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After marrying a German expatriate I purchased this beginning set seven years ago, hoping to at least build a foundation for learning German. Your German study will be a constant project, but these CDs do lay the best foundation that I know of for you to become a decent beginner. Fluidity would come from years of immersion. I would recommend purchasing all of the collections; beginner, advanced, vocabulary builder and the vocabulary course. There are some lazy Americans who have lived in Germany for years, often associated with the military, who have not taken the time to learn the language. The attention to pronunciation detail, the step by step breaking down of each element of grammar, and building simple sentences around verbs is the way to go. I have listened to other products that are available since then, and NOTHING has stuck in my mind like these CDs, with the possible exception of The Rosetta Stone. You will need the advanced CDs to consider yourself an intermediate speaker.
Instead of memorizing formal grammatical terms for rules, he uses his own descriptive phrases and terms to describe what is actually happening in a sentence. Of course the phrases themselves, like 'weil situation' and verb 'diving' make no sense until you have listened to each CD in succession. But these CDs do give you an intelligent start and Germans are always impressed and flattered that you have taken the time to learn their language. Viel spaß.
It also comes in a very nice zippered leatherette carrying case. At first I wasn't sure this was going to be my cup of tea, but the more I listened to him to more I wanted to hear. I would highly recommend this course if you're looking to take the next step up from an introductory course. In summary, I am VERY happy with this course.
This audio course is very unique in that in the very first CD he tells your NOT to try and memorize what's being covered (Which is quite different from all of the other 'reapeat after me.' CD's I've heard). Having already purchased and tackled the Pimsleur Method CD's, I was looking for something else comprehensive and audio-based. I'm now on the 3rd of 10 CD's that come with the Michel Thomas course, and I've already have come to a few conclusions: 1) This course will teach you to THINK in German, which is just what I was looking for. If I hadn't already had some of the basics from the Pimsleur CD's and some books I had read, I would have not understood some of the earlier lessons.
Michel's older male voice can sometimes be hard for me to understand, forcing me to go online to hear the same words from different speakers to better understand how to correctly pronounce some of the words. As the CD's progress, Michel is quick to correct the students as they mispronounce words or try to get ahead of themselves. The Pimsleur Method is an excellent introductory course, but they do not force you to think and speak German on your own. The Michel Thomas method is superior for making you think on your feet and putting your own sentences together. I'm what I'd consider to be an 'intermediate' beginner.
I was very greatful to have already had a good grasp of the basics before listening to these courses. 3) I believe another reviewer may have already stated this, but as much as I enjoy listening to Michel's voice, I would have appreciated hearing an additional native speaking German to compare and contrast. 4) Michel was GREAT at finally explaining correct sentence structure. I've read a few learn German books, but Michel had me understanding some of the basic rules of correct German grammar within the first CD. I actually felt bad for the 2 students that he would catch off-guard frequently throughout the courses. The premise is that Michel Thomas is teaching one male and one female student, and you get to be the invisible 3rd student. It's just the perfect step up from the Pimsleur course I was looking for.
I particularly appreciate that Michel goes back to review very frequently throughout each course, and he will purposefully try to trip you up. 2) As much as I like these CD's, I'm not sure I would recommend them for absolute beginners. There is a LOT of info on these CD's and I'm finding myself replaying each lesson 5 or 6 times before going to the next one.
The students are constantly getting the pronunciation of sounds like these wrong and being corrected for it. Just about everything Michel Thomas asks him to say, he says incorrectly and/or pronounces incorrectly. I have several complaints with the German program which I will list below.1) The male student on this audio tape is simply terrible and really slows down your ability to learn the language. One learns the grammar from Pimsleur in the same way by example; in this sence Pimsleur may be more efficient. He has a very strong accent and swishes saliva around in his mouth quite frequently. In some sense, I'm not sure if the Michel Thomas strategy is better in this regard.
The Pimsleur approach is far more useful in that you hear the phrases spoken the way they were supposed to be spoken. However hearing the incorrect pronuncation and grammar constantly becomes very frustrating and ultimately confusing when you try to construct sentences on your own after listening to the audio sessions. The only advantage of this program is that Michel Thomas explains the grammatical rules behind what he's saying and gives key clues for remembering the rules and vocabulary.2) What I took for granted with the French Michel Thomas program however was that I was constantly rephrasing the grammar he was teaching into what people would actually say on an informal level with eachother. Perhaps if you were working in a corporate setting and wanted to learn how to speak very formally this would be appropriate, but in that case I would suggest Pimsleur instead. I had high hopes for this particular product since I had used the Beginner/Advanced 'Michel thomas speak French' and found it to be very useful for learning essential grammar. At least for the french version, if you tried speaking the way you're taught by Michel Thomas with some locals in a bar, you'd be laughed at. This is of course directed at the French version, I can't yet make similar accusations about the German course but suspect it's similar.3) Michel Thomas is quite irritating to listen to.
At first one isn't bothered by this, but eventually it becomes quite disgusting to listen to. Even how he emphasizes certain sounds like the "euuu" sound in "fur" grows increasingly irritating. Michel Thomas at times doesn't even point out their pronunciation errors. At some level it can be useful to hear the mistakes of the students because it emphasizes particular aspects of the grammar you may have not have thought of previously. You grow to dread hearing them make these types of mistakes.Ultimately this program is not terrible since he goes out of his way to explain essential grammar in the context of examples.
My reason being that you have native speakers speaking on the Pimsleur audio recordings, while in Michel Thomas you have two students speaking who make far more mistakes than they should. The Pimsleur audio tapes also cover informal speach using 'tu' in good handful of tapes (as for the German du/sie) but Michel Thomas seems to restrict exclusively to the most formal way of speaking which is useless if you're travelling and wish to make conversation with locals. For instance, Pimsleur doesn't talk you through the grammar you're using. I would suggest using this program in conjunction with Pimsleur if you can get it for a very discounted price.
I am several discs into using this program and am very pleased with the improvement it has made in my German language comprehension. I enjoy the learning format these discs employ: an instructor, 2 students and putting what you learn into immediate use. Even during your 1st listen to the 1st disc you will be able to formulate sentences and understand what is being said. I don't find the instructor's corrections of the students or the back & forth talking to be annoying as some others here have commented.This is a very worthwhile program.
The only problem is that the vocabulary that you learn on the first 10 CDs is limited. I truly believe that anybody can learn with these CDs.
We have many German clients, and speking that language in our company is a must. A colleague gave me the first CD to try it, since I have a long commute to work.
I have been unsuccessfully tried to learn German until I found Michel Thomas. I really, really recommend this course if you want to get a basic conversational level.
In the beginning I was VERY skeptical, since I have tried many other courses, including lessons with a private teacher. However, since the first CD, Michel Thomas makes you speak basic phrases, and builds on top of that.
My son was in the car with me, I put the CD on, and after the first 10 mins, without me telling him anything, he was trying some phrases in German as well. You will learn about the basic structures and verbs, but you will need to reinforce what you learn with something else.
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