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| Spanish with Michel Thomas--Complete Course 8 CD Set | 
 enlarge | Author: Michel Thomas
Publisher: Hodder Arnold
Category: Book
Buy New: £69.91
Avg. Customer Rating:  123 reviews
Sales Rank: 30627
Format: Audiobook
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Items: 8
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6.3 x 2.1
ISBN: 0340780673
Dewey Decimal Number: 420
EAN: 9780340780671
ASIN: 0340780673
Publication Date: May 1, 2000
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW, IDEAL CHRISTMAS GIFT, FULLY SEALED FROM THE OFFICIAL PUBLISHERS. DISPATCHED IMMEDIATELY VIA ROYAL MAIL
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| Customer Reviews:
 Si quieres saber hablar Espanol, compra esto. (If you want to know (how) to speak Spanish, buy this.) August 26, 2007
57 out of 58 found this review helpful
Having decided, a little over two years ago, and fairly late in life, to try to learn Spanish, I started buying self tuition courses, text books, dictionaries, phrase books - the works basically. Luckily my blind trawl of instructional material also brought in, totally by chance, the Michel Thomas 8 CD course.
Initially it was very difficult for a total novice to rate specific methods of instruction or individual courses, but as time went by some things became clear to me. Such as:
1> To the average person (to me for certain) learning another language is NOT EASY!!
2> Too many of the teaching products available, perhaps all, (even Michel Thomas) come with promises of early / instant / painless success. Such claims are obviously designed to encourage us to buy the product. Such is the way of marketing. Such claims are used to sell everything from special golf clubs which will bring you into single figures within a month to aftershave guaranteed to, well ..... .We know this stuff is all NONSENSE (don't we?).
3> These ridiculously optimistic claims attaching to most language instructional products have the effect of building up in us unreasonable expectations of early proficiency. The truth is that, for the vast majority of us, the forecasted early proficiency IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.
4> Because of these unachievable expectations, what is likely to happen is that in the absence of the anticipated progress we will become hugely disappointed in ourselves. We will lose confidence. We will feel that we are incapable. The book, tape, CD, DVD promised us success in three months. And after perhaps 6 months of fairly diligent work we are not very far advanced at all. We are very likely to feel things like "I can't do this. I must be a fool. I must be unable to learn a new language. There is no point in continuing. I'm giving up".
My advice is to BEWARE OF THAT REACTION, because ...
5> You certainly ARE ABLE to learn a new language - but it's NOT EASY. Think in terms of "years" instead of "months" and think "hobby" instead of "study"; think "enjoyment" instead of "work" and think of the new friends you will make along the way, including Spanish guys and gals who are finding English equally as difficult to become halfway fluent in as we are finding Spanish.
So, DO NOT GIVE UP. It will happen. But not as fast as they have all told you.
6> If, in my early Spanish days, I had not happened on the Michel Thomas course I think that it is very likely that I would have given up in despair. It is true that almost any tuition course or book, CD, or DVD which aims to teach Spanish is bound to contribute something to one's knowledge. But I can report that some of these products are INCREDIBLY poor, and in varying degrees are inaccessible, dull, illogical, unnecessarily difficult, misleading and self-contradictory. Some are better than others and I acknowledge that I have not tried all the products on the market. There may indeed be some very good ones available. But, in my opinion, the general standard is not high.
7> Michel Thomas' teaching method is, in my opinion, LIGHT YEARS ahead of any other that I have encountered. Its superiority is to be found not just in the excellent and enjoyable method that he uses (you become the third student in a virtual class) but even more importantly in the course content. This content opens the door to your use of the language. As Michel Thomas describes it, it gives us the tools with which we can build the language. It is no idle claim. Trust me. If you want to learn Spanish this is where you should start. If you have already started and are finding things tough you should still go here, or to one of his other two more advanced courses mentioned below.
8> But remember this. For almost everybody, it is NOT easy to learn a new language. So when progress comes slowly don't get discouraged. Listen to one Michel Thomas disc every day for 6 months. And do the basics besides - learn the Spanish alphabet and how to pronounce each letter; learn the days of the week; the months; learn how to count to a thousand, how to tell the time and other basic stuff that will occur to you along the way, none of which is covered by Michel Thomas (and that's not a criticism - he is about different things).
When you can get through this course without pressing the pause button very often, and with few mistakes, then you should buy the Michel Thomas Language Builder. And when you have mastered that - surprisingly quickly you will find, in perhaps 1 or 2 months - move on to the Michel Thomas Advanced Spanish, in my opinion another wonderful tuitional course.
Highly recommended. Buy and enjoy. And..... Que tengas suerte.
A more natural way to learn August 12, 2007
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
Amazingly painless, and rapid results. There is no gimmickry involved, Michel Thomas simply focuses on the important structures of the language and builds them up piece by piece. You are expected to relax and absorb the language which I was skeptical about at first, but after forcing myself to put down the pen and the grammar books I realized I had effortlessly gained a good grasp of the language. His attention to emphasis and pronunciation in general is important because as with many languages the native Spanish speaker is listening out for these things; the rhythm of the phrase or sentence. The MT method is far better, and immeasurably more fun than using books.
 UUUURRRRGH! August 9, 2007
5 out of 43 found this review helpful
This is absolutely the worst, timewasting crap that I have ever listened to. Endless single word pronounciation exercises that a ten minute repeatable session could do for once. Practically no grammar and the little grammar that is there is completely non-educational. Yes, it is just the money spent for two hours of tutoring but that would be better spent. I am not of short of attention span but the voice of Mr. Thomas puts me to sleep and his accent is UUUUUURRRRRRGH! If you fall asleep then the claim of PAINLESS Spanish learning would be correct, otherwise the pain to endure this awake is too much.
Sorry, had get this off my chest ...
Early days, excellent start. July 18, 2007
16 out of 18 found this review helpful
I am over 35 years old and have no knowledge of any other language, but set myself the challenge of learning Spanish, as I intend to visit the country extensively over the coming years. I decided to buy this course after reading the previous Amazon reviews. My intentions are to gain an overview of the spoken language and then to get into the grammar side of Spanish later.
The previous reviews explain the course format and so the aim of my review is to describe my experience to date.
I completed the first disc during my 30 min commutes to and from work. I enjoy being the third student and believe it does aid learning immensely. The male student is a little bit of a dope but I can put up with that for reasons I will explain later.
The greatest strength of the course is that it actually comes in three formats, each exactly mirroring the other two. So, aside from the 8 course CDs, you are also given 2 review CDs and a printed revision (index) guide. I used CD1 until I was happy with my knowledge. The printed guide is an excellent revision aid, allowing me to target weak areas (Have / Want / Need), but also to see the spellings and punctuation which will be important for later study. Once happy with the section, I use the revision CD to quickly review my knowledge to date; this also has the added advantage of covering everything in the course without the students (no more annoying male student).
As stated, I have completed only 1 CD in a week, but I am happy with my progress. I have put in approx 4 hours of work so far and maybe an hour in revision, but do consider myself to be very thorough and could probably have moved on faster if I wanted to. I do not expect the course to make me fluent and consider my expectations of it to be realistic. Also, as mentioned, I will study the grammar once I am ready. However, my goal is to be of a high standard of Spanish within 6 months and this course is giving me the start I wanted so far. I remain motivated, excited and interested in learning. I think that, after 1 week, this is a good measure of the quality of the course.
 Question July 2, 2007
0 out of 15 found this review helpful
What's the difference between this and "Spanish with Michel Thomas--Complete Course 8 CD Set"?
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