Michel Thomas
Hi everyone, I've searched the old threads and this man is mentioned briefly, but I have a particular question about his Spanish Courses, as I just picked up the Advanced Course yesterday at my library.
I imagine quite a few of you have experience of Michel, and know that he is Polish, and has made Language Courses for learning French and Italian as well as Spanish. I imagine we also all realise that he doesn't sound like a native speaker, which I would find off-putting if I was learning from scratch and didn't have any other sources.
That out of the way, my question is..
He talks a lot about 'pushing' certain syllables, by which he is showing the students which syllable of a word to emphasise. I think it's a good point but I'm not sure about the end result.
To me, the 'pushed' syllables sound too elongated.
For example, in the Spanish for I speak - hablo - he makes the 'a' sound like the long 'a' in the English word 'Art'. or 'far' but even 'longer'.
So it's almost like 'haaaablo'.
Does anyone else have opinions on this?
Thanks in advance. 
5 Answers
Michel thomas is a legend. great guy. i myself started out with Michel thomas for Spanish, and at around hour 3, decided i wasnt going to learn Spanish in 8 (or 16 for that matter) hours. I switched to the Pimsleur languge learning proggramme which is a lot lot lot longer, and more mundane and doesnt teach you grammar, but because of these things, it is easier to immerse yourself in the language. Each pimsleur lesson is half an hour but that becomes an hour if you are pausing after every question to say the answer, and rewinding when you dont understand. I eventually did all 90. It was very long and difficult. At one point i was doing 2 hours a day. But it helped a lot. 90 hours of learning does not go to waste.
After lesson 90 i have just switched back to Michel THomas. He is very helpful and a very good teacher. I agree he spends too long on pronounciations but I guess we just have to deal with it. His teaching teqnique is the best there is and he helps you understand grammar very well. Its far easier to learn from him then it is to spend hours reading grammar tables.
To conclude i think for my next language i will do Michel Thomas 8 hour basic course first, since Pimsleur doesnt teach you grammar. I will then do Pimsleur I. Then the Michel Thomas advanced course to get the grammar sorted. ANd then top off with Pimsleur II and III.
I think he puts a lot of emphasis on stress because it is very important for understanding. You can hear the male student in the foundation course constantly fecking it up.
It's good that you can hear his mistakes, because you'll be making the same ones again.. the problem is he makes the same ones over and over and over so I ended up learning them. They should have let him study in between lessons, the method clearly wasn't for him.
The only reason it sounds so unnatural is that they're speaking so painfully slowly.
Our Irish teachers used to get us to practically cough up our "ch" sound, so that in speech we would do it gently, you have to exaggerate these things to get people to do it even a little!
Anyway I can't concentrate on that course. If I put it on in the background while doing something my mind wanders off and if i sit down and focus on it I fall a sleep every time. I need to see pictures and words in front of my face or my mind won't stay put. If you can learn by listening, this is the course for you. not me!
I agree.
I am just finishing the foundation course, and the whole "pushing" thing is annoying. I can't always tell the difference when words are repeated. Some words sound quite ridiculous when they "over pronounce" them. I suppose it's a good way of learning the pronunciation.
I find Thomas a little pedantic, he seems almost annoyed or irritated in some parts of the lessons.
Overall, I have found it quite helpful, and am considering buying the next set in the future.
I agree with fontanero: Michael Thomas is quite annoying.
I highly recommend Pimsleur's Spanish CDs II, III, and IV. I found them at my library, downloaded them to my iPod, and listen to them as a refresher course. They have a lot of useful phrases and by repeating them aloud you get great pronunciation practice.
I don't want to knock Michel Thomas, I was really wanting to check on this whole pronunciation of his with the 'pushing'
I've listened to 3 CD's of the Advanced Course now, and it's fun trying to beat his students to the answers, especially as I don't always catch what Michel said in English on first listening. (The guy can be pretty fast sometimes but the woman is normally rather slow and hesitant.)
I've definitely picked up a few very helpful insights into grammar but glad I borrowed rather than paid out the cash for it. My daughter thinks it's crazy to feature learners on the tape because they make mistakes, but I do trust him in his teaching method.
Looking forward to getting hold of Pimsleur now.
