Editorial Reviews
Product Description
In just six hours, you can enrich your Spanish vocabulary with the
Michel Thomas™ method
You already know and trust the Michel Thomas method™ for learning a new
language--no books, no writing, no drills. And nothing to memorize--ever!
Now the next generation of Michel Thomas-method teachers is ready to help
you become confident in your new language.
In Michel Thomas Speak Spanish Vocabulary Builder, Rose Lee Hayden
uses the foundation Michel Thomas created to enhance your Spanish
vocabulary. You build on what you learned in previous courses by hearing
correct pronunciations from two native speakers and get plenty of
opportunities for practice. With Hayden’s direction--and Michel’s successful
methodology--you can learn 1,000 Spanish words and phrases and feel even
more comfortable communicating in your new language.
Includes five 70-minute audio CDs in a faux leather zippered case
About the Author
Rose Lee Hayden is Michel Thomas's most trusted and experienced
teacher.
Over a period of twenty-five years Michel Thomas developed a
unique and revolutionary learning system that made him the world's leading
language teacher.
Product Details
- Audio CD: 8 pages
- Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (September 25, 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0071487980
- ISBN-13: 978-0071487986
- Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
- Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
- Average Customer Review:
(7
customer reviews)
|
Rating:
-
This would be a very good vocab course if it weren't for the woman on the CD.
Her Spanish accent (or lack thereof) is atrocious. She is not a very good
example to follow, with her hard R's, and plosive dental consonants. She should
have taken a diction class before recording these.
Rating:
-
I am an American who learned German as a foreign language and then taught the
language at university level for thirty years, so I know soemthing about
language instruction. I also know French and have some experience with Italian
and am now, in retirement, learning Spanish with the Michel Thomas method. The
Thomas method goes directly to the essentials needed for communication,
emphasizing similarities and differences between the "target language" and the
learner's native tongue (in this case, English) and reinforcing structural
points and vocabulary elements for retention. In contrast to other "teach
yourself methods," Thomnas gives English cues to initiate resonse in the "target
language," rather than giving phrases in the new language that the learner is
asked to repeat. This is much more effective in encouraging recall than is the
"parroting method," since the learner must retrieve the foreign words and
phrases from memory from the cue in his/her own language. My only disappointment
with the Course is that the American "director" of the Vocabulary Builder, while
her tone is very friendly and encouraging to the student, has one "problem" in
Spanish pronunciation, though this is partially compensated for by the two
native speakers of Spanish, one from Latin America and one from Spain, who
pronounce the Spanish words and phrases in turn. To be specific, the American
doesn't seem to hear the difference between the English word "day," with its
strong diphthong, and the Spanish "de." The same is true for the difference
between the English word "say," and the Spanish "se." Aside from that, I
recommend the course enthusiastically to anyone desiring a quick and direct path
to spoken Spanish.
John Louis Miller
Rating:
-
I am still listening to the Spanish Vocabulary Builder CDs. The first CD is a
little too easy and assumes a beginner level of Spanish vocabulary. The CDs are
clear and easy to understand. I believe I will get a much stronger vocabulary as
a result of listening to these CDs.
Rating:
-
This course is excellent. If used combination with other learning resources it
really will improve your Spanish. Intellegently assembled, the quality of the
content makes tolerating the constant references to Michel Thomas and the
teacher's piercing Americam accent and non-existant Spanish accent well worth
while. Native speakers are used both from Spain and South America as
pronnounciations references. I love the anti George Bush Administration subtext.
This set of Cd's is a must for anyone who has commuting time for audio work.
Rating:
-
I have never been motivated to write a review on Amazon before, but I was so
completely annoyed by this CD set that I took it out of my CD player after 20
minutes and am planning to give (or throw)the whole set away. There is a LOT of
useless filler verbiage in this this CD set,and someone must have been paid for
the number of times the words "Michel Thomas" were used in the script. It was
annoying that the sentences the listener was supposed to think of how to say in
Spanish were very long and usually pertained to a negative comment about
something. However, the thing that I found most annoying was that every time the
main speaker would have a native speaker say the long sentence, she would repeat
it herself in her blatantly non-native accent, rather than having a native
speaker repeat it. This is a torturous way to learn Spanish vocabulary. Even
though I'm very motivated to learn Spanish, I can't handle this!
Rating:
-
I recently took both the Michel Thomas Introductory and advanced Spanish courses
and think they are the very best language learning tools available for self
study.
The Vocabulary builder is an excellent way to add to your vocabulary and to
review. The first 2 CDs build vocabulary by pointing out the thousands of words
in Spanish that are similar or the same in English. The method is to show how to
transform from English to Spanish so that you will be able to add words to your
vocabulary by knowing how to transform the words from English.
The CDs refer to a user guide which includes an index to the CDs but none was
included with my product. This is the only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of
5. Don't know if this was an oversight or not but I would very much like to have
the user guide if it is available.
Rating:
-
Michel Thomas does not speak Spanish in these CDs. A young woman does on his
behalf. That's disappointing but, on the other hand, she does an excellent job
and attempts (fairly successfully) to continue in his style. I am only midway
through the second CD, so this may well be premature, but I would give her high
marks. The approach, in the beginning, is to present transformations of English
word-endings into their corresponding Spanish word-endings so that by mastering
the transformation you automatically expand your vocabulary by the several words
that fit into that class. There are two native speakers that give you good
practice in hearing the sentences and phrases as spoken by them. She also
repeats the phrases - happily because she is easier to understand. In
conclusion, while I am disappointed in the absence of Michel Thomas, I'm still
glad I bought the set and would recommend it.
|