Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
 Michel Thomas Spanish vocabulary course June 23, 2008
I completed the various Michel Thomas Spanish courses and it is only natural to compare the vocabulary courses of his various "disciples" (in this case Dr Rose Lee Hayden) with those.
As a preliminary point, this is both difficult and uinfair because the courses teach fundamentally different things: MT taught grammar and very little vocabulary. Indeed, he taught vocabulary only to the extent that it was necessary to teach the structure of the language. This course aims to teach, frankly, as many different words as possible in 6 hours, with the result that grammar practice is cursory and it is necessary to do the course at least three times if you wish to internalise every word. I suspect many of the criticisms other have made spring from a failure to see this point.
That said, as I see it the negatives are:
1. Dr Hayden's manner at times. Oh dear, the toes do sometimes curl - the endless "well done", "correct" and "yes!" after you have filled the gap in the recording with your answer, be it right or wrong, is bad enough. The various references to Henry Higgins in "My Fair Lady" - "You've got it; by George, you've got it" (yes, really!) is the worst - are hard to stamach.
2. Dr Hayden's accent. I am a relative beginner in Spanish but I have not the least doubt that, just as my English accent is better than Dr Hayden's, so is my Spanish one. The Spanish and South American assistants save the recording to some extent but the last voice we hear is always Dr Hayden's. Far more could have been put on the recordings if she had limited herself to the Spanish translation of an English word and the "how would you say...?" bit in English and left the Spanish answers to her assistants.
More positively:
1. Dr Hayden's teaching method is pretty good. It is not possible to replicate MT for the reason I give above but she does her best to reconcile the teaching of vocabulary with some repetition and grammar practice, which were MT's hallmarks.
2. For 30 (less on Amazon) you do get a lot of vocabulary for your money.
The question surely is not: is this course as good as it could be? (No) but: is it good value for 30. To that question, the answer is a definite yes.
An excellent addition to the series. May 28, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I have completed the French Foundation, Advanced and Language Builder courses and found them excellent. Based on other reviews of the Vocabulary courses, I didn't really know what to expect, but I have to say that I find this is a great addition to the series. While the original Michel Thomas courses were very good at teaching sentence structure, the emphasis on verbs meant there was very little opportunity to practice some other basic aspects of grammar, such as gender agreement. This was touched on, but there was very little opportunity to practice. This course makes up for these shortcomings, and I believe this is even more important than the amount of vocabulary taught. I have to say that I don't find presenter Helene Lewis annoying, nor do I find her accent off-putting; she has a rather neutral English accent. While the constant congratulation obviously irritates many listeners, I find it easy to ignore. So, all things considered, I believe this is an excellent course that not only teaches vocabulary, but also encourages the formation of grammatically correct sentences.
 Haydenised Spanish. December 31, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This vocabulary course was a big disappointment to me after the excellent Michel Thomas CDs.
Even as a beginner, I found the Hayden-American pronunciation of Spanish excruciating: in this respect it seemed to contradict, at times, the teaching of Michel Thomas. Similarly, I did not appreciate her patronising tone.
However, if you can suppress your annoyance, the course is good value for its factual material
 Great Practice Course December 24, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I think Rose Lee Hayden does a fantastic job bravely stepping into the void left by Michel Thomas. Rather than just vocabulary - which is often taught most bizarely and ineffectively by some language products - this pakcage still focuses on real language usage, particulary the ability to spontaneously construct your own sentences when prompted to do so.
I really thought of this course as a set of supplementary excercises to the old courses and manages to provide extra vocabularly really as neccessary, none of it forced, like lists of words etc. It's just an enjoyable interactive programme which packs in alot. I disagree with other reviewers and think that Rose judges the tone excellently so that it doesn't become dry.
The master stroke however is the inclusion of two native speakers, one spanish and one south American (I think Argentinian) which helps bridge the gap between understanding sentences and words to listening to and comprehending the flow of real speech. Also covers some language points about gender and word transformation that are not in the other courses. The foundation course is a pre-requistite to this I would say.
 Awful Woman. December 1, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I am of a like mind with Rhythmvox (see above) but I have a lower tolerance threshold. This presentation is absolutely awful. How this woman could ever have worked with the Great Michel I cannot imagine. Nor can I think how the publisher could have allowed this product to go out under the Michel Thomas label.
The distinguishing mark of the Michel Thomas method is that there is no cra p ; just plain workmanlike progression, building up to quite advanced grammatical constructions. I have worked through the whole series and what I now lack is idiomatic vocabulary and practice. The practice I can get using a tutor via Skype. Because I need the vocabulary I bought this product. But I just can't stand this awful woman.
If the publisher reads this review I suggest they go back to the text and strip out all the goo. (That would probably reduce the five discs to three.) Recruit a Michel sound-alike and get rid of one or other of the native speakers. There must be a big enough market for the course to be published in two versions. One for Europeans wanting to speak Castilian (Madrid) Spanish and one for Americans wanting to speak Mexican.
The one star I can give these discs is for the fact that they are cheap enough to hang in the hedge to scare off the neighbour's cats. If I wired them up to speakers they would certainly scare off the neighbours!
|
