Michel Thomas: Italian for Beginners Review

Costs:

10-CD Audio course for beginners available on Amazon.com for $50.26
5-CD Audio course for advanced users available on Amazon.com for $43.76
5-CD Speak Italian Vocab builder available on Amazon.com for $25.99
Free delivery
Free audio lesson sample available at the UK website

Prices are subject to change. For the most up to date information, please refer to the actual website.

Features:

Audio-only Italian course for beginners that teaches you fluency in conversation
- Focuses on listening, speaking, grammar and vocabulary
Highly-acclaimed, groundbreaking research-based methodology, endorsed by celebrities worldwide
English-spoken instruction and guidance by Michel Thomas
- Michel Thomas is famous for his 3 day fluency course that has taught celebrities, diplomats, academics and other professionals how to speak Italian fluently and confidently in only 3 days
Succinct explanations of Italian phrases and grammar structures
- The language is broken down into its component parts, making it understandable and enabling the student to form their own constructions according to varying contexts
- Classroom environment with two other real learners puts you in the shoes of the third learner
- 10-CD Audio course for beginners includes:
  - Introductory course: 2 hours
  - Foundation course: 6 additional hours
  - Review course: 2 hours of one-to-one with Michel Thomas
Additional courses available including:
Advanced course which takes you to the equivalent of A-Level standard Italian (high-school level diploma in the United States)
Language Builder course for additional vocabulary and grammar study study
Vocabulary Course for extended vocabulary study

Editor's Verdict:

The late Michael Thomas was, and still is, a legend in the 'teach yourself' world. He believed that "if we put our minds to it, we could all be multilingual" and based his long and prestigious career on this simple statement. Maybe what Michael Thomas was most famous for was his three day intensive course in which, at $30,000 a pop, he taught foreign languages to diplomats, business leaders and celebrities such as Woody Allen and Grace Kelly. The Audio Courses contain lessons from the principal stages of this program and are (luckily!) available to you for the much more reasonable price of $50.26 for the beginners set.

Although not a native Italian speaker, which some may see as a negative in terms of accent development, because Michael Thomas learned many different languages he understood well the experiences of language learners and knew the best ways of both teaching and learning languages. If we could describe the course in one word it would be 'simple'. Michael focuses on the similarities between languages. For example, The first Italian word you learn is "possibile" or "possible" in English. Then "è" for "it is", then "per me" for "for me". Put these together and you have "è possibile per me", or "it is possible for me!" In this way, users continue learning new words and grammatical constructs throughout the course which are easily applicable to a wide range of real world contexts. We especially liked the class room set up that the course is based on. It actually felt as though we were in one of Michael's $30,000 courses because this is what it was; two lucky winners of a competition were taken through the course which was recorded and turned into this CD set!

Now many users may read 'class room set up' and be instantly wary. However, don't let this put you off; due to Michael Thomas' vast language teaching experience and expertise, he takes responsibility for your learning; users need not take notes, do homework, revision or tests. All that is required is to sit back, listen and repeat when asked. This makes the lessons extremely portable, perfect for those who travel a lot or are very busy. Play the CDs in your car, in the kitchen while cooking or easily load them onto your mp3 player to take with you to the gym. This way, users can convert time otherwise wasted in productive Italian learning. We really enjoyed the unique lesson set up of Michael Thomas' Italian course. It is relaxing, feels personal and you can learn from the mistakes of your classmates. Michael Thomas' unique research and experience led methodology, put in this relaxed classroom context, make this product stand out from the competition and is the primary reason behind our decision to place it within the top ten for this category.

Quite clearly, reading and writing practice are impossible using this method and for users to fully master Italian they will need to look to other sources to develop these aspects of the language. Also, even the advanced course will not take you to a high level of proficiency and those looking to perfect their accent should consider a product including native speaker audio and speech analysis technology. This said, the Michael Thomas series will give you a great grounding in Italian and is arguably the easiest way to learn this beautiful language. Michael Thomas' technique itself simply cannot be emulated and although the class room style may not be for everyone, you can always check it out with the free trial available on the UK website. Whatever your preferences, this unique product is certainly merits a closer look.

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Michel Thomas: Italian for Beginners Reviews

Michel Thomas: Italian for Beginners Review