Customer Reviews

Italian with Michel Thomas

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

 

 

This course is simply a recording of a class with Michel Thomas including real student responses that are often incorrect and badly pronounced. I cannot believe that they left these students on the program!

There are many problems with this course. The responses are given by non-native speakers so you do not get a good model of pronunciation. The responses are often wrong, leaving you with an incorrect model ringing in your ears. A lot of time is wasted waiting for a student to correct themselves or realize their own mistake. This time could better have been spent giving a correct response using a native speaker and presenting additional material. On recording three, in particular, things get quite confused with "won't" and "want" and "will," partially do to Mr. Thomas's accent making "won't" sound like "want." The students get confused here, as will anyone listening to this program. The female student on the tape is simply annoying. Mr. Thomas contradicts himself several times. He emphasizes how often Italian uses the present tense when English uses the future, then spends a long time drilling on the Italian future tense, completely confusing the issue.

The best beginner course is Accelerated Italian by Colin Rose, which I believe is only distributed by Nightingale Connant. It is more expensive, but well worth it. Next would be the Pimlseur series, and then the Living Language series. You should look at these alternatives and stay way from Michel Thomas.

The course is great, but the girl in the class annoys me with her accent.

Pop the first CD of "Italian With Michel Thomas" in your player, and the first full sentence you will learn is "E' possibile" (It is possible). That message is constantly reinforced, and soon you find yourself saying "E' possibile per me parlare Italiano," and much more. Such is the expertise of Michel Thomas.

As a person whose first foreign language was a non-European one (Japanese), I've tried to teach myself a Romance language and always got bogged down in the grammar. After purchasing and listening to the CDs, I now have a very good introduction to Italian and a desire to learn more.

The course is marketed as one with "no repetition, no drills, and no homework," but it's not entirely accurate to say that there's no repetition in the course. It's just that, in this course, the repetition is expertly woven into the course. You're given a variety of sentences, but each new sentence builds on knowledge attained in previous sentences, and patterns you learn in CD #1 are reinforced in CD #7. So you repeat, but it doesn't feel like rote memorization.

The course emphasizes understanding and making oneself understood, so it emphasizes grammar at the expense of vocabulary. In summary, expect to supplement this course with other material for more vocabulary and verb forms. But, in 8 hours, you will probably have enough success with Italian to motivate you learn more. I certainly have. Grazie, Michel!

This isn't a bad adjunct to another learning course (I would highly recommend the Pimsleur Method), but although you are certainly drilled in elaborate verb structures, you can finish the eight-disc course without even finding out the Italian for "yes" and "no," how to order a meal, or how to ask for the bathroom. (Oddly enough, for all the insistance on the correct form of the verbs, Michel Thomas allows his two-person class to say "Yes" instead of "Si" as they struggle to respond. And, frankly, his own accent does get irritating. It is sometimes a strain to understand his English (at one point, the female student apologizes for misunderstanding him; well, so did I), which makes you wonder about his Italian pronunciation, as he is not a native speaker. If you already know some Italian, or intend to supplement this with a LOT of other studying, this is probably a good buy, but if you simply want to function while traveling, knowing a few more Italian pleasantries and everyday words will get you farther than verb tenses you will probably never be called upon to use, unless you want to live there - in which case, you will still need a lot more study.

There are lots of things wrong with these CD's. The method is infantile and superficial. The accent of the teacher is horrible; one wonders whether he ever set foot in Italy. The price is expensive for what you get. It's hard to find a reason to buy these.

This is a good way to begin learning you will learn some phrases and be forced to think in Italian. It is an easy way to pick up the language. The problem in my opinion is that you don,t really learn enough grammar, and by the time you've finished the 8 cd set you still feel you have a lot to learn. Having said that I'm glad I bought this set. I still listen to it when I want to take a break from the more challenging ultimate Italian by living language.

Terrible product.
No native Italian speakers. Students on CD make frequent mistakes emprinting incorrect phrases on your brain.
Lessons are disorganized, follow no pattern, and teach isolated impractical phrases.

Eight profoundly irritating CDs of three way conversations out of left field (the first thing I need to learn in Italian would probably be "where is the hotel?", not "it is not possible for me that way"). Each person on the CD has a different accent, adding to the confusion, and the intermittent beeps (you are instructed to hit the pause button and form an answer every time you hear this beep) is enough to make you want to tear your hair out.

i listened to these cd's twice and then went to italy. people understood me and i could understand them!

I bought the Michel Thomas 8 CD set not knowing what to expect. Everything I read said that it was a unique learning experience. I must confess that I have never tried to learn a language with a cd or cassette before so I do not have anything to compare my learning to, but after the first day I was able to say a dozen complete sentences that are useful in everyday conversation. In fact, I only listened to the first three tracks of eleven on the first cd! Like I stated earlier, I have no experience with other language learning audio aids, but from what I have heard about the other standard learning methods there would be no way that I could formulate complete sentences after only one day of practice.

The learning method is truly unique and it does work. I cannot wait to see (and hear) how I am doing a month from now!