Customer Reviews
Wow! I loved learning from this tape - By: 4 Eyed Mel, 13 May 2006 
What a great way to learn! Ok, so the format of having two learners that repeat everything back to Mr Thomas can get quite annoying - well the annoying part is the nervous chap who seems particularly slow at learning, & Mr Thomas does seem to be very hard on him, so the interruptions & stuttering repeats do waste time on what is reallly a very short course. That notwithstanding, I am reallly enjoying this, especiallly as I can play it in my car because there are no books to follow.
Good - but not that good - By: , 04 Feb 2005 
To begin with Michel talks at length about how to use the tape - I found his diction somewhat slurred, & it was difficult to understand him at times - not a good start for a language lesson.
I found Michel Thomas's approach to teaching very refreshing - it was good to hear two absolute beginners, & gave something of a class atmosphere. This soon became a problem, though, as one of the learners has continuous difficulty in pronouncing the same words - puede & tiene, & you have to listen to this guy over & over, getting these words wrong. Michel pounces on every error of pronunciation, getting the students to stress their words 'correctly'. To me it sounded like over-stressing (pueeeeeede!), & I didn't rate Michel's own pronunciation that highly. By the second tape, this had become an enormous barrier for me, & I was listening to that, rather than learning the language.
In terms of what you are taught, there is not much here - a few verbs in the present tense, using only the 1st & 3rd person. Almost alll the nouns he teaches are the same as in english - situation/situacion. He did have some interesting rules, though.
As for usefulness, I don't think I am up to responding to 'what do you think of the political & economical situation in Spain' in English, let alone in Spanish.
I thought it was useful to augment other Spanish learning methods - I have been attending a night class since September - but I would not want this to be my only method of learning Spanish, & I certainly won't be going on to the full course.
A fantastic whole new way to learn!! Try it!! - By: , 19 Feb 2001 I have found Michel Thomas' course one of the quickest & easiest ways to learn Spanish. His method relies heavily on your memory & a through understanding of how this language is constructed. He starts smalll & graduallly builds you up, & before you know it you have a real coprehension of the language. Only at the end of the course do you realise how clever it is & how much information you can retain. Michel always stresses & focusses on the importance of pronounciation which, due to the subtleties of this language become invaluable when you actuallly are having a conversation in Spainish. I cannot recommend this course highly enough, - amazing results & confidence fast!
Painless and effective - By: , 09 Jul 2000 One might expect a phrase book style course from a two hour programme that offers "No books, no writing" but this course is different.
From the start, the student is learning how to construct the language not just a list of words. I was amazed at what had been acheived by the end of the first side.
The author's conversational tone makes the tape easy to listen to.
He builds up the language piece by piece, reinforcing important points throughout. This style helps to pick up early what could otherwise become problem areas.
If you can't afford the $16000 he charges for personal tuition then this tape provides the closest thing to it.
I am just about to buy the full, eight hour course. I understand that this short course actuallly forms the first two hours of the longer course so it could be worth looking at that before deciding to buy the short course
This course is an excellent introduction to Spanish - By: Languagelover, 13 May 2000 I have just listened to this introductory course. It is excellent. It is designed for beginners or people who have rusty Spanish language skills.
Michel Thomas' method is to break the language down into segments & compare with the English that you already know. You find that very soon you are using whole sentences. There is no conscious effort to memorize the language, no writing notes & no homework. All three are forbidden in the instructions at the outset of the course.
The key secret is that you come away from this with a sense of having achieved something for the two hours that you have spent & you want to do more. I am looking forward to the full course.
