Michel Thomas Mandarin
Lately, my focus has been on Breton. And I've felt good about how much I'm actually putting into it. But I've felt bad about letting my Mandarin slip. So when I saw that Michel Thomas Mandarin was finally out, I decided to have a look.
The store where I was shopping only had the two disc set and, not knowing how the program would actually be, that was just fine. So far, I've just about finished the first disc.
I've been wary of the Michel Thomas programs made after his death. And the Michel Thomas Italian Vocabulary program, though using something much like the Michel Thomas method, lacked the Michel Thomas style. This could have been a good thing - Thomas was not the most patient man by the time he got around to making the programs. But the Italian program seemed to wander, had the occasional mistake and, worst of all, was relentlessly encouraging in spots. If, as Thomas always said, the responsibility for learning is with the teacher, you don't need to compliment every right answer with "exactly" or "correct" or whatever - you can just move on. Especially since they used native speakers as the "students" to make sure pronunciation was modeled correctly.
The Michel Thomas Mandarin set is taught by Harold Goodman. Goodman isn't Michel Thomas, either, but there's something in his manner that fits this program more into the original mold. His manner is dry, the student responses are followed with the next item,not phatic chatter. And his story about the little old lady who decided Chinese verbs should have only one form, told using a "Chinese person speaking English" accent, leaves you with the impression that Goodman can be every bit as insensitive as Thomas. As with Thomas, I'm not sure I'd like to be in the cabin next to Goodman for a long ocean cruise, but for purposes of getting the nitty gritty of a language and moving on, this is what we're looking for - memorable and to the point.
Goodman is not a native speaker of Mandarin, so the course is co-narrated by Jingtao Deng, who seems nice enough, but also keeps things moving. In addition, the set comes with a card explaining the tones and tricks for remembering them. And the first seven tracks of the first CD are dedicated to understanding what you're getting into with Mandarin and getting a handle on the tones. As a result, the course starts a lot more slowly than the typical Michel Thomas course. But that's okay, because with a language as different from English as Mandarin, getting a firm foundation is important.
In the time I've been studying Mandarin - is it two years already? - I've used Pimsleur, group lessons and a private teacher. In that time, I've picked up a lot. And forgotten a lot. But the tones have always been a horrible problem for me. I won't say that Michel Thomas Mandarin has me speaking fluently and fluidly with perfect tones, but it's given a much better understanding of how to make them and how to keep them straight. I'm at least getting them right in the exercises, if not in real life, and that's a start.
Michel Thomas Mandarin makes use of the building block approach to start putting words and sentences together. While this is mostly review for me, I think it's pretty well sequenced. As with the other courses, if you want to learn conversational phrases and start chatting right away, you're better off with Pimsleur. But for getting a sense how Chinese goes together and how you can start putting it together, the course doesn't look half bad.
If you're brand new to Mandarin and want to learn on your own, I would recomend the Pimsleur Basic set to get started talking and Michel Thomas Mandarin to get a better idea what you're doing and lay the foundations for real communication in Mandarin. If you already know some phrases from travel or talking with friends, but don't have a good sense of the language, Michel Thomas Mandarin is definitely worth trying.
The store where I was shopping only had the two disc set and, not knowing how the program would actually be, that was just fine. So far, I've just about finished the first disc.
I've been wary of the Michel Thomas programs made after his death. And the Michel Thomas Italian Vocabulary program, though using something much like the Michel Thomas method, lacked the Michel Thomas style. This could have been a good thing - Thomas was not the most patient man by the time he got around to making the programs. But the Italian program seemed to wander, had the occasional mistake and, worst of all, was relentlessly encouraging in spots. If, as Thomas always said, the responsibility for learning is with the teacher, you don't need to compliment every right answer with "exactly" or "correct" or whatever - you can just move on. Especially since they used native speakers as the "students" to make sure pronunciation was modeled correctly.
The Michel Thomas Mandarin set is taught by Harold Goodman. Goodman isn't Michel Thomas, either, but there's something in his manner that fits this program more into the original mold. His manner is dry, the student responses are followed with the next item,not phatic chatter. And his story about the little old lady who decided Chinese verbs should have only one form, told using a "Chinese person speaking English" accent, leaves you with the impression that Goodman can be every bit as insensitive as Thomas. As with Thomas, I'm not sure I'd like to be in the cabin next to Goodman for a long ocean cruise, but for purposes of getting the nitty gritty of a language and moving on, this is what we're looking for - memorable and to the point.
Goodman is not a native speaker of Mandarin, so the course is co-narrated by Jingtao Deng, who seems nice enough, but also keeps things moving. In addition, the set comes with a card explaining the tones and tricks for remembering them. And the first seven tracks of the first CD are dedicated to understanding what you're getting into with Mandarin and getting a handle on the tones. As a result, the course starts a lot more slowly than the typical Michel Thomas course. But that's okay, because with a language as different from English as Mandarin, getting a firm foundation is important.
In the time I've been studying Mandarin - is it two years already? - I've used Pimsleur, group lessons and a private teacher. In that time, I've picked up a lot. And forgotten a lot. But the tones have always been a horrible problem for me. I won't say that Michel Thomas Mandarin has me speaking fluently and fluidly with perfect tones, but it's given a much better understanding of how to make them and how to keep them straight. I'm at least getting them right in the exercises, if not in real life, and that's a start.
Michel Thomas Mandarin makes use of the building block approach to start putting words and sentences together. While this is mostly review for me, I think it's pretty well sequenced. As with the other courses, if you want to learn conversational phrases and start chatting right away, you're better off with Pimsleur. But for getting a sense how Chinese goes together and how you can start putting it together, the course doesn't look half bad.
If you're brand new to Mandarin and want to learn on your own, I would recomend the Pimsleur Basic set to get started talking and Michel Thomas Mandarin to get a better idea what you're doing and lay the foundations for real communication in Mandarin. If you already know some phrases from travel or talking with friends, but don't have a good sense of the language, Michel Thomas Mandarin is definitely worth trying.
