Customer Reviews
Moving to more complex conversation - By: C. Young, 31 Oct 2008 
The advanced course is a direct extension of the Foundation course using exactly the same question-and-answer format which focuses on grammatical building blocks & even uses the same two learners. Hard to say how it would work as stand-alone package. I've studied German off & on for years, & most of the grammar-based teaching was dreadful. This is to me a more natural way of dealing with more complex areas. The first of the four CDs is relatively undemanding & revises some of the first course. Midway through CD2, though the complexity goes up a notch with mind-bending phrases of the variety "You could have come with us". This is the sort of construction you do have to learnin natural conversation, but I suspect it will take quite a few listens before it clicks. After this challenge the course settles down & a whole range of helpful grammar snippets are covered, including quite a bit of sneakedin subjunctive. I'm not sure about Michael's bold claim that you know all the major structures of the language by the end - gender, adjectives, cases, prepositions & so on are not really covered. I believe MT works best as a supplement to traditional courses & doubt it fits with modern 'theory' but it is undoubtedly effectivein what it tries to do.
How NOT to teach German - By: A. M. Henderson, 10 Apr 2008 
I would like to write something positive about this curious recording.
Based on old sociolinguistics circa: 1960ties theories of teaching language, long forgotten as ineffective, M.Thomas perseveries.
THE pronunciation of "students" is appalling, & not improved at all;
from CD1 to CD 4 ( for example: the course's favorite word: zurueck, pronounced with Z instead of correct pronunciation: ts) is just an example. Many mistakes are uncorrected by M.Thomas. The bizarre terms he uses "handle" "divingboard" do nothing-at all- to explain simple grammar points (auxiliary verbs, & past participle respectively).
Avoid, (or buy for your German friends have a good laugh).
The grass is greener on the other side. - By: Eugene Nyunt, 01 Aug 2007 
What immediately struck me about this course following on from the Foundation Course was the sound quality. It's not that it's badin any way, but my initial reaction was that Michel Thomas & his two guests were sitting some distance back from the mike.
The format of the course remains the same: Michel Thomas provides a series of explanations & an example sentence, followed by prompts when he expects the two learners to ideally answer correctly - if not he'll provide further elaboration. He makes no secret that grammar is the fundamental essence of the audio tracks, & he hints at this again on the fourth (of the five) discs, when he states that "all the open doors into the language...and into reading" have now been opened for learners.
Although shorter than the Foundation Course, the Advanced version manages to cover more ground - primarily because his two present guests are considerably more knowledgeable than his earlier learners. However it's obvious that this is a grammar course when you realize that there are some things which haven't been mentioned beforein either Foundation or Advanced courses - especially vocabulary & some verbs. Clearly you'll need access to a dictionary, at the very least for spelling.
Unlike the previous course Michel Thomas is a lot less indulgent with variable usage on the part of his two guests. For example there he tolerated the placement of the word 'bald' (rendered as 'soon'in English); now he's a lot more insistent that such "time elements" usually come earlier within a sentence. For me this got rid of most of my earlier frustration, which was also exacerbated by the distracting sighs of his male student.
Although using non-native speakers definitely makes this course accessible, listening to other courses such as those produced by Pimsler makes it evident that things are quite differentin real time. However if you've also had a negative cultural experience with high-school Germanin this country -in my casein south London - you'll not be bothered, especially if you're seeking rapid acquisition of some basics of the spoken language & more confidence with the written form.
