Michel Thomas, The greatest teacher of our time!

The man who taught languages in 3 days

If I told you that a there was a man called Michel Thomas that was able to teach you a language in 3 days, you might just be a little skeptic. After all, why haven’t we heard more about this guy? Frankly, I don’t know why he isn’t better know.

20000$

But I can tell you that some of his courses went for 20,000$. And among his students, you” find  celebrities such Woody Allen, Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, Emma Thompson, Mel Gibson, Bob Dylan, Bill Murray, the Duchess of York, Pierce Brosnan…

Michel Thomas was maybe the greatest teacher of our time. And he was without doubt a genius. If you’re passionate about education and how to change education, you’ll have to put The Future of Learning ( book about Michel Thomas’ life and method), on top of your reading lists.

What made him different from other geniuses was his ability to transfer knowledge. He was one of the few persons who understood the learning process of the human mind, and therefore was able to develop the perfect system for effective learning.

His method is the optimized supply chain for learning! Imagine cutting down learning time by hundreds… There is little doubt that we must be doing something wrong today!

Michel Thomas

He passed away in 2008 and left behind major imprints on the world. His story is incomparable to most you’ve heard.

He was Jewish and lived the horrors of the Second World War. The most impressive facts:
– He spied on the Nazis and was the one that discovered 10 million Nazi membership cards about to be burned down before the allied invasion. (These cards were essential during the Nuremberg trials).
– This man also managed to infiltrate and stop an underground postwar organization consisting of four thousand SS members; by becoming their officer in command…

The language courses

In three days students were guaranteed a comprehensive knowledge of a western language’s grammar, together with a functional vocabulary, enabling them to write, read and converse in all tenses. Everything without the need to memorize, take notes or do homework.

If you have no prior experience with the language you want to learn, then his courses works best for you. He knew that once you’ve learn wrong from the start, it is very difficult to learn to unlearn bad habits. Sports coaches are very aware of how difficult it is to teach someone the right technic if their students haven’t done it the right way from the very start.

The magic of the course is that you learn by thinking. Everything you say must be understood before you speak it. And langauge has a beautiful logic, its just that the fewest of us will ever learn. Michel guides you to build the right understanding from the begining. It’s like building the pyramid by learning how to place each block so that it fits the puzzle of perfection.

And was it amazing, there is no place for memorization because, as he says, what you understand, you’ll never forget. You can learn to ride a bike by memorizing theory, the same goes for language. Although some might manage, it works for the minority. I believe memorization plays a major role in our traditional education and should be abolished.

Try out the course

If you’re looking to learn French, Spanish, German or Italian, and never learned a single sentence in your life, this is the course for you. You’ll not only learn a new language, you’ll also start to see how languages are connected. Remember to stop the recording everytime you have to pronounce a word or a sentence (that means every 15-20 seconds. Only by allowing you time to think, you’ll learn.

So that you are aware, audio course is not at all the same as being in his physical energetic presence. The audio courses do not work for everyone. His accent is not native for Spanish or French. And for some, his voice can be a bit to calm.

Still, I believe this course is by far the best language course you’ll find out there. Remember that the purpose is to think, so you need to stop the record often in order to think and express what you should say!

So think differently, and take the risk on something that just sounds too good to be true!

You can find his courses on www.michelthomas.com .

Also check out his video to learn more about him, you might recognize some very familiar faces!

I will cover Michel Thomas in detail through other posts!