World Famous Comics: Michel Thomas Speak Italian for Beginners: 10-CD Beginner's Program (Michel Thomas Speak...)
Michel Thomas Speak Italian for Beginners: 10-CD Beginner's Program (Michel Thomas Speak...)
By: Michel Thomas Publisher: McGraw-Hill Average Rating: Binding: Audio CD Format: Abridged Label: McGraw-Hill Number of Items: 10 Number of Pages: 24 Publication Date: November 20, 2006
No passport required! The world’s greatest language teacher is at your side.
"There's no such thing as a bad student--just a bad teacher." --Michel Thomas
No books. No writing. No drills. And nothing to memorize-- ever! With his patented method, Michel Thomas has taught languages to top celebrities and--through his bestselling audio programs--more than a million everyday learners around the world. At the end of this ten-CD beginner’s program, you will have acquired:
A full working vocabulary
Essential comprehension skills
Complete language confidence
Don't try to memorize specific words or expressions. It is a basic principle of the Michel Thomas™ method that the responsibility for the student’s learning lies with the teacher. With Michel Thomas as your teacher, your learning will be based on understanding--and what you understand, you do not forget!
Included in this package:
10 audio CDs--including the two-CD Speak Italian Get Started Kit and 2 review CDs
Program booklet
Zippered travel case
Celebrities who have learned with the Michel Thomas™ method:
Ottimo! I picked up a lot of Italian when I was a teenager, although a lot of it was dialect. When I wanted to get a good understanding of the language I bought the Pimsleur courses, which are excellent but molto caro. My significant other, though, dislikes the Pimsleur approach and so, on a whim, i bought her the Michel Thomas Beginners' Program. We started listening to it together, and it's superb. His approach requires that you relax and make no effort to remember. Gradually, painlessly, he imparts grammar (which he calls "structure" to avoid stressing you out with a word that causes many reflexively to clench mentally). Now I have his advanced cds as well and I'm learning things I never knew or never understood properly. It's wonderful how he imparts understanding. So gradual and so effortless. It's fun. I highly recommend his cds. And they're much less expensive than Pimsleur and, in my view, as good or better.
Strange First, Michel is a male. Second, Michel has such a heavy accent (but not Italian) that in a number of cases I had to listen the the Italian to understand what he was saying in English. He gets hung up on some small details (incessant repetition of the two pronounciations of "vuole"). If he spelled some of the more confusing words, I might have had some idea what he was saying. He says "chalk kay" dozens of times, but since he gave us no clue as to the construction of the sound he was making, I had to do some research to determine that he was saying "cio che".
I think I will go elsewhere for my next lessons. Maybe from someone who is a native speaker of at least English or, preferably, Italian.
Perfect for commuting While both my wife and son criticize Michel Thomas's Italian accent and his use of the formal "you" rather than the widely used familiar form of "you", I found this to be a wonderful learning experience for my 90 minute per day commuting. Nice and slow. While words are only occasionally spelled out, a substantial limitation, I now feel very comfortable with sentence structure. I will now purchase the advanced series.
E Fantastico! I used Michel Thomas' Spanish lessons to prepare for a trip to Argentina and it was very helpful. I already knew I liked his intuitive, practical method of teaching, but I had no idea the Italian CDs would be so much more comprehensive than the Spanish ones.
He covers far more verb tenses than on the Spanish one (present, simple past, imperfect, conditional, and future).
He's a terrific teacher - I recommend these tapes to ANYONE. It's so much more useful and practical than the classic "listen/repeat" ("Where is the train station") kind of language lessons.
My only complaint is that he teaches "you" completely in the formal 3rd person tense, never in the informal "tu" form, and I've already been busted for that in practice conversations with an Italian friend. So I'd recommend looking up some of those verbs/rules and just making the adjustment yourself when you're doing the exercises.
Am ready to move on to "advanced" and I can't wait.
aka: Italian on the iPod Since I spend a lot of time driving, this has been a wonderful way to learn for me. I have no other time, and now my otherwise 'wasted' time is useful. Also, the way he teaches is great because you learn useful phrases you can use right away, so you pick it up really quick. Oh and you can put it on your iPod and listen to it pretty much anywhere.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
