Michel Thomas Method: Dutch Foundation Course (Michel Thomas Method) |
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Cobie Adkins-de Jong, Els Van Geyte
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Pages: (Audio CD)
ISBN: 034097169X
Pub: Hodder Arnold
Pub date: 2008-07-25
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 91702
Reader Reviews:
Dutch courage (1/1 people found this helpful)
I'm a bit of a fan of the Michel Thomas method and have done his excellent audio courses in German and Italian. This is the first one I've tried which used a different teacher - she's actually better, the real Michel Thomas was often quite grumpy! -, but the method is the same. Each of the eight one-hour lessons comprises a teacher and two students. The teacher introduces phrases and the student repeats them. The difference with normal audio courses, though is that the focus is not just on memorising holiday phrases and lists of words but on practicing simple grammatical `units' that can re-used to build quite sophisticated conversational constructions. To me this mimics how people 'naturally' speak second (and probably first) languages. This I think is why people have a feeling of breakthrough and confidence after a MT course. In this case I had studied Dutch for a year but felt I couldn't speak it. After doing this course I feel I can, at least to some extent. The MT claim that the student doesn't have to work to learn the language is of course total nonsense though. There is just not enough vocabulary in a MT foundation course to survive, and I really have to listen to each course three or four times before it sticks. That said, if you do a MT alongside a conventional course to pick up more conventional vocabulary and phrases, they work brilliantly. As a pretty experienced language learner, I'd say if you want to learn to speak Dutch and don't have a native Nederlander to hand, do this course. Then do the Advanced one when it comes out!
Solid introduction (1/1 people found this helpful)
This course is a solid introduction to the Dutch language, and covers the bases well. The user is also introduced to short cuts, and words which help you to memorise important items of Dutch vocabulary. The teacher has a friendly, relaxed tone and this significantly helps the learning process.
I have lived and worked in a Dutch speaking country before, so the course was more of a "catch up", but I still found it very useful for anchoring useful phrases and concepts in my memory, as well as touching on simple but effective introductions to tidying up my Dutch grammar. I eagerly await the advanced course being released.
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