by Rob
(UK)
I find it staggering that people seriously thought that he would be a "native" speaker in 4 languages. Surely when for example buying his French CD someone would think "oh that guy also does German,Spanish and Italian". Is there anyone who has ever lived who can truly speak 4 languages or more AS A NATIVE?
I find the courses excellent grounding for forming sentences and starting to use the language. Of course it does not mean you will reach fluency without learning copious amounts of vocabulary too but I much prefer to that myself rather than pay for silly courses such as Vocabulearn or Learn in Your Car where someone just reads out a vocabulary list to you. What on earth is the point of that?
Use Michel Thomas to learn the grammatical basics and structure of the language but supplement it with listening to natives and learning vocab.
So the things that frustrate me with MT:
1. the Titling of "Total" "Perfect" and "Masterclass". These are all complete misnomers and frankly the Total is no more than a basic course, the Perfect and Masterclass intermediate.
2. The Vocabulary courses are a bit odd and I would not recommend them unless you want to hear the name Michel Thomas 1000 times in the first 10 minutes. It is a poor attempt to pretend that the methods being used would be approved by the late MT.
3. A Test of Courage. I never realised Michel Thomas won the Second World War by himself but reading this would suggest he did.
Summary: Buy the language courses, they are fun and much more engaging that most courses but don't expect it to be a shortcut to fluency.