Michel Thomas Chinese

[Guest smurfette]

Hey there! Has anyone tried this method? Do you know how many words it teaches (foundation course and advanced one)?

My guess would be that it gives you nowhere near 800 words (level B). Am I correct?

[yersi]

Could you give some more information on what his method entails?

[Guest smurfette]

It's an audio course.

You are gradually given more and more words and asked to build sentences. They do teach tones, and instead of repeating phrases, you actually learn to make your own sentences.

No book or any other visual material supplied.

It is not a very academic course, but is great to learn to speak fast. They oversimplify things a little, but that's exactly what you need if you are not doing a degree in linguistics

I do know tones and characters and am now using the course to revise. Just want to know where i will be at the end of the course (how many words I will have revised).

More info here: http://www.michelthomas.co.uk/

Reviews are plentiful, just google.

[Akarui]

I discovered that method with your post, and it's exactly like Pimsleur methods. I listened quickly to Foundation courses and advances courses, and I guess when you go throught all the courses, you'll know around 300 words.

Listening methods give a lot of confidence to learners, but I don't think it will take you far, because it's very slow. It is a very good introduction to chinese, but you' ll have to get a book if you really want to improve.

[Guest smurfette]

I agree.

But I would like to say that I think this course is different from Pimsler. That is because instead of dumbly repeating sentences, you are asked to make sentences from lesson one. And you are never asked to repeat anything, especially anything you don't fully understand. So I think this course really helps you to start speaking the language.

I tried other languages with Pimsleur and REALLY thought the method was useless.

That said, if one wants to speak Chinese better than just being able to say a few sentences, they should really get books with audio (like any of the BLCU or Beida courses).

I studied for 3 years with one of the BLCU books, but that was several years ago. I got Michel Thomas so that I can listen it on the train, etc, and revise my previous studies. And also to practice speaking after several years of neglecting Chinese. My estimate is close to yours, Akarui. I think it will give me about 200-300 words top.

[imron]

I just had a listen to the Chinese lesson then available on their website. There's plenty of the same repeating you see in Pimsleur (which incidentally also asks you to create sentences) however Michel Thomas goes at a significantly slower pace. Not only do all the speakers speeaaak....... liiiikeee....... thiiiiissss.... leading the pronunciation of the Chinese learner on the mp3 to seem unnatural, but in between introducing new words there is a ton of useless dialog telling you how wonderful you are and how Chinese is such a cinch to learn that had me wondering if I was listening to a Chinese lesson or a self-help motivational tape (it took practically 10 minutes before they even began teaching Chinese).

Pimsleur on the other hand just gets straight to point without all the waffle that seems to happen in Michel Thomas.

[Neil_H]

I found that listening to the students with their poor pronunciation of the words was rather off putting. I did both beginners and the Advanced course last year but they are both just beginners level.

A good starter before you begin a course or book.

[wrbt]

Yeah the word "advanced" takes on a whole new meeting with quick and dirty audio courses like this.

Then you find out advanced is 3rd year college Chinese.

Then you find out nope that's wrong advanced is textbooks that recommend you know at least 7000 words.

Oops wrong again then you try to listen to a newcast in Chinese.

Sincerely,

Intermediate-Forever