Total French (Learn French with the Michel Thomas Method) Audio CD – Audiobook, 29 April 2011

This french learning audio set is just fantsatic!I listen to it every time I get in the car and blow me, if it isn't sinking in! Brilliant! I was pretty good at O level french and could remember loads of words, but struggled with sentences and structure!Michel just makes it all so much easier, I even wake up still putting sentences together after dreaming them in French! Every time I hear a word in English that I now know in french, I hear myself repeating in my head in a french accent!I've just ordered the master class advanced set though I've still loads to learn yet! This is how pleased I am with it.I have also discovered that the best thing to do (for me at least) is to listen to each CD over and over again in succession! As it's easy to miss important snippets of info and then this way it really sinks in!I've wanted to learn French for years and nearly gave up after repeated attempts with other audio sets and occasional evening classes.There no substitute for living in a country to learn it's language, but this CD set goes some way close.I also like the way michael is quite gruff yet charming and he tells you to say things in a certain way as that's how the French do it. It makes one more understood! And when you realise that french words are so numerous in English, but just pronounced differently; it makes learning seem so much more manageable somehow. It's also very interesting to learn that french is constructed or based around old English, this one fact has had such an impact on me that I feel I will be able to master it after all.Michels also had the most interesting life bless him! Including surviving concentration camps etc.Honestly if you're serious about wanting to learn french you can't go wrong with this box set! And at around 40 quid it's a bargain. Ces't formidable!!!

Michel Thomas and Paul Noble use similar methods to teach French and they are both very effective. They both have benefits and disadvantages.I found Paul's CD easier to follow. Paul speaks and explains the French language very clearly and he uses a native French speaker to make sure the pronounciation is correct. It is very systematic and straight-forward and by the end of the course I felt I had a decent understanding of basic French.On the negative side, it did at times feel a little slow-paced and Paul sometimes repeats explanations which are unnecessary and become a little annoying near the end of the course. I also found that while I could remember the language the way that he taught it, I struggled when hearing the language elsewhere.Michel Thomas is less systematic but feels more organic. His phraseology is more gritty and down-to-earth. For example, where Paul teaches 'it is not' as 'Ce n-est pas', Michel tells you to pronounce it as 'snay pas' because that is the way it is spoken in France most of the time. Probably the biggest advantage of Michel's course is that once you've finished the basic course, you can continue with more advanced French and then even more advanced French (on more of his CDs). Having said that, there is a free internet course called 'Duolingo' which is better than any of the CDs as it builds up a broader vocabulary and keeps going until you're fluent.I found that the CDs taught me the basics well but Duolingo has been much more effective. Using both have the advantage of hearing the language spoken by different people and taught in slightly different ways.I've found learning the French hugely beneficial, opening up an understanding of a part of the world that is limited without knowing the language. Really enjoying it.

It is such a good idea. You listen into, and can join in with, many hours of language lessons between Michel and two students. He talks through his method of acquiring French by assimilation; similarities with English, amusing aids to remembering and so on as he helps you to build vocabularly and grammar for conversational French without needing to know the names of parts of speech and all that gruesome stuff. The problem is, for those of us who need to hear it several times, the male student is very good but the female student is poor and tries to compensate for her many mistakes by overdoing her part with too much emphasis and 'Allo 'Allo accents. I wanted to hear it correctly more than I needed to hear it being corrected. Another thing that bothered me a little bit is that Michel isn't French and there were times when I - without any evidence whatsoever! - questioned his accent. He is multi-lingual and astonishly good at what he does ut he's not French. It is very good but I think should be done again with different students.