Paging Linger - Michel Thomas

You're right in so far as that is the approach he takes, he gives you
foundations for sentence formation which may be quite different in places
to English. He doesn't rattle word groups at you, so you need additional
resources to build up your knowledge of nouns and verbs.

Most other resources concentrate of things to say in a given situation.
If you're crap at languages like I am, they don't help when the other
person starts deviating from the script.

He's also very good a delivering word association to help remember
certains words.

Of course, if you go for the German course, you won't suffer the biggest
complaint from people: his accent. Doesn't bother me particularly but
seems to bother others.

 

You must have access to some web space surely?

Or stick it on the ubiquitous UKRM Gmail drive...

 

My internet connection is too slow.

 

Borrow the military's

 

CNN: In Iraq today it seems all the military's GPS units are displaying
porn movies instead of the normal coordinates.

 

#Talking Italian...

 

There was a bit of an "incident" relating to MP3s in Iraq. I'd better
not.

 

Well yes but that's a nice standard "blaney" answer isn't it?

It simply begs a whole load of other questions like have they actually
used his courses and what were their likes and dislikes? They could
appreciate the course style but not have ever used them IYSWIM. Given
the rather extreme reactions to the course format from people who have
tried it I feel a little nervous in opting for something which produces
such extremes. I also fail to understand how you can claim to have
learnt a language from a course that neglects verbs and nouns. Aren't
they essential building blocks in learning a language?

It sounds to me as if your relations [1] are either highly intelligent
and / or have an instinctive flair for language. Being able to speak
(and I assume read and write) 12 languages (fluently?) is a very rare
feat these days.

[1] is this the brother involved with the Oxford English Dictionary?

 

Don't know. Here's the conversation:
Me: I want to learn Italian. Shall I get linguaphone, or what?
Bro: Get Michel Thomas. It's good.

It teaches you to communicate with normal people, not translate
academic papers.

Well, duh.

That would negate the hard work they've put in. 8 years of Arabic
evening classes, for example.

Yes, they don't count the ones they can't do properly, such as
Mandarin.

It's only 6 each.

Yes.

 

<>:

'only'- some of us have trouble enough with one. It seems that being a
**** runs in your family.

 

It's a good starting point, but it doesn't teach you a language. Some of
the stuff it teaches is also quite wrong.

I'm glad I did the spanish course as it helped me get going. I never
want to hear his fucking horrible voice ever again though.

--

Paul.
CBR1100XX SuperBlackbird
BOTAFOT #4
BOTAFOF #30
MRO #24

 

Actually, I'm really the only one.

 

OK then - at least they have used it.

Which gets us back to me in picky mode - if you'd said I want to learn
to speak Italian then I can see how the course works. However a course
that fails to teach you to read and write a language (even at the most
basic level) seems a bit silly to me.

Oh come on Ben you're doing your "extreme example" routine again. Who
said anything about academic papers? There are loads of times when you
need to be able to read a menu, sign a form, read a poster etc etc when
in a foreign country. Nothing to do with academia but everything to do
with the practical usage of a language.

I did not intend that to come across as patronising if that is how you
read it.

Which proves my point - to be competent in all aspects of a language
takes a hell of a lot of hard work and slog. These Michel Thomas courses
were being presented as the bees knees solution to learning a language.
Clearly they aren't such a thing.

Thank you - further re-inforces my view about these courses and where
they fit in in terms of being useful.

And Brother Ben how many languages do you speak coming from the same
excellent blood line as these other people?

English people are notoriously lazy and unskilled when it comes to
languages. And you know the reason why as well as I do.

I can speak / read and write 3 if you include English - the others being
French and Dutch. I have an extremely limited knowledge - goo goo ga ga
phrase book level - in 2 others (Italian and German). I have also
dabbled badly in trying to read and write Chinese and speak a bit of
Japanese.

thought it might be.

 

I've tried the other courses, such as Linquphone, and found them to be
utterly shite. MT, however, has already got me to the stage where I'm
now looking at buying simple French language books to continue learning

--
Veggie Dave
UKRMHRC#2 BOTAFOF#08
IQ 18 FILMS http://www.iq18films.com
Extreme Racing http://www.veggie-dave.co.uk
Toxic Shock Syndrome Gets More Girls Than Me