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| Michel Thomas Foundation Course: Italian (Michel Thomas Series) | 
 enlarge | Author: Michel Thomas
Publisher: Hodder Arnold
Category: Book
List Price: £68.51
Buy New: £24.45
You Save: £44.06 (64%)
New (33) from £24.45
Avg. Customer Rating:  49 reviews
Sales Rank: 6958
Format: Audiobook
Media: Audio CD
Edition: 2
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5.5 x 3.2
ISBN: 0340938943
EAN: 9780340938942
ASIN: 0340938943
Publication Date: September 29, 2006
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:
 no! July 6, 2007
0 out of 11 found this review helpful
its harder to understand Michel Thomas' blurred english than it is to hear the italian. his 'students' are obviousy previously coached as they 'immediatley grasp' the meaning of the sentences.
not good.
great method, shame about the students June 29, 2007
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
I really rate Michel's method and his great enthusiasm. Unlike another reviewer, I really appreciate the fact that Michel speaks Italian (and English) with his own accent, and instead places an emphasis on, well, placing an emphasis on the right part of the Italian word (even the most fluent usually speak with their native accent, after all).
Truly annoying, though, are the students in this Italian course who are used as guinea pigs. At first I welcomed the fact that they stumble through the drills, because they were making common errors and we were learning from their mistakes. After a while, though, their stumbling becomes too frequent, and I found myself growing either impatient or confused and my own thoughts grew more jumbled than they should have. At other times it felt as if the students were trying to rush in with correct (or incorrect ...) answers: this was not helpful either, and it perhaps creates more urgency about the process than is required.
I am proficient at learning languages. These particular students detracted from the experience of what otherwise seems to be a sterling system, so 5 stars for Michel, but the students pull him down (they bugged me so much that 4 stars is perhaps being generous, but I really like the method).
Excellent route to conversational Italian March 29, 2007
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I didn't enjoy languages at school and consequently did poorly. Now I find myself picking up Michel Thomas' Italian and German foundation courses for work. Both are excellent. In the Italian course, Michel quickly launches into language constructions and progresses at some speed. Perhaps too fast - I need to listen to each CD several times over, but that is no bad thing. On the German course, Michel spends a good deal of time on the structure of the language and the pace is easier. Italian obviously has less structure about it and Michel Thomas moves ahead very quickly - you are onto the future tense on CD2 (the German course takes 4 CDs to get there); the conditional on CD4 and past tense on CD5. But it is enjoyable. As someone who formerly hated languages at school and thought myself incapable, I am surprised at how well I am doing and how confident I feel. The students on the CDs are helpful too. There are some problems with Michel's pronunciation at times (it even confuses the students on the CDs) and I struggle with all the prepositions that Italian seems to use. I also think Thomas uses some unnecessarily complex sentence constructions just to test his students (for example "would you be able to tell me", rather than the simpler "can you tell me"). I would rather spend a bit more time on the basics, but this is a minor gripe and I guess I can just listen to the CDs over and over. Overall this is an excellent course and you will learn fast. Highly recommended.
 Benissimo September 21, 2006
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
Will teach you as much about your own language as Italian. Great course in the building blocks of the language and how to then go forward utilising your knowledge of the syntax. Thomas is a real character too, makes me laugh. Easiest and most accessible language course of any kind I have encountered.
Bored to tears September 3, 2006
4 out of 12 found this review helpful
As a former second language teacher I was looking forward very much to finding out about the much-hyped methods of Michel Thomas. However I was very disappointed. I found that by the second CD I was bored to tears by his slow rambling monotonous delivery. His English accent was so poor that I wondered how good his Italian actually was! Certainly he helped the students to build up quite complex sentences but by the end of the third CD I still hadn't learnt much that was going to be useful on an Italian trip and I was thoroughly bored with the whole experience. Considering how expensive the course is, it is extremely poor value for money and I wished that I had bought a Teach Yourself Course.
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