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The Michel Thomas 8-hour German course really gave me a head start
when I tried it a year ago, before spending a week in West Germany
on holiday. Michel's technique of 'audio only'- i.e. no books, pens
or paper - is a far more flexible approach to language learning
than most people are used to, simply because you don't need to have
any materials to do your study. I listened to these CDs on the train
on my way to work, sitting in the bath and lying in bed! Michel
gives the advice right from the beginning that you should be in
a completely relaxed situation and have no tension in order to absorb
the language taught so this is an ideal way to learn, especially
for those like myself who find there are not enough hours in the
day - no excuses now!
To someone who
is thinking of buying this course, I think it is important to know
that it is not like a phrase book and leaves out a lot of the 'get-by'
vocabulary that you may need in Germany. What it does do though
is give you a strong knowledge of the language grammatically so
you have a good understanding of the 'backbone' of the language
on which to build more and more vocabulary. Once you have the basic
mechanics, you are over half way to communicating!
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Michel
Thomas gives you a strong knowledge of the language grammatically
so you have a good understanding of the 'backbone' of the
language on which to build more and more vocabulary.
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So, how does
it work? Michel Thomas' technique is to record himself teaching
two complete beginner students and for you to imagine you are the
third student in his class. On these CDs he has one male and one
female student in a classroom situation and I personally found it
a very interesting and successful method. He starts off by introducing
the language and usefully focuses on the similarities between English
and German right from the beginning, talking about how many of the
words we have already in our vocabulary are linked to German so
in fact there is a lot we already know - definitely good news to
a beginner! I found it a little confusing during the introduction
when he started to talk about different sets of 'pronunciation strings'
because it was hard to retain until put into context. His main point
however, was that there are so many ways to 'work out' German words
from English rather than have to remember them, eg, 'to give' is
'geben' because a 'v' in English often becomes a 'b' in German and
verbs end in '-en'. He mentioned many other similar rules which
certainly started to make sense and helped as time went on.
I found I could
pick things up quite quickly by listening to him but it was useful
to listen to each CD at least a couple of times before moving onto
the next one. That way you really feel confident with what you know
so far. Sometimes you can have the answer to something before the
students and be ready to move on before they are but other times
they can rush ahead and leave you feeling a little confused. This
isn't a problem - when you listen again it all becomes clear!
I'm sure your
German accent will be much more convincing than that of the two
students but Michel does a lot to correct pronunciation and is not
happy until he hears each sound of each word! It's just a case of
practice, practice - no cheating allowed!
Michel insists that it is very important that you take time to think
of your sentence grammatically and 'work it out' without rushing
it. So the use of the pause button is essential for thinking it
through. After listening to just the first few CDs you realise that
you really can start to make your own phrases. His teaching allows
grammar to be learned in a flexible way and completely avoids learning
phrases by heart.
To assist you
with retaining vocabulary, Michel often translates expressions literally
into English or makes links through word association to help you
remember some things. One example is the German word 'bald' meaning
'soon' (to be 'bald soon') and 'heute abend' meaning 'tonight' (literally
'today evening') - so no surprises there! Breaking expressions and
sentences into their components avoids any mystery in the language
such as when he introduced the phrase 'es tut mir leid' which is
the equivalent to 'I'm sorry', but literally - 'it does to me sorrow'.
The word order
in German is something that can seem a little confusing at first
but with practice becomes second nature and just starts to 'sound
right'. Michel constantly revises grammatical points so if it's
not quite clear immediately there's no need to keep rewinding -
he will come back to it!
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The
word order in German is something that can seem a little confusing
at first but with practice becomes second nature and just
starts to 'sound right'.
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By the end of CD 1 (only the first hour) your longest sentence will
be "I don't know where it is, I can't find it". Not bad
going for the first lesson!
By CD 3 things
get a little more tricky grammatically, but it is certainly worth
persevering. Michel jokes with the students and talks them through
their mistakes. By the end of CD 3 you will move onto expressing
the future and make phrases such as "Will you please bring
it to me" and (on CD 4) "I am going to stay at home today
because I am very tired" covering some crucial German grammar
points without you even realising it. By the end of CD 8, however,
you will be combining all kinds of points of grammar covered throughout
the whole course and you will certainly have achieved a lot, including
a variety of different tenses. You can even move on to do a further
two hours as a follow up if you are really keen - the Michel Thomas
German Language Builder.
As I mentioned
at the beginning there is a lot of vocabulary that you may need
when visiting Gemany that is not covered in this course. From experience
I would recommend combining this course with the Teach
Yourself Instant German. They complement each other very well
because Michel Thomas is more structure based, while 'Instant German'
covers a lot of essential vocabulary to give you the confidence
you need for your visit. With these two courses fully completed
and a small phrasebook and dictionary to take with you for those
tricky situations it is the recipe for success in Germany!
Click
here for more information about all Michel
Thomas German language courses.
Michel Thomas is the world-famous language guru, who has taught
the stars to speak another language in record time. He has taken
his ground-breaking audio-only technique and put it on CD and cassette
for us all to enjoy. There is a beginner
8-hour Michel Thomas language course available in French, German,
Italian and Spanish and then a follow-on intermediate
2-hour Michel Thomas Language Builder available in the same
languages. He has recently released Michel
Thomas Advanced language courses in French, German and Spanish.
Click here for more information about all Michel
Thomas language courses.
Click
here for more information about the best and most innovative German
language courses.
If
you require any further information, please contact
us.
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