I see these A-list endorsements in Michel Thomas advertising, on other reviews and videos and what it says to me is that somebody somewhere probably got paid good money to say very nice things. The Michel Thomas Total course sitting in front of me has a dozen A-list celebrities’ names written on it under the heading, “The method chosen by the stars”.
It’s a course that’s marketed primarily for and by the rich and famous.īy the way, if there’s anything the recent US election has taught me, it’s that Hollywood endorsements aren’t worth much! (see here and here) 🙂 The Michel Thomas Method came out of his Polyglot Institute in Beverley Hills, and seemed to rely heavily on celebrity endorsements rather than letting the method’s results speak for themselves unlike other big name competitors. Ever asked yourself why Michel Thomas is endorsed by so many A-list celebrities?īefore we even get into the substance of the MT Method, there’s one thing that’s always had me curious. UPDATE: Shortly after writing this review, I was contacted by an investigative journalist from the LA Times who debunked Michel Thomas’ war story (see his points here). No, this did not necessarily make him a good teacher nor did it say it anything about the development of his method. I should also add that although Michel Thomas’ famous war story (his Nazi resistance and role in interrogation in WW2) is an incredible tale that’s well documented (there’s even a good biographical account on it), this does not warrant conferring extra weight to his teaching methodology which was developed many years later. Or it may just be that MT was pioneering and innovative back in the day though it would probably struggle to stand out in today’s market. This is *especially* true in the realm of language education.**Ĭonsensus on effective methods changes dramatically over time, and approaches that were extremely popular decades ago (like that of Michel Thomas) may have been rendered obsolete by contemporary research. What I have seen first of all is an assumption by many that age = high quality.Īs I pointed out in my Assimil, Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone reviews, the fact that something has been around for a long time does not bestow authority. Like so many other products that I’ve taken the time to write about, decent reviews on the Michel Thomas Method are virtually non-existent. The Michel Thomas Method has been around for a long time but age is not a reliable indicator of quality Make sure to share your own experience and thoughts in the comment section below. However I will provide my in-depth and brutal assessment of the Michel Thomas Method anyway. Unfortunately, I wanted to include some Q&A with Hodder Education along with this review (I always like to fire off challenging questions to content creators and publishers to get some substantive answers) but Hodder never followed up on my request for additonal information. I’ve spent the last few weeks meticulously going through the content and researching its method. Michel Thomas is a popular household name that most of us are familiar with and it’s certainly a course that I get asked about quite often (particularly the Arabic edition).
This is a product that I’ve wanted to look at for a long time as MT is still a very popular course among language learners. I was recently sent a few copies of the Michel Thomas Total Arabic and Perfect Arabic courses from the good folks over at Hodder Education in exchange for an honest review. Make sure to check out my Essential Language Learning Tools page as well for other resources and recommendations. NOTE: I’ve recommended a far better, more user-friendly (and less expensive) alternative to Michel Thomas recently.
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