Michel Thomas Spanish Language Builder (Michel Thomas Series)

Otherwise, I have found this course to be very usefully in consolidating my knowledge of Spanish and practicing more structures. Some reviewers complain abou the course being dry, I don't think this is the case. You shouldn't try and do it all at once. Just do 10 to 15 minute bursts over a couple of days and you will pick it up. Infact if you look at what he is doing here it is very clever. He is repeating vocabulary that you know and then introducing just one or two new words at a time so that you don't feel bombarded with new stuff- I felt a constant sense of accomplishment as I went through the course.

We have waited a year since the release of the first course for this next installment, which one feels could have been done at a more leisurely pace than the two hours it has been allocated. Is there any more to come? and if so let's hope we don't have to wait another year! (Since writing this review an Advanced Course has been published, which will be the last course as Michel died in January 2005)

Also for those who already have the complete course, the style of this 'language builder' is different, there are no students to listen to, it is just Michel Thomas and you 'one to one', which I personally prefer. As Michel spent his formative years in Germany he does have a strong German accent. By all means use this course to gain the knowledge but then listen to authentic Spanish and practice to gain a good accent.

Overall a recommendation to buy if you have the grounding. If not, buy the complete course first and then buy this when you have finished, otherwise it might seem a little intimidating. A real improvement on the first course is that it comes with a little brochure with all the phrases in so you can see how each is written down- I found this very useful.


Michel Thomas Spanish Language Builder   February 12, 2004
64 out of 66 found this review helpful

I was put off after reading a couple of other reviews and then after taking the plunge felt that it did seem to be just a recording of Michel reading through a list of words. But I must say that I was wrong! This is equally as good as the first 8 hour course but runs at a much quicker pace and you need to be ready with the pause button. A lot of the ground covered is from the other course but this is good for consolidating what you have already learned. I paid 16 for this course and learnt more in the time spent with this than 80 for a 15 week, 2hour per week collecge course!