Product Description

Michel Thomas took the language-learning world by storm.
With no books, no memorising and no homework, Michel teaches the basic grammar of the language painlessly. Using the method he perfected over 50 years, he shares his secret with the world - and 'makes it simple' (Sunday Times).
In only a matter of hours, he gives you a comprehensive grasp of the structure of the language, enabling you to communicate with confidence. The present, future, conditional and past tenses are covered, and you are taught to think about the ideas that you are trying to communicate, rather than to translate words slavishly.
He points out the similarities of the vocabulary in English and French and gives you the tools to guess the words you do not know, or think you do not know.
Join two students as they learn in real time. Become the third member of the class and experience the excitement of learning a language as if by magic!

This new edition has one, very significant, new feature – an additional ‘Review’ CD. All the main teaching points have been lifted from the Foundation (8-hour) course and are contained on just 2 CDs. The student hears Michel teaching a specific point, there is a pause which allows time for the student to give his/her response to Michel’s prompt, followed by Michel giving the correct response. If the student has struggled or given an incorrect answer, s/he can use the index in the accompanying booklet to locate the area of the main course where the specific language point was being taught in depth and can return to the main course to work through the relevant section again, quickly and efficiently. It can also be used very successfully by those coming back to the course after a lapse of time, either to check how much they have retained or as a quick revision tool. Only Michel’s words and phrases are on the new CD, so the course is summarised succinctly and with a new, snappy pace.
Finally, the new edition is repackaged, with an up-to-the minute cover treatment and robust DVD-type cases inside a rigid card slip case, to ensure that the CDs remain damage-free and are easy to access and use.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2884 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-29
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: French, English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Audio CD

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"

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 )

Synopsis
Michel Thomas took the language-learning world by storm. With no books, no memorising and no homework, Michel teaches the basic grammar of the language painlessly. Using the method he perfected over 50 years, he shares his secret with the world - and 'makes it simple' - ("Sunday Times"). In only a matter of hours, he gives you a comprehensive grasp of the structure of the language, enabling you to communicate with confidence. The present, future, conditional and past tenses are covered, and you are taught to think about the ideas that you are trying to communicate, rather than to translate words slavishly. He points out the similarities of the vocabulary in English and French and gives you the tools to guess the words you do not know, or think you do not know. Join two students as they learn in real time.Become the third member of the class and experience the excitement of learning a language as if by magic! This new edition has one, very significant, new feature - an additional 'Review' CD. All the main teaching points have been lifted from the Foundation (8-hour) course and are contained on just 2 CDs.

The student hears Michel teaching a specific point, there is a pause which allows time for the student to give his/her response to Michel's prompt, followed by Michel giving the correct response. If the student has struggled or given an incorrect answer, s/he can use the index in the accompanying booklet to locate the area of the main course where the specific language point was being taught in depth and can return to the main course to work through the relevant section again, quickly and efficiently. It can also be used very successfully by those coming back to the course after a lapse of time, either to check how much they have retained or as a quick revision tool.Only Michel's words and phrases are on the new CD, so the course is summarised succinctly and with a new, snappy pace. Finally, the new edition is repackaged, with an up-to-the minute cover treatment and robust DVD-type cases inside a rigid card slip case, to ensure that the CDs remain damage-free and are easy to access and use.

Customer Reviews

BRILLIANT
I learnt more from the first CD than from five years at school. Without doubt this is the easiest and most effective way to learn French. I recently returned from France on a family holiday. I certainly had more confidence than ever before when speaking French.
You are advised to pause the CD and try things out for yourself before the students attempt it, but to be honest you can usually get there before them. I've used the CDs in the car and when out jogging, with no need to pause. If I had to find a groan it would be at the 'not so good' student. Sometimes you get the feeling that she isn't listening and is in her own little world. There are times when I think Michel is thinking the same thing about her.
If you're serious about learning French then this is the only place to start.

A very very clever man indeed
Let me start with on a good point and say that michels technique is a true work of art
Its only when you have listened to the tapes a few times(and you will need to in order to completely digest it) that you realise how clever he is at making his point.
It really is as close as you can get to painless language tuition.
When I had ingested this course i was convinced that I could speek fluent french,however it is only the introductory course so you will be needing the avanced course after.Which is also exellent,and much more involved.
Now for the bad bit:
I can not for the life of me understand how Michel could have let the course be published with the female american student!!
SHE IS A MORON.
I have never in my whole life been forced to listen to someone as irritating as her.i dont even know her,yet i found myself wanting to strangle her.
It is a shame because she did make it hard to listen to after not a very long time.In fact I edited her out of my cds,now the course is more like the Michel Thomas language builder, which I actually prefered,you can only listen to someone elses mistakes for so long before they start to get annoying especialy as you are improving at the same time.
Having said that I still got a great deal from this course and I highly recommend it.

I want to recommend this particular course
This audio course is very important for someone who wants to learn to speak French. Many of the other materials on offer may not be very helpful because they seem to start at a level too difficult, like trying to reach the bottom rung of a ladder and finding it too high, the student is likely to give up. This course fills this very crucial gap and if you have tried before to learn a foreign language and decided you cannot quite make it, then this is the course for you! I was delighted with it for making something achievable that was before potentially too difficult for me. There are minor criticisms which you can pick up from reading some of the other reviews but I would say this is not the important part. What is important is that this course is a significant breakthrough and it is exciting to be enabled to speak French!