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 Spanish 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: #1976 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-29
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English, Spanish
• 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 )

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 Spanish 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.

About the Author
Michel Thomas had an amazing life. Born in Poland, he spent his early years in Germany and then in France, where he studied psychology at the Sorbonne in Paris. When war broke out, he fought with the Resistance and suffered imprisonment in slave labour camps. At the end of the war he joined the US liberation army and later settled in the US where he established his world-famous language school. For more than 50 years he taught languages to the rich and famous and became the world's most sought-after language teacher.

Customer Reviews

Excellent if you're serious about learning Spanish
I've just completed both this and the advanced course and I think that they are both excellent and achieve very well what they set out to do.

I think that a lot of the criticism of the courses come from people who do not know before they buy them what Michel's methods are about.

These courses will -
- give you a solid grounding in the structure of the Spanish language
- teach American Spanish rather than Spanish Spanish if you get what I mean, though as far as I can tell the differences are mainly ones of pronunciation
- give you a great big boost of confidence after only a very short time; you will feel like you're learning really quickly.

The courses will not -
- give you Spanish that you can use for holidays. There are almost no nouns taught on this course and a limited number of verbs and other words. What it enables you to do is take the knowledge you gain from the course and apply it to new vocabulary. This means that you can then take your learning onto the specific things that you are interested in, rather than learning by rote numerous phrases that you will never use.
- give you the chance to hear native Spanish speakers talk. Having listened to American Spanish on tv programmes since doing the course, it isn't such a big deal, though I can't say the same for Spanish Spanish.

So if you're serious about learning the language and not just looking for a few phrases or the ability to read a menu then this could well be for you. But bear in mind before you buy them that you will need other reference material to take your studies further after you finish, whether it be lists of verbs or vocab or whether, as Michel suggests, you spend 10 minutes a day reading about subjects that interest you (in Spanish of course) and picking up the relevent vocab as you go along. But I'm sure that with any language course, you'd need to do this afterwards anyway.

As for those that can't get past the mouth sounds made by Michel sometimes when he speaks - you're letting a tiny thing make you miss out on a lot.

Terrific

Absolutely terrific, the send of achievement gained after doing this is tremendous, I can now hold sensible conversations with a family member who studied at university in spain. I was thrilled to do this course, and am now doing the advanced one.

Excellent for pronunciation
Just a quick note to cover a point that I think has not been /stressed/ (!) enough in the earlier reviews.

This CD will really help you get your pronunciation correct, which is absolutely vital. With other courses, you may not tell if you are putting the stresses in the right places and pronouncing the verb endings correctly and with enough clarity (e.g. "o" as in "tot" not as in "low" and differentiating clearly between "e" and "a" endings). With other courses you could think you can speak the language and then try it on a Spanish person and just get a "Qué?" in response.

With Michel Thomas, you can hear the other students make the mistakes you are making and Michel corrects them. Repeatedly. Repeatedly. Until. They. Get. It. and hence until you get it.

When I pronounced a word correctly and the rubbish student was still getting it wrong, I actually felt quite pleased with myself.

You may not learn that quickly with MT, but you make sure that the foundations are right.