![]() Learners may repeat lessons (or entire CD’s) if they don’t feel comfortable moving on, but nonetheless, less review is usually needed than with traditional textbooks that have vocabulary lists, dialogs, and grammar drills. The teacher takes responsibility to teach in such a manner that learners remember most of the material by the end of the course. Nonetheless, the three courses in this review all review the vocabulary and grammar frequently enough to help you remember.Īs a result, all three courses ask learners not to write anything down, do any homework, or make any effort to try to remember anything. Contrast this with Pimsleur, which uses a Spaced Repetition System to memorize some of the target language, whether you understand it or not. And what you know, you don’t forget.” The approach relies on understanding rather than on memorization. Michel Thomas summarized the philosophy behind this style of teaching: “What you understand, you know. Then, they use the words enough times in the course to remember them. Instead, they can make connections in their minds between tun and do, and between tanzen and dance, with little effort. ![]() Without this information, learners might waste time trying to learn words by mindless memorization or by inventing crazy word associations (called mnemonics). The English word “to do” is tun (pronounced “toon”) in German. The German word for “to dance” is tanzen (pronounced “tantsen”). Let’s apply these two facts to learn two German verbs. The letter d in English is often equivalent to the letter t in German. What do I mean by recognizing cognates? To use German as an example, German verbs in their dictionary form end in -n or -en. I’m using the name Michel Thomas for brevity the series is actually called “The Michel Thomas Method” because Michel is not personally the teacher of many courses in the series, such as Japanese and Russian.Īll three courses have three goals: (1.) To start learners speaking and forming sentences, (2.) to teach the basics of the grammar, and (3.) to teach learners how to recognize cognates when they encounter them in the future, for fast vocabulary growth. Because of this, I’m writing this review now before completing Michel Thomas German. ![]() By that time, my experiences with Paul Noble and Language Transfer might not be fresh in my mind anymore. ![]() Perfect German (which includes the Vocabulary Builder module), 3. However, I realized that it will take a few more months for me to complete all of the Michel Thomas German courses. My plan was to use all three series for German and then write this comparative review. I’ve used Language Transfer for German and I’m now using it for Swahili. I’ve used Michel Thomas (Total and Perfect) for Russian, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and a little bit for German. ![]() Since I don’t get paid for this review, I can do so honestly. My only bias is that I prefer to start learning a foreign language using completely audio courses (after a honeymoon period, which I talked about in an earlier post). These three series all qualify. I like to study in bed with my MP3 player–in the dark, when I wake up in the morning. Since I set my alarm early, this is the best time of day for me to be consistent in my studies. Also, in the summertime after work, I like to lie down on the grass in a park and look up at the trees or the clouds while I study one of these courses. In fact, they are the courses I use myself. I would recommend any one of them as the first or second course for anyone starting to study a foreign language on their own. Michel Thomas, Paul Noble, and Language Transfer courses are completely audio, and they’re all of excellent methodology and good recording quality. ![]()
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