some years later, I would love to have an understanding to help with holiday conversation etc., As a result I have tried many, many different courses from BBC to Linguaphone and struggled to take on much until I discovered the Michel Thomas series. Michel has a particular method (now it seems adopted by Paul Noble!) that enables the listener to relate back to the english version of certain words and this helps you to build up a fairly useful vocabulary quickly. Michel is a great tutor too making his lessons very enjoyable. Note Michel is not a native Frenchman so there will be an accent present. If you enjoyed this look out for the advanced series as well as the language builder. Be careful though with the numerous versions that have been released (since Michel passed away) as these tend to be re-packaged meaning you can easily either pay too much for an old version (that now commands a premium) or double-dip by buying the same thing twice. Otherwise this is a brilliant series and very highly recommended.

The best.

After taking an adult course in French at the Walt Disney Studios and studying 52 lessons on tape with another series, I still didn't grasp the concept of French like Michel Thomas explains. He uses mnemonic devices to help you remember words such as explaining where the root of the word originated. He also explains guidelines to go by and you can apply these rules 100% to other sentences. A light bulb went off for me when I understood the concepts. I've never been good at English grammar but have a very clear understanding of French sentence structure and how the verb conjugation works now...and he makes it easy and fun to learn!! You want to listen to more. I wish he had intermediate and advanced courses. I'd buy them in a second. After listening to 2 CDs in French, I immediately ordered the German ones as well. It helps if people have had a course in pronunciation first before buying the CDs. The only drawbacks are that the female student is REALLY annoying...she sounds like she smokes about 5 packs of cigs a day and has lost a huge amount of brain cells because of it....Also, he doesn't get into the past and future tense as much as I would have liked....BUT the program is so good and so worth it, you can overlook this after awhile. Thank you Michel!! You saved me!!!

amazing way to learn french, I love it!!!

The day we received in the mail the CD "French with Michel Thomas", my wife began listening to the CDs non-stop. In a matter of days, I did notice improvement with her speech and more confidence in expressing herself. No more then 10 days later, I did witness a huge improvement with her French writing. She just could structure the sentences better. Right away, I ordered the "Michel thomas Advanced French". I wish I had ask for the fast delivery. My wife, a Burmese native, is taking French Classes at the Alliance Francaise in the country we are residing. She has compltd 4 sessions of 10 weeks, with 2 hours classes 3 times a week, not to mention the 2 to 4 hours a day study. Being a French Canadian myself, I have been helping her with her studies from the beginning.The method used by the Alliance is everything but frindly user. I was considering getting a private tutor to help her with her stuies at the Alliance. now we do not think about getting a private tutor. I know what I am about to say might sound corny but Michel is her tutor,at any hours of th eday she wishes to, for a fraction of the price we would have paid. To tell the truth, I was reluctant to purchase the method. The publicitiy did not convince me at all. I thought it was just another advertisement with promises that would fail to deliver. Nevertheless, as there was only one way to find out, I give it a try. Still at the beginning, when I heard Michel voice, with his mild foreign accent (English or else) on the CD, I was not impressed. I also though the method slightly simplistic. However, the resuts I saw with my wife improvements convinced me. Remarks: it would have be nice to know that the 2 CDs from the "Speak French with Michel Thomas" are the first 2 CDs of the "French with Michel Thomas" DELUXE EDITION.

まず、マイケル・トーマス氏が英語をかなりゆっくり話してくれているということです。 レッスンは、トーマス氏が教材と読んでいる二人の生徒に教えるのを聞いていくという形になりますが、 非常にステッブバイステップかつ、実践的で、フランスを最短で話せるようになるメソッドだと思いました。 また、英語とフランス語が本当に似ていることにびっくりすると思います。トーマス氏は、この英語とフランス語の 類似性を利用してフランス語を効果的に学んでいくという方法をとっているので、英語が得意なほど、 学びやすいと思います。