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It's like you are learning things and you finally realize that you are starting to speak w confidence. You really should try it. will be my first purchase for sure. I've tried everything. Read the insert about this man, his life was fascinating.
Then I stuck with it and realize it is very valuable. His way of teaching is crazy-wonderful. I really like it, and when I learn French, Michel T. My 13 year old daughter likes it too. This was my first experience w Michel Thomas, and at first I didn't like it at all.
I like Pimsleur too, but Michel is different. I agree w the too much chitty-chat comments, but if I have to listen to 30 seconds of stuff I don't think is important to get about a year of Spanish the easy way, I'll put up w it.
The way the language is explained and how it teaches it makes for easy learning. This is a fabulous cd. Love this.
I have had quite a few classes in Spanish and visit Mexico many times per year. I repeat, DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT. There is a lot of grammar introduced rather quickly, which I thought would be good, but I do not feel I have learned the information due to how badly the students are speaking it and responding to it. You will hear a man with a thick German or possibly Eastern European accent teaching two people with other accents who are novices with Spanish how to speak Spanish. I think Michel's method is pretty good actually, if I were the only one receiving it or interacting with it.
You will not hear a single native Spanish speaker on this CD. He corrects them, but you will hear wrong information many times over. They don't sound at all like the Spanish I hear spoken. My wife, a PhD in Psychology tells me hearing incorrect information while learning has been found to hinder learning. DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT.
They make mistakes - lots of them. Even grammar and vocabulary I knew well before the course I feel less comfortable with now.
Secondly, the way in which the lessons are taught is very disorganized and, quite frankly, annoying. The lessons on this CD are very, very basic. The fact that the teacher is not a native speaker also is not helpful. I was extremely dissappointed with this product. If you are a basic speaker, this might help you if you can possibly stand to listen to the whole thing. The instructions are even given in English, which is an indication of the level to which he is trying to speak.
If you really are an advanced speaker of Spanish, skip this product entirely. I am an intermediate advanced Spanish student, and I was looking for a product to help me to speak more fluently. First of all, the word "Advanced" in the title is a misnomer. The teacher says something, then the student repeats it (it usually sounds nothing like Spanish when they do), and they continue along like that.
I'm not sure, however, why Michel did not put out a much longer course in which he introduced more extensive vocabulary and gave more practice sentences, not to mention the grammar of nouns and adjectives. It does a good job with the verb tenses, but only minimal time is spent on adjectives and nouns. However, despite the efforts that this course makes at being comprehensive, it cannot include everything. It should not be difficult to pick up the rest from a grammar book or immersion in the language. There is no question that Michel Thomas is the most effective all-audio language learning method. Nothing is better for people who don't have the time or discipline for a real course. For example, even by the end one does not learn how to use possessive adjectives (my, your, his, etc).However, the course is certainly a good way to absorb basic structure.
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