German with Michel Thomas

As someone with no natural foreign language talent and at school having bunked out of German, this program is outstanding. I have just completed with with an intensive one to one course and I can honestly say that I gained wider - and more indepth learning - from the 60 usd I spent on Michel Thomas' program than the 2500 usd I spent with Berlitz.If you want practical - rather than theoretical - language training that gives you the confidence to further explore I cannot rate this product highly enough. The only problem is that there isnt a next stage of learning; if he did produce a next level i would be first in the line to buy.

If you had a bad experience learning German in school, or if you feel that learning a language is beyond you, please give Michel Thomas's courses a try. I completed his 8-CD German and Italian series, and he offers an amazing introduction to language learning that will have you constructing complex sentences in no time. Vocabulary learning is a bit more limited than what you may find in other instructional series, but that is more than made up for by the understanding of sentence structure and verb construction that you will gain.For example, in the Pimsleur Italian series, over the course of 16 CDs you learn a lot of conversational Italian, and learn how to use a limited number of verb forms. Over the course of the 8 CD Michel Thomas Italian series, you learn much more about verb forms - how to choose the proper verb for the situation, and how to apply it.And he accomplishes this in a very relaxed manner. The CDs are recordings of lessons between Mr. Thomas and two students. Along the way, he asks them how to say a sentence in German, and your job is to pause the CD momentarily before the student answers, work the sentence out in your head and say it aloud, and then continue with the CD. More often than not, mistakes that you make will also be made by the students on the CD. Mr. Thomas gently corrects them, and then continues on. I have found this method a very satisfying way to learn.Not surprisingly, Mr. Thomas feels that it is not only the best way to learn a language, but the best way to instill understanding and confidence. I would have to agree. His approach has been put to the test in inner-city schools with disruptive children to great effect. If you are one who disagrees with or dislikes the teaching methods that were forced down your throat as a child, you may find Mr. Thomas's method a breath of fresh air, and you may find yourself cursing a system that taught you so poorly!I have been informed that Mr. Thomas is planning a second series, which should be out in Spring 2001. I will be first in line to purchase them when they arrive.

I studied German in high school for two years, and remembered virtually nothing except how tedious and frustrating I found the class. But by the time I was three or four hours into these CD's, I found myself speaking German with a greater ease and enjoyment than those two years ever managed to instil in me.A reviewer below seemed deeply unhappy with Michel Thomas' way of teaching. I can only assume that if you already have learned to speak "several languages" (as the reviewer said they did) through endless repetition and drilling, drilling, drilling - you may be used to that way of learning. And this may not be the way for you. But myself? I thoroughly enjoyed it. The socratic question / answer method I found a breath of fresh air. At last! No more "The pen is on the table... the child is in the airport..." farcical invented dialogue. True, at times I found myself getting a little frustrated with the progress of the other two students on the CD's; but I learned to enjoy even that - after all, when you find yourself irritatedly shouting the correct answers in German at your CD player because the others aren't answering quickly enough, you must be doing something right.

I thoroughly enjoyed this German CD course. I completed all 8 CD's straight through without having to repeat any part, and found at the end I had a pretty good command of the material presented. Michel Thomas is an excellent, obviously very experienced presenter of the German language. Focusing mainly on German sentence structure, word order and the verb system, the course progressively builds up sentences of increasing complexity by expansion and substitution. The students must logically construct their own sentences based on prompting by the teacher. Specifically the course tackles the use of conjugated and modal verb constructions, subordinate clauses, separable verbs, and other basics of German. The result is that the course pretty much accomplishes what it sets out to do -- teach a basic chunk of the German language thoroughly in real time without the need for rote memorization, written homework or drills. At first I was somewhat leery of the professor-student interactive approach, listening to the students struggle through pronunciation and sentence formation is at times tedious. However, I soon realized that the struggle is part of the course. Commonly made mistakes were corrected and emphasized as they occurred again pretty much in real time. I wished they would have used all 74 minutes available on each CD (could of had almost 2 hours of additional recorded material on the same 8 CD's!)My only regret is that the course comes to an end! I really hope to see level 2, 3, etc. courses developed using the same format. Obviously, there is a lot more German to learn, but this is an excellent start. The course is especially effective with listening-focused (aural) learners.