The booklet is useful too. It is mainly a vocabulary list, and small enough to fit in a pocket or bag for quick revision at odd moments during the day. Again, there is no superfluous gloss, no colour photographs of flamenco dancers etc..

Ignore the publisher's comment that "Michel Thomas takes the responsibility for the student's learning" - you will need to concentrate, listen carefully and think before replying. This is a course for people with motivation.

I had learned my basic Spanish from other courses, and not being familiar with Michel Thomas I found his approach refreshing. I can imagine that if you have already done the 8-hour course you might find the Builder course a bit repetitive. On the other hand, I don't know of any other language course at an intermediate level and fast pace to recommend as an alternative.

A bit over-priced though.


Disappointing - too intense and dry   January 9, 2003
 73 out of 78 found this review helpful

I completed the 8 hour audio course having been impressed overall by the level of interaction that was fostered by creating a classroom atmosphere. After completing it I switched to this course and felt like I had been slammed in detention, my previous classmates had vanished, leaving a very monotonous Michel Thomas ordering me to repeat and re-arrange sentence structures. I really found this style too intense and confrontational.

Another criticism is that although you will pick up some additional phrases, you complete the course with the sense that you have not really learnt anything new. Some of the material is a repeat of the first course, but the most serious ommission is the total neglect of the past tense. Unbelievable - a product that claims to be a complete Spanish course that misses out one of its most fundamental aspects. On the positive side, there is an accompanying book that allows you to actually see the words you are repeating. I would recommend anyone coming to this product with high hopes of really taking their Spanish to a new level to look elsewhere. This course does not cover enough new ground, and it is not particularly enjoyable to complete either.


Not very useful   October 6, 2002
 56 out of 68 found this review helpful

Basically all these CDs are is a list of words read out by Michel with no indication of how to use them practically. If this isn't learning by rote I don't know what is! What would have been useful would have been to have an actual follow up to the 8 hour course. He could have taken a couple of beginners, let them learn basic Spanish from the 8-hour course and then take their Spanish on from there. Obviously it would have been useful to add in a native speaker in the background to correct Michel's own mistakes and to up-date his own Spanish. I suspect that the reason why he doesn't bring students in for an advanced course is that the limits of his own Spanish would become even more apparent. Accelerated learning courses are useful but anyone who thinks they can totally replace years of studying a language is deluding themselves so these course MUST be used in conjunction with other courses or else they are just giving a false sense of self-confidence which will crumble when you actually try to use the language.


Fosters confidence right from the beginning, makes it easy.   December 1, 2001
 12 out of 15 found this review helpful

Building on Michel Thomas's 'Spanish' tapes and CD's this is absolutely excellent. He makes you feel in control, introduces sentence construction step by step and checks correct pronouncation along the way. It's interesting, you feel as though you're getting somewhere and it's rewarding. Also it works! I've tested and tried it in Spain. Having tried almost every other method I know that without Michel Thomas I would never have come so far.


Good but fast pace at first   September 27, 2001
 117 out of 123 found this review helpful

This language builder is excellent for those who have completed the 8 hour course or who are already rusty intermediate speakers of Spanish. I found the pace a bit frightening to begin with and also it is a bit annoying that Michel doesn't leave much time between what he is asking and his reply. You have to be quick off the mark with the pause button!

Otherwise, I have found this course to be very usefully in consolidating my knowledge of Spanish and practicing more structures.

We have waited a year since the release of the first course for this next installment, which one feels could have been done at a more leisurely pace than the two hours it has been allocated. Is there any more to come? and if so let's hope we don't have to wait another year!

Also for those who already have the complete course, the style of this 'language builder' is different, there are no students to listen to, it is just Michel Thomas and you 'one to one', which I personally prefer.

Overall a recommendation to buy if you have the grounding. If not, buy the complete course first and then buy this when you have finished, otherwise it might seem a little intimidating. A real improvement on the first course is that it comes with a little brochure with all the phrases in so you can see how each is written down- I found this very useful.