I was given a French With Michel Thomas CD to get me started in learning French.  Yes, I know, you are thinking that I should have bought my own copy and not used someone else’s because of copyright and piracy etc.  Well, I did purchase a complete set after I had tried it out on my friend’s one first.

What a fantastic way to learn a language.  Forget all you have ever known about language learning and do it Michel’s way.

In the first hour you learn between 2000 and 3000 words!  Yes, that is not a typo.  2000 to 3000 words.   60% of all English words come from French originally so there are so many similarities that you can easily learn a couple of thousand in one hour.  For example:  all the English words that end in “ion” are the same in French apart from a few  exceptions. It is just a matter of changing the way you pronounce them. e.g. explanation, population, hibernation, speculation, situation.  As there are about 1200 of these words in English, that is a lot you have learnt in one hour.

Two of the main exceptions are ‘translation’ which in French is ‘tradiction’, and ‘vacation’ which is vacances. The word ‘location’ in French means ‘renting’ so that one does not work either.  But, if you try it out first, well, it just might work and if you get a blank look then you just need to think of another way of saying that word and try that pronounced differently.  That may well work.  I am not a crossword type person but I think that if you are then you will be more able to come up with an alternative word to try and use than I could.

All English words ending in “ent” and “ant” are the same e.g. permanent, restaurant, supplement, significant, intelligent etc.

Michel obviously loved languages and he certainly knew his stuff.  Have fun learning French his way.

Unfortunately Michel Thomas died in January 2005 aged 90.

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