Rating: 
Summary: great method
Review: I believe this 8 CD set is great if you meet each of the following requirements: 1) You have some foreign language experience. This is necessary because there are no pronunciation explanations, and there is a presumption that the listener will learn things as quickly as the students on the recording. If you have no French experience, you might have to listen to a CD several times before moving on. Also, future lessons do not always build on earlier lessons, so you must either replay CDs or practice your lessons with others. 2) You have large chunks of time to listen and focus on the CDs. I listened to these in my car on long freeway commutes, which worked well. I could not imagine simply listening in my home, where I might be easily distracted by phone calls, people, pets, etc. 3) You are planning to visit a French-speaking place soon. The tapes are very good at teaching French, but unless you plan to practice your lessons immediately after, it might all disappear from your head.
Overall, I believe his method is a good one. Michel Thomas focuses on teaching the "small" but extremely important words, and less focus on general vocabulary. After years of enduring high school French, I believe Michel Thomas' is the much better method for learning to get your point across in a foreign country.
Slight irritation with Mr. Thomas' crackly voice and idiosyncracies, strong irritation with one of the students towards the end of the tape. Overall, though, it gets the job done.
Rating: 
Summary: A light bulb went off!
Review: After taking an adult course in French at the Walt Disney Studios and studying 52 lessons on tape with another series, I still didn't grasp the concept of French like Michel Thomas explains.He uses mnemonic devices to help you remember words such as explaining where the root of the word originated. He also explains guidelines to go by and you can apply these rules 100% to other sentences. A light bulb went off for me when I understood the concepts. I've never been good at English grammar but have a very clear understanding of French sentence structure and how the verb conjugation works now...and he makes it easy and fun to learn!! You want to listen to more. I wish he had intermediate and advanced courses. I'd buy them in a second. After listening to 2 CDs in French, I immediately ordered the German ones as well. It helps if people have had a course in pronunciation first before buying the CDs. The only drawbacks are that the female student is REALLY annoying...she sounds like she smokes about 5 packs of cigs a day and has lost a huge amount of brain cells because of it....Also, he doesn't get into the past and future tense as much as I would have liked....BUT the program is so good and so worth it, you can overlook this after awhile. Thank you Michel!! You saved me!!!
Rating:
Summary: TRES BON!!!
Review: Last month I purchased the 2 CD set of French by Michel Thomas and, like other self taught languages I have tried, I was a little leary about this one being any different, but I was happily surprised to be speaking basic sentences so easily! (and so fast)! I may be working for a local buyer of fashions from Paris, so I thought It would be helpful to learn her language! Plus it would show her I am really interested! I did so well with the 2 CD set, that I also ordered the larger set! But, like another reviewer, I too found the female student to be "tres" annoying. It was like she couldn't retain anything that she had just learned. I didn't know if she was acting stupid on purpose or if it was to get the listener to participate more by almost shouting back the answer. I am so pleased with this series that I ordered the whole set of Spanish CD's, also! Buy the Michel Thomas' languages on CD... no one will be disapointed!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: on peut apprendre a parler français très vite avec Michel Th
Review: I better learn a foreign language by writing or reading than by listening to a CD, or 8 CD's in this case. Normally it can be difficult to retain information just by hearing, and sometimes it could be frustrating. But since I bought this set of 8 CD's and listened to it anywhere, at home, in the car, I must say that it is a really funny, entertaining, dynamic way to learn, and can introduce you quickly to this language by building basic sentences, learning their logic, and comparing the big similarities between french and english. On these recordings Michel Thomas encourages you together with two students in a very funny but didactic way, to think, or to guess how a word or even a sentence in french can be, just by knowing its counterpart in english. I Speak a little english and german, and I must say that I never found a course so practical and fast, while easy to retain like this. Congratulation Monsieur Thomas, et 5 etoiles.
Rating:
Summary: I usually suck at learning languages...
Review: But this CD was remarkable. I was actually able to make sentences and use them after the first listen! Initially I purchased the 2 CD set and listened to them a few times. Two weeks later, I was in Paris, asking for things at Restaurants in actual French! I couldn't believe it. My sister met me there, and kept saying "when did you learn to speak French?" (The only problem was that they started to answer me in French and I got a little nervous...but I still could pick out some words). My confidence level increased tremendously with this lesson. One of the things that kept me going with Mr. Thomas was that it's pretty fun (as far as learning a language goes.) Yes, the girl in the tape is really annoying, but I laughed out loud when she got scolded a couple of times. I kept listening because I thought she might make another mistake...
Rating:
Summary: the perfect crash course
Review: I picked up this set of CD's to prepare for a week-long trip to Paris. It is a fun, painless way to get exposure to the language. It's a bit optimistic to think you'll speak French well after the course but it will give you an adequate grasp of the language, enough to muddle your way through. The great thing about this approach is that you'll learn the mechanics of the language and be able to use it somewhat creatively in real world situations. Drawbacks: you won't learn much vocabulary and at the end of the eight CD's, you'll wish there were more. Michel Thomas is on to a good thing and I hope he will publish future volumes. The Pimsleur Method (also available from Amazon) uses a similar method and offers three volumes - just shy of 50 CD's in all so if you have more time and cash, you might want to go this route. I did just fine in Paris. I traveled with a guy who had some high school French (so more vocabulary) and between the two of us, we were able to get by with a minimal resort to English.
Rating:
Summary: Great in many respects except for....
Review: At first I was put off by the informality of Thomas's conversation with his two students, but I stayed with the entire series (more than once) and came to appreciate Thomas's teaching style. He is at his best with his memory devices, especially associating the French vocabulary with certain English words, without relying too heavily upon tricky cognates. His explanations of French grammatical construction are both helpful and interesting for those of us who want to know why something is said this way or that. What is missing? Listening. Virtually every exercise begins with "How do you say...." and never "Listen to this..." Thus the student or traveler would do well to supplement his/her study of French with a language program that puts as much emphasis on understanding as speaking.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Learning Method
Review: I recently purchased this 8 CD set and I love it. I do have some experience with the French language but I believe this would work well even for beginners. The method is to simply engage the learner as if they were the fourth student in a conversational approach to learning the spoken language. This method will not help you learn written French or grammar rules etc. but it will help you learn good basic spoken French. This is a relaxed style which eliminates memorization of rules and replaces it a natural learning style similar to how you would learn the langauge in a natural setting. I strongly recommnend this method. A very good product.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastique; tres bon
Review: I thought I was an unteachable language student. I have learned more French in one and a half hours from these CD's than my 5 years of Spanish at school. This is a fantastic course and it is fun. I am finding myself really wanting to do another lesson. I have never had as much enjoyment at learning anything prior to this. I am a regular Amazon book customer and most things I buy are great, but this is the first time I've felt compelled to write a review. That's how good it is. As for the previous reviewer who says that there all these conditions for use, I do not drive and I easiy learn sitting and listening at my kitchen table. My prouniciation of foreign words has always been very poor. My previous language experience was almost as if I have never had taken a language course. The only sentence I've retained is "Mi casa is su casa" I am understanding pronunciation better than I ever thought I could. It sounds right. I think the beauty is that they are CD's and you have the opporunity to repeat them as much as you need to. The conditions for use are whatever works for vous. In fact as I type this now several of the French words are comming to mind as I type the English words and this only after learning the first two CD's!
Rating:
Summary: Michel makes you think!
Review: I have tried several audio products for learning french in my car while I drive. This is the only one that leaves you really thinking about what you have learned and trying new phrases on your own. The other tapes were boring or worse. I only wish there were an advanced course. The informal "tu" form of you is not covered and must now learn this on my own. I would love to continue to learn with Michel Thomas. I would buy a second set of 8 CD's if they were available.
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