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Michel Thomas Method: Russian Foundation Language Course CD
[0340948418]

Michel Thomas Method: Russian Foundation Language Course CD
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Learn another language the way you learnt your own! As a child, you learnt your own language naturally and enjoyably: now you can learn Russian in the same way. There's no books and no writing, and you will achieve confidence - in hours. With the "Michel Thomas Method", you learn the language in small steps, building it up yourself to produce ever more complicated sentences. The Method works as it breaks down the language into its component parts, enabling learners to reconstruct the language themselves - to form their own sentences, to say what they want, when they want. On the recording you will hear two students being taught in real time and in a classroom situation, so you are learning with others. You enjoy their success and learn from their mistakes. You, as learner, become the third student and participate actively in the class. In a very short time you will be able to manipulate Russian structures to express what you want to say. You can use the unique method perfected over fifty years by the celebrated psychologist and linguist Michel Thomas. The Method works WITH your brain, helping you to build up your Russian in manageable, enjoyable steps by thinking out the answers for yourself. You learn through listening and speaking - the way you learnt as a child. You pick up the language naturally and unforgettably. These all-audio courses are accompanied by an index, where the Russian words are printed in Roman script and translated, for easy reference. If you want to learn it, the Cyrillic alphabet is taught on a dedicated audio track and shown in the booklet; but you don't have to know the Cyrillic script to learn Russian with the Michel Thomas Method. This 8-hour "Russian Foundation Course" is one of the Michel Thomas Method Russian courses published by Hodder Arnold, the others being the 5-hour "Advanced Course", the 2-hour "Foundation Review" and the 1-hour "Advanced Review".

Michel Thomas Michel Thomas Russian
Michel Thomas Michel Thomas Method: Russian Foundation Language Course CD
Michel Thomas 0340948418

This product was added to our catalog on Thursday 11 October, 2007.
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Product Reviews
Too basic  
First a confession - I didn't actually buy this. Instead I sent off for a free sampler CD. (Available from the Michel Thomas UK website.) On the basis of what I heard, I decided it was not suitable for me.
Here are my thoughts anyway...

Good Points:
The system seems to be based on sound theories.
We learn new things more easily if we can make connections with things we already know. Therefore the lessons start with useful words that are the same or similar in English. This quickly builds a small vocabulary to which the teacher gradually adds more and more. All the time she gently explains basic points of the language, as the sentences build in complexity.
She also suggests mnemonics to help remember the words (another well proven technique). As you listen and repeat, you quickly pick it up. [The sample CD also had Arabic & Chinese examples, which were fun to learn!]

Bad Points:
I think I would get VERY irritated listening to the teacher's voice over & over again. I have a suspicion that this method would not work as well on CD as it would face to face (which is what MT is famous for).
But my main concern is that the level of learning is too basic. The sample includes some of the first & final lessons of the course. The final lesson has sentences like "I want to, I can, and I will speak Russian". I already have a smattering of Russian, and could say that anyway. So for me it is not suitable.

I think the whole approach is aimed at people who have zero existing knowledge and very little time to study - i.e. it will get you up and running quickly. But it is not much use for someone who wants to study the language at all seriously. So it depends what your goal is. I recommend getting a free sampler before you buy - available from the UK MT site (not the USA one).

Instead of this I bought Learn Russian In Your Car, which appears much more comprehensive (and has a more traditional teaching method).
Easiest and most effective method of language learning  
This is the best method of language learning I've ever experienced. In a few days, I have gained a good understanding of how the language works and am now able to converse with my Russian boyfriend and understand a lot of what his family are talking about at the dinner table! It took me many years to gain the same knowledge of German in a classroom. It is also very enjoyable because I was constantly amazed by how much I could say without any effort at all. I did the whole course in 3 days because I enjoyed it so much and didn't want to stop! Since then, I have also done the entire Michel Thomas French course and, in response to what someone else has written, I didn't think it was any better than the Russian course. His method is brilliant and has been expertly adapted for the Russian course. I didn't find that the students' mistakes confused me at all and it was always made clear when they made mistakes. I can't recommend it highly enough.
You learn quickly, but at what cost...?  
First up, this is not the Michel Thomas Method -- it is an approximation of it, and not a particularly good one.

1) When the students on the CD get the stress wrong in a word or sentence. Natasha says "yes", or "very good", or "that's right", before saying it correctly. She presumably believes that they'll get better just by hearing it said right. Thomas never did. When she eventually gives in and starts correcting them, they're confused by it. Why is what was right earlier wrong now? Their confidence goes causing them to start asking questions they should already know the answers to.

2) Natasha tells us that an unstressed "au" is "ah" in Russian. She pronounces every unstressed "au" clearly as "ah". Then in CD 5 she mentions in passing that they are slightly different. She immediately goes back to pronouncing them the same. In doing this, she fails to teach a distinction that is vitally important (this can mean the difference between calling something feminine and calling it neuter) and now I know I'm going to have to do a lot of work to undo this bad teaching.

3) Michel Thomas only asked his students to guess things when he had a reasonable expectation that they'd get it right first time -- Natasha doesn't. There are many cognates and loan words in the course, but there is no reliable pattern regarding changes in word stress. This means that our first exposure to a new word is wrong in about 50% of all cases. Not good.

4) Natasha falls into the old teacher habit of "answer in sentences". Thomas rarely asked you to answer anything, because answering in sentences is unnatural in any language. The Michel Thomas method means you don't have to answer, so why introduce this unnatural language?

5) The course wastes a lot of time on "A man says?... And a woman says?" If she had used "he" and "she" more than "I", we could have learnt the gender system without nearly as much repetition.

6) The course wastes a lot of time teaching fairly random words of very limited us (luggage, newspaper, etc). MT taught the most common words and words that formed a pattern.

Don't get me wrong -- this is better than most courses out there, but it's only half as good as a genuine "Michel Thomas" course, so why is it the same price?
For a wholesome intro to Russian, this is the way to go!  
The teacher here has found novel ways of interpreting Russian words as vivid images which stick in your mind. The learning process comes naturally as if uncovering a Russian tongue you never knew you had. References to Russian culture as well as etymology of certain words further aid the memory.

Having taken a few Russian classes for beginners some years ago, these CDs were a very useful refresher for me and I wish they'd been made earlier! I found the pace comfortable as you're constantly learning and practicing what you learn at each stage. You're encouraged to revisit words and constructions already learnt by building them into new sentences.

To the extent that your mistakes are similar to the 2 students, you learn from their mistakes as if you yourself are being corrected. Common pitfalls are pointed out and gentle reminders flag points to watch yourself on.

As a native English speaker, I didn't appreciate the importance of tone and pitch in spoken Russian at first. You learn how stress can affect the meaning of a sentence or word depending on where it falls. Through examples and repetition you become accustomed to this as well as the subtleties of "hard" versus "soft" sounds. I found sounds much easier to distinguish by listening to the CDs than I did learning in the classroom.

Although primarily a spoken course, it also touches on how to read the Russian Cyrillic script and the small booklet has a vocab list along with the alphabet. Grammar is explained in lay man's terms to make it easy to use. You learn to use all three tenses with ease which is a pretty remarkable for a short course.

The course is fun and really facilitates learning. It's less demanding than real classes in that you're free from homework and have no time/place commitment. That being said, you can't treat it lightly: it's not something to listen to in your sleep or while cooking a new recipe. It deserves more attention so needs uninterrupted time. You have to focus on what you're listening to and picture yourself sitting at a table with the teacher and two other students. I used the 30 min commute to work to listen to this and it worked well although my vocal practice was somewhat limited!

Overall, it's a superb introduction to Russian and achieves what is stated on the box with great success. For me personally it only served as a boost to my existing knowledge as it covered familiar territory. I'm left wanting more and am eagerly awaiting delivery of the advanced course so I can follow up and learn more Russian using this amazing technique!
You can even learn Russian at 70 with Michel Thomas  
I first heard about the Michel Thomas method when I found myself in the car picking up the Italian my wife was learning by his method. I wanted to learn Russian but at 70 years the last two years have been a dispiriting slog. Then I saw that there was a Russian course by the Michel Thomas method. The years have dropped away and I'm galloping along. Many, many thanks.
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