Michel Thomas Speak Spanish For Beginners: 10-CD Beginner's Program (Michel Thomas Speak...)

I took 5 years of spanish classes and I learned more about speaking the language in the first 3 CD's than in class. Michel Thomas makes it easy to learn and to remember. I am only on disk 5 but I am really happy so far. The only downside is that the male student on the disks is sort of clueless, it's a little frusterating. I would definitely recommend this, especially if you spend a lot of time in your car.

This course is like being a fly on the wall of a room with an elderly instructor and a male and female student. You wait for the instructor to ask how to say something, pause playback, say it, then restart playback and see how you did when the other students respond and are either corrected or congratulated. The American female student is congratulated far more than corrected, and the opposite is true for the British male.

The British student does a fine job of stripping that erudite veneer off an otherwise intelligent-sounding Oxford accent. To say he's a slow learner is the understatement of the century. You'll find yourself rolling your eyes at his incessant mistakes. He stubbornly refuses to grasp many topics. Mr. Thomas can barely contain his exasperation at times during the recordings. The American girl, on the other hand, manages to grasp things at a respectable pace that keeps things moving along. It's funny because a few lessons in, you notice Mr. Thomas start to direct more of his questions toward the American girl for the sake of everyone's sanity. The only other odd thing about the recording is Mr. Thomas' issues with salivary management. I can just imagine him spitting as he talks.

I'm on Lesson 5 of 8 so far. Each lesson does a good job of creating a foundation for the later lessons. You get to learn new things while solidifying the earlier topics in your head. Each lesson seems to progress at a manageable pace.

I'm listening to this, then doing Rosetta Stone, and then language school in my attempt to gain fluency in Spanish.

UPDATE:
I'm now nearly done with the 7th of 8 lessons in the series. I continue to learn alot easily. Overall I still really like the course, but I must say the British guy REALLY detracts from the quality of it. He is painful to listen to as he eviscerates spanish pronunciation and laboriously stutters every answer. Thankfully, the recordings seem to focus on him less as time progresses. I'd suggest that Michel Thomas Inc. somehow find a way to re-record this course without someone so hopelessly inept to have to listen to. If it weren't for him, these recordings would get a very solid 5 stars.

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RQSFG036WPI52 This is one of the best courses for anyone just getting started in Spanish. You will have to watch my video to see what I have to say about the two students that Michel Thomas uses.

Michel Thomas is truly a great instructor but since he is not a native Spanish speaker after you finish this course you will have to get another course to perfect your accent. Here are a several that you can use while using Michel Thomas Spanish or you can use them after you complete the Michel Thomas course.

1. Learning Spanish Like Crazy: Spoken Spanish, Vol. 1 (2 volume set) The one advantage or disadvantage of this course is that it only teaches Latin American Spanish unlike Michel Thomas Spanish. Michel Thomas teaches European Spanish. I'd recommend LSLC for the type of learner that needs to immediately learn how to speak Spanish in order to communicate with Spanish-speakers that have recently arrived in the U.S or for someone that expects to be speaking to people in familiar situations while living in or traveling to Latin America. This course comes closer to teaching the colluquial or familiar style of conversational Spanish that you will hear native Spanish speakers use among themselves. This one is my favorite self-study Spanish course. 5 stars.

2. Spanish I - 2nd Rev. Ed.: Learn to Speak and Understand Spanish with Pimsleur Language Programs (Comprehensive) Are you planning to take a trip to Cancun soon? Well, Pimsleur Spanish is great for the traveler. You will learn monetary vocabulary terms such as "pesos" and numbers so that you will be able to count your "dolares" when travling to a Spanish speaking country. You will also know how to order beer and wine. You may not learn nearly as much vocabulary or grammar as you would with Learning Spanish Like Crazy but you will learn plenty of phrases for the traveler by using Pimsleur Spanish. Pimsleur teaches the formal Spanish that you are likely to encounter in formal speech or formal writing. 5 stars.

3. Behind the Wheel Spanish/Complete Illustrated Text/Answer Keys/8 One Hour This one is a great value and an effective teaching tool. As the name suggests, Behind the Wheel Spanish is a course you can use while driving. I have used Behind the Wheel Spanish while driving and doing things around the house. Although the instructor does not seem to be a native Spanish speaker, unlike Michel Thomas, the instructor in Behind the Wheel Spanish uses a native Spanish speaker on the recording to make sure the student picks up the proper accent. Another 5 star course.

My uncle has opened a foreign language product store and asked me to check out some of the Spanish for beginners packs. This is one of the products I tried and I thought I would share my results with fellow Amazonians.

Michel Thomas can be described as a genius, a revolutionary, sensational, methodical, brilliant.

With other language courses you feel as if you should sit through it because you will benefit. Not with Michel Thomas - you just HAVE to do the next lesson!

Make sure you start this with as much free time as possible because you'll be wanting to do the whole thing at once (which is actually how you are meant to be doing it.)

Reviewers here who criticise the "teaching to two students" method show that they have completely missed the point.

When Michel asks a question you'll find yourself pausing to have a go. And then you hit play, you'll hear the other students answers and you'll mentally be filling the blanks with them, correcting them. It helps a lot for your own happiness to hear other students forgetting or struggling along as well.

Just a point on the accent. I went and found a Spanish friend and used some of the stuff here - they said I was speaking with a French accent.. Hehe. But they said this was much better than the Australian accent they normally heard.

There's some drawbacks of course - Michel Thomas did this cd set while quite old and you'll occasionally hear him correcting students for supposed mistakes when he simply didn't hear the answer properly.

Other than that, while he's obviously not professionally trained in voice overs like his students, you can understand him just fine at all times.

MUCH better value than Pimsleur - even if were the same price it would be better value - I am recommending this to anyone who will listen to me! My brother is now doing the German and he says it is mind-blowing as well!

Some didn't like Michel's Spanish compared to French. I still like his approach, giving you an understanding of the language as you gradually increase your vocab and grammar. Hard to hear him if the windows are down in the car though.