Michel Thomas French

[Psy]

As a total newbie to French, I've so-far found this course to be an amazingly comfortable way to start picking up the fundamental grammar and vocabulary of the language. I'm perfectly aware that there are no native speakers in the course, and that one cannot develop an authentic accent by means of only these lessons. However, 2 discs in and I'm already amazed at the complexity of the sentences being taught-- Using Pimsleur, for example, I wouldn't have learned "where are you from?" But with this course I'm already quite comfortable-- in the same duration-- with "what kind of reservation would you like tonight?" Anyone here finished the full program?

[andy987s]

I like the Thomas discs, especially his method for teaching grammer. I still remember the "THERE IS NO ISing OR AMing IN FRENCH!" in his emphatic way. However I think I need to to the text as well, and maybe even write it to really get things to sink in. So, I'm just trying out the new iphone app fronm FP101 which looks very comprehensive.

[joeyharris]

As a total newbie to French, I've so-far found this course to be an amazingly comfortable way to start picking up the fundamental grammar and vocabulary of the language. I'm perfectly aware that there are no native speakers in the course, and that one cannot develop an authentic accent by means of only these lessons. However, 2 discs in and I'm already amazed at the complexity of the sentences being taught-- Using Pimsleur, for example, I wouldn't have learned "where are you from?" But with this course I'm already quite comfortable-- in the same duration-- with "what kind of reservation would you like tonight?" Anyone here finished the full program?

Michel Thomas himself is the native speaker in his French course. You can develop a perfectly authentic accent by imitating Michel and learning how NOT to pronounce from the two students (the male is not bad, but the female doesn't have a good accent, this is on purpose just as in a real class you would have such differences).

I have completed the Foundation and will start on the Advanced course lessons soon. I really like this course. I was skeptical, but am surprised at how rapidly and effectively his method works. It is especially helpful for naturally and effectively assimilating the various tenses of verbs, the various particles (e.g., "We gave it to them there."), and natural speech and pronunciation (n' instead of ne and l' instead of le or la).

[Psy]

Wow, it's been a little while since I've popped onto this forum-- mainly because French is on the back burner as compared with Japanese and Mandarin. Still, albeit low, the fire is definitely still burning.

At any rate, from my understanding Michel Thomas was a native speaker of German. Although he brought his proficiency level in his other languages to a very high level, I've still heard people complain about his accent. Whether or not it is true I suppose is best left to native speakers. Regardless he is an excellent teacher.

I completed the 8-disc beginner set a few months ago, and have since been working my way through the "builder" set as time permits. Due to the lack of dialogue with the students, the course has become a relentless barrage of sentences and grammar. While still very useful, with such density the material (despite its modest length of 2 hours) takes a long time to absorb.

For anyone interested in seeing a written transcription of the dialogues, you can find some nice ones here:

http://www.geocities.com/joekane765/

I have noticed a handful of mistakes here and there, but the amount of time this guy must have invested in writing these is worthy of praise.