French With Michel Thomas: The Fastest Way to Learn a Language

Rating:
Summary: Questions about set
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.