Customer Reviews

French with Michel Thomas

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

But this CD was remarkable. I was actually able to make sentences and use them after the first listen! Initially I purchased the 2 CD set and listened to them a few times. Two weeks later, I was in Paris, asking for things at Restaurants in actual French! I couldn't believe it. My sister met me there, and kept saying "when did you learn to speak French?" (The only problem was that they started to answer me in French and I got a little nervous...but I still could pick out some words). My confidence level increased tremendously with this lesson.

One of the things that kept me going with Mr. Thomas was that it's pretty fun (as far as learning a language goes.) Yes, the girl in the tape is really annoying, but I laughed out loud when she got scolded a couple of times. I kept listening because I thought she might make another mistake...

Last month I purchased the 2 CD set of French by Michel Thomas and, like other self taught languages I have tried, I was a little leary about this one being any different, but I was happily surprised to be speaking basic sentences so easily! (and so fast)! I did so well with the 2-CD set, that I ordered the 8-CD set!

But, like another reviewer, I too found the female student to be "tres" annoying. It was like she couldn't retain anything that she had just learned. I didn't know if she was acting stupid on purpose or if it was to get the listener to participate more by almost shouting back the answers. Valuable time is wasted on correcting her responses.

Also...
If anyone out there can help me with the "ground rule" of "you're trying to remember...please don't"... I would really appreciate it. How do you learn anything if you don't try to remember? Help me to understand what Mr. Thomas means. Merci!

Overall, I am so pleased with this series that I ordered the set of Spanish CD's, too!

Buy the Michel Thomas' languages on CD... no one will be disapointed!!!!!!

At first I was put off by the informality of Thomas's conversation with his two students, but I stayed with the entire series (more than once) and came to appreciate Thomas's teaching style. He is at his best with his memory devices, especially associating the French vocabulary with certain English words, without relying too heavily upon tricky cognates. His explanations of French grammatical construction are both helpful and interesting for those of us who want to know why something is said this way or that.

What is missing? Listening. Virtually every exercise begins with "How do you say...." and never "Listen to this..." Thus the student or traveler would do well to supplement his/her study of French with a language program that puts as much emphasis on understanding as speaking.

I recently purchased this 8 CD set and I love it. I do have some experience with the French language but I believe this would work well even for beginners. The method is to simply engage the learner as if they were the fourth student in a conversational approach to learning the spoken language. This method will not help you learn written French or grammar rules etc. but it will help you learn good basic spoken French. This is a relaxed style which eliminates memorization of rules and replaces it a natural learning style similar to how you would learn the langauge in a natural setting. I strongly recommnend this method. A very good product.

I thought I was an unteachable language student. I have learned more French in one and a half hours from these CD's than my 5 years of Spanish at school. This is a fantastic course and it is fun. I am finding myself really wanting to do another lesson. I have never had as much enjoyment at learning anything prior to this. I am a regular Amazon book customer and most things I buy are great, but this is the first time I've felt compelled to write a review. That's how good it is. As for the previous reviewer who says that there all these conditions for use, I do not drive and I easiy learn sitting and listening at my kitchen table. My prouniciation of foreign words has always been very poor. My previous language experience was almost as if I have never had taken a language course. The only sentence I've retained is "Mi casa is su casa" I am understanding pronunciation better than I ever thought I could. It sounds right. I think the beauty is that they are CD's and you have the opporunity to repeat them as much as you need to. The conditions for use are whatever works for vous. In fact as I type this now several of the French words are comming to mind as I type the English words and this only after learning the first two CD's!

I thought I was an unteachable language student. I have learned more French in one and a half hours from these CD's than my 5 years of Spanish at school. This is a fantastic course and it is fun. I am finding myself really wanting to do another lesson. I have never had as much enjoyment at learning anything prior to this. I am a regular Amazon book customer and most things I buy are great, but this is the first time I've felt compelled to write a review. That's how good it is. As fof the previous reviewer who says that there all these conditions for use, I do not drive and I easiy learn sitting and listening at my kitchen table . I think the conditions for use are whatever works for vous. In fact as I type this now several of the French words are comming to mind as I type the English words and this only after learning the first two CD's!

I have tried several audio products for learning french in my car while I drive. This is the only one that leaves you really thinking about what you have learned and trying new phrases on your own. The other tapes were boring or worse. I only wish there were an advanced course. The informal "tu" form of you is not covered and must now learn this on my own. I would love to continue to learn with Michel Thomas. I would buy a second set of 8 CD's if they were available.

I used this CD set to learn enough French to be more than comfortable during a business trip to Paris. Michel's approach to learning French was so easy and fun. I just wish there was another level after this one. I'd buy it!

I have to change my review now. I ordered the Pimsleur Quick and Simple French and I found it to be lacking. Michel Thomas is a much better set and he gives explanations of where words come from and why they are used so you understand the origins of the language better. I felt like a parrot with the Pimsleur CD's. I'll put up with the annoying students because I found Michel's method much easier to learn with.

prior to listening to these 8 CDs, i had a very rudimentary ability to communicate in french, based on 2 years in jr high school (>30 years ago), along with some stuff i've picked up in france. now i have a much better grounding in the basics. the instructor does a good job of introducing vocabulary right away mainly by using cognates, and each lesson builds on the previous one so that by the end of the course, one is able to cobble together a variety of tourist-quality phrases.

annoyances: the instructor is very crabby... think of judge wapner with a german accent. he cows the two students repeatedly.... almost berating them instead of encouraging them. and speaking of the students, the male is pretty sharp, but the female is rather dizzy, and takes up a lot of valuable lesson time vacillating between potential answers (most of them wrong). also, the instructor uses a bunch of silly mnemonic devices best reserved for children. for example, "ce n'est pas"... he says "snake... snay pas... think of the snake" and for "dire", he says, "it's a very dear word", and so on, ad nauseam. it's embarrassing for an adult to have to listen to that jive... at least it was for me.

i also would have benefitted from a text accompaniment. many of the verb conjugations are still not clear, because there are many silent letters in french. he spells a few out, but only a very few.

after i had gotten through the first three or four CDs, i knew that i would need supplemental material, so i picked up "essential french grammar", "berlitz french grammar" and an exercise book... can't recall the name right now, it's pretty basic, but allows me to exert the old cerebellum a bit, and re-inforce what i learned, by the action of writing.

i assigned this course three stars because it did not live up to the promise espoused by several other reviewers here (for me at least). it's good for the basics, but that's about all. now i need to figure out where to go next for a more thorough course that includes a mix of listenable material for the daily commute, re-inforced by book study and written exercises, along with idiomatic phrases. classroom study is out of the question. anybody got any suggestions?