Product Description

This recording follows on from the Foundation (8-hour) all-audio course which took the language-learning world by storm.
With no books, no memorising and no homework, Michel Thomas 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 teaches what it takes years to cover by conventional methods, giving his students a comprehensive working knowledge of the language – all the tenses are taught and practised; the position of pronouns is made easy, and Michel spends some time on the problems of translation, instilling in the students 'an enhanced awareness of their own language'. And he does all this effortlessly, 'effectively and easily' (Daily Star).
By the end of the Advanced course Michel has covered ALL the structures and tenses of 'A' level and beyond. Grammar points and tenses only touched upon in the Foundation (8-hour) course are expanded to give the student a complete knowledge of the structure of the entire language.
He points out the similarities of the vocabulary in English and German and gives his students the tools to guess the words they do not know, or think they 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 5-hour Advanced course and are contained on this one CD. 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.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21241 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-29
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• 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 )

"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 )

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.

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Customer Reviews

Moving to more complex conversation
The advanced course is a direct extension of the Foundation course using exactly the same question-and-answer format which focuses on grammatical building blocks and even uses the same two learners. Hard to say how it would work as stand-alone package. I've studied German off and on for years, and most of the grammar-based teaching was dreadful. This is to me a more natural way of dealing with more complex areas. The first of the four CDs is relatively undemanding and revises some of the first course. Midway through CD2, though the complexity goes up a notch with mind-bending phrases of the variety "You could have come with us". This is the sort of construction you do have to learn in natural conversation, but I suspect it will take quite a few listens before it clicks. After this challenge the course settles down and a whole range of helpful grammar snippets are covered, including quite a bit of sneaked in subjunctive. I'm not sure about Michael's bold claim that you know all the major structures of the language by the end - gender, adjectives, cases, prepositions and so on are not really covered. I believe MT works best as a supplement to traditional courses and doubt it fits with modern 'theory' but it is undoubtedly effective in what it tries to do.

The grass is greener on the other side.
What immediately struck me about this course following on from the Foundation Course was the sound quality. It's not that it's bad in any way, but my initial reaction was that Michel Thomas and his two guests were sitting some distance back from the mike.
The format of the course remains the same: Michel Thomas provides a series of explanations and an example sentence, followed by prompts when he expects the two learners to ideally answer correctly - if not he'll provide further elaboration. He makes no secret that grammar is the fundamental essence of the audio tracks, and he hints at this again on the fourth (of the five) discs, when he states that "all the open doors into the language...and into reading" have now been opened for learners.
Although shorter than the Foundation Course, the Advanced version manages to cover more ground - primarily because his two present guests are considerably more knowledgeable than his earlier learners. However it's obvious that this is a grammar course when you realize that there are some things which haven't been mentioned before in either Foundation or Advanced courses - especially vocabulary and some verbs. Clearly you'll need access to a dictionary, at the very least for spelling.
Unlike the previous course Michel Thomas is a lot less indulgent with variable usage on the part of his two guests. For example there he tolerated the placement of the word 'bald' (rendered as 'soon' in English); now he's a lot more insistent that such "time elements" usually come earlier within a sentence. For me this got rid of most of my earlier frustration, which was also exacerbated by the distracting sighs of his male student.
Although using non-native speakers definitely makes this course accessible, listening to other courses such as those produced by Pimsler makes it evident that things are quite different in real time. However if you've also had a negative cultural experience with high-school German in this country - in my case in south London - you'll not be bothered, especially if you're seeking rapid acquisition of some basics of the spoken language and more confidence with the written form.

How NOT to teach German
I would like to write something positive about this curious recording.
Based on old socio-linguistics (circa: 1960) theories of teaching a language, long forgotten as ineffective, M.Thomas perseveres.

THE pronunciation of "students" is appalling, and not improved at all;
from CD1 to CD 4 ( for example: the course's favorite word: zurueck, pronounced with Z instead of correct pronunciation: ts) is just an example. Many mistakes are uncorrected by M.Thomas. The bizarre terms he uses "handle" "divingboard" do nothing-at all- to explain simple grammar points (auxiliary verbs, and past participle respectively).
Avoid, (or buy for your German friends to have a good laugh).