Eco Holidays

posted by Catherine on Jan 29

Michel Thomas Language Series – The 8 Part Course For Beginners.

Format: 8 CDs

Style: This course is completly reliant on you listening to his voice and the efforts of his 2 students. He basis his teaching on ‘No Books, No Writing – Just Confidence In Hours’, so just sit back and listen your way to a new language.

Language: Latin/Roman Script – (My Language: Same)
Have I Tried This Language Before? – Yes, but I have only learnt basic phases – Michel promises to teach you how to use the language rather than just repeat it.

General Comments:
I love it! Seriously – it wasn’t the same old things as all the other language courses.

There was no ‘Hello my name is….’ or ‘I am from….’ or even ‘Where is the tourist office/train station/chemist’, infact we hardly learned any nouns at all.

So how can you learn a language without pages and pages of fruits, vegetables and furniture? With ease! These can all come later as Michel Thomas teaches you how to use verbs to express yourself.

Once you know a verb – you can use it to mean dozens of different things; and use these verbs alongside ‘it’, ‘that’ and ‘this’ and add in a ‘here’, ‘there’ and ‘tomorrow’ and you can say what ever you want.

If you only learn the nouns you can only ask the same question or state the same thing to use any number of nouns (for example ‘I like dogs/cats/cheese’ or ‘I want a sandwich/coffee/room’) whereas I can easily now say plenty of more interesting things like ‘I don’t like that’, ‘I don’t want to go there today’ and ‘Will you buy that for me tomorrow as I can’t buy it myself today’.

It really immerses you in the very heart of the language rather than skirting you around the edges. And although every single thing he said hasn’t stayed stuck in my mind and I get some of the verbs mixed up – I feel so much more confident about the language.

And it’s great to listen to other people trying to learn at the same time as you on the CD – almost like you are in a classroom. That way you can feel that you are doing as well as or even better than the students in the recording – or huff at yourself when you can’t remember the verbs and they say it for you! The number of times I said to myself ‘oh I knew it!’.

There were times when a whole section went over my head the first time, but then I just went back over that section again a second time and more of it slipped into place!

I have learnt so much more than I expected on this course as it is so different from the other approaches that I have reviewed on this site. You really have to try it for yourself.

So if you are bored of the ‘standard’ approach of ordering food and taking directions at the start of every language course; then maybe it is time you tried the Michel Thomas way!

Ease Of Use: 5/5

Result: Finished And Confident

Reason: Perfect Layout For Me

posted by Catherine on Jun 18

Teach Yourself: Holiday & Business Basics – Introductory Course

Format: 1 PaperBack Book & CD

Style: Learning phrases common in introductory conversations, with verbal accompaniment.  Unit tests and quizzes throughout to test learning with answers in the back of the book.

Language: Latin/Roman Script – (My Language: Same)
Have I Tried This Language Before? - Yes, but still a beginner.

General Comments:
You start the course with the most common conversation details – introducing yourself to others and finding out about destinations and jobs.  You read the full conversation in English, then read the full conversation in your chosen language.  You can instantly see familiar and common words and new words are explained over the page in the remainder of the unit.

The accompanying CD helps you with the pronunciation, but you can use the book on it’s own throughout if you are confident with your own pronunciation.  There are also nice and easy quizzes on your new vocabulary to build up your confidence – and finally a very thorough Unit Test (with answers at the back!).

There are no grammar lessons in the course or boring repetitive sentences – just simple phrases that you will use most often; like ‘I like to go to A’, and ‘We need a table for 4′.  Not ‘I want, You want, He wants, She wants, blah blah blah!’  Just the basics, from start to finish.

There are even some nice little cut-out-and-keep flash cards at the back if you don’t mind destroying the book!  And because it’s a tiny book, you can always find things again easy to learn again or to check up on without getting stuck in the middle.

However, due to it’s lovely format, I found that I ended up learning the conversations in full, as though they were words in a play.  So I was remembering how they were used in the conversations rather than what the individual words were.  This is fine for those routine question and answers like ordering food and describing your family, but useless for spontaneous interactions – but then, this is only the very basic level, so it’s just a taster course really.

I completed it easily and felt like I had learnt something new, but I wasn’t 100% certain I could actually have a proper conversation abroad using it.  I may well have got through in a bit of a mess, but I would definately got a room for the night and ordered some dinner!

Ease Of Use: 4/5

Result: Finished And OK

Reason: Still Not Sure Of Key Verbs but Perfect Layout For Me

posted by Catherine on May 18

Pimsleur Language Program: Quick And Simple Course – Introductory Level.

Format: 5 Language CD’s – plus 1 CD for Course Introduction.

Style: 100% listening and repetition of words and phrases.

Language: Latin/Roman Script – (My Language: Same)
Have I Tried This Language Before? - Yes, but still a beginner.

General Comments:
This course was perfect for the beginner as it was so simply laid out.

There was a recorded conversation at the beginning of each module/unit and then you were asked to repeat certain words and phrases to become part of that conversation.

At the end of each unit you could then converse similarly to the original conversation as well as using many new words along the way.

You were offered gaps in the narration and conversations to speak aloud and would then hear the correct words or phrases afterwards to check your progress.

It did get rather too repetitive at certain points and I was just repeating the same words over and over again. And to be honest, once you know the word ‘peso’ you know the word ‘peso’!

The whole course didn’t really get anywhere fast in terms of language – I mean I wouldn’t be able to do much more than partake in 2 or 3 conversations in the language, but this was more than compensated for by being able to complete the course with ease.

Many courses just get too involved and you end up giving up part way in – but this course you just had to finish – it was silly not to.

There was no written text either, so it was great that you couldn’t see what was coming up next and start to get worried. The number of times I have flicked through a language course text book and thought the last few modules/units were too complicated – and it almost makes you not want to get there, and you give up.

Similarly, as you didn’t know what was coming up, you didn’t worry about repeating yourself. Learning a new language isn’t always straight forward, and you may stop and start several times. This means that when you see a language text book, you find the same old things over and over, like directions and ‘what is your name’. It almost forms a barrier to learning.

But this course was easy to follow, easy to complete and nice and short. This is actually the first language course that I have actually 100% finished!

Ease Of Use: 5/5

Result: Finished And Confident

Reason: Perfect Layout For Me

posted by Catherine on Apr 6

I bet you never thought you could learn to read basic hieroglyphics in a few hours?

How much more fun could your trip to the museum be if you could actually read some of the ancient writings on display?

There are many books out there that go into great detail about the origins of writing from the dawn of time and show you how certain signs have mutated over time and have 6 different versions – but ignore those ones.

What you need for some easy learning, is to focus on the ones that are most common and that haven’t changed over time, for example the names.  So learn about how to identify the Pharaohs cartouches and the common determinative (the signs that mean whether the word you are looking at is the name of a man, lady, family, god or religious figure).

Reading The Script:
Now, firstly bear in mind that the ancient Egyptians wrote from right to left on the page – and all the ‘people’ and ‘animals/gods’ in their sentences are facing the way they are read.  This means that all the characters like the chick, duck or lion will be facing to the right.

Secondly you need to remember that the hieroglyphics are based on sounds not letters, and that they didn’t really use vowels (but a, i, o, and u can sometimes be found) - and they never used the letter e.  So the name Steven would be spelled out with the following sounds: S T V N and then reversed N V T S – and to show it was a man, a little glyph of a man would be shown at the end, facing the S.

Then you need to know that all their words are kept in groups and made to look ‘neat’ rather than written all in a row.  This means that some of their symbols could be made larger or smaller, turned on their side or put underneath each other to make a nice shape!

And finally, some of the pictures aren’t meant to be read either, they are just there to help tell you what the rest of the word means – just like when we have 2 words spelled the same with 2 different meanings, like: (a) saw and (I) saw and (a blazing) row and row (a boat).

It all sounds a bit tricky, but it really isn’t the difficult once you start using the common sounds like ‘n’ and ‘r’ over and over again in the basic words.

Practicing It:
Now, get yourself a basic book like a ‘for Dummies’ version to get your head around the basics, then start practicing it out on images from other books to give yourself a challenge.

Once you get to the level when you can tell if it about a God, or just a list of property, then you can really add to your trip to the Museum.

There is really nothing better than actually deciphering a hidden language – and to know that someone originally wrote it down at least 2000 years ago – but maybe as long as 5000 years ago!

And, it might make watching those old Indiana Jones movies more fun – you can check up on him to make sure he is translating it properly!