Michael Thomas the world famous linguist is helping me slowly but surely work my way through to French fluency with the ease of a hot knife through unsalted butter. His language course (available for $5.95 per hour through iphone application store) relies on his ability to teach rather than your ability as a student, there is no need to write anything down, memorise phrases or revise words. He simply instructs you to relax, think and repeat after him. It’s a thinking process not memorisation. What I enjoy most is the fact that he breaks down the language into sizeable pieces and challenges you to string these bits into longer sentences with the information he has given you. His technique is to use literal translations, because he is not just teaching French. He is teaching French to pupils who already KNOW English and takes advantage of the vast overlap between the two languages. Part of his method is to let you identify the similarities of the two languages which helps you remember and use the correct words in which context.
For example the French word for ‘today’ is ‘aujourd’hui’ the correct spelling and pronunciation comes easily to my mind because I not only learnt the foundation of the word, but also the word association he gave with the example.
‘aujourd’hui’ is literally a combination of six French words
au is a contraction of á & le - at the
jour - day
d’ - of
hui - today
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