Michel Thomas Beginner Spanish, Lesson 1

By: Michel Thomas

Narrated by: Michel Thomas

Length: 1 hr and 8 mins

Publisher's Summary

In lesson 1 of the Spanish Beginner course, you'll learn how to make simple statements and ask questions with…- pronunciation of Spanish sounds and difference between Castilian Spanish and Spanish spoken everywhere else - similarities between Spanish and English; words ending in ible, able, ent, ant, ary, ence, ance, ion: 'possible', 'probable', 'different', 'important', 'necessary', 'difference', 'importance', 'opinion', 'condition', etc.- 'it is' and 'it is not'- prepositions 'for', 'with', 'at/to'- pronouns: 'me', 'you', 'I', 'it', 'something'- questions: inflection and question words 'why?', 'what?', 'where?'- linking words: 'because', 'but', 'and'- phrases: 'like that', 'I'm hungry'- social communication: 'I'm sorry, but…'- adjectives and adverbs: 'very', 'good'- stress in Spanish words- verbs: 'I feel (= 'I'm sorry'), 'I have', 'I want', 'I need', 'you have', 'to know', 'I can', 'you can', 'to do/make', 'to eat', 'to see', 'to dine'- using the present tense: verb endings show who is doing the action; pronouns needed only for emphasis or clarification- time expressions: 'now', 'tonight'- nouns: 'hunger' ('I have hunger' = 'I am hungry'), 'man', 'dinner'- position of pronoun with whole verb (the 'to' form)- the whole verb (the 'to' form) used after preceding verb- articles: 'a', 'the'In the next lesson you'll learn about stress, gender and plurals, and how to use adjectives with nouns.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2013 Michel Thomas (P)2013 Hodder & Stoughton

Buy Intro Beg Span by Michel Thomas: Covers 1 & 2

Where does Michel Thomas Beginner Spanish, Lesson 1 rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I like this but it is the same as the first half of the introduction course. The second half is lesson 2. Save your money and just buy the introduction.

What other book might you compare Michel Thomas Beginner Spanish, Lesson 1 to and why?

Michel Thomas Beginner Spanish is like Pimlseur Approach but with much less repetition. Michel Thomas gives a more logical reasoning of how to speak and think in Spanish.

Have you listened to any of Michel Thomas’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes. I have listened to the introduction of Michele Thomas. Is the same as Lesson 1 and 2. Buy the Introduction series to save money,

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me happy that I found an interesting approach to learning Spanish. It is much better than just memorizing a bunch of words. He helps you form sentences through a list of frequently used words in our language we use daily.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

Great way to learn Spanish!

Fantastic learning method! One tip - much better at speed 1.25. Regular speed is too slow.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Excellent! I could kiss Michel.

Excellent! I could kiss Michel. He makes learning so easy! I needed help with grammar and sentence structure but I refuse to learn grammar rules because they are unnatural. Michel teaches it in a natural why. I found myself saying the sentences without even trying.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Excellent!

I have had 28 thirty minute Pimsler Spanish lessons. This was my first Michel Thomas lesson and I loved it. A much better method!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

GREAT

Great to listen to in the car, easy to stop and start and easy to follow along

Learn how to put sentances together!

A very good way to get over the fear of actually having conversations and making sense when you speak!

Absolutely brilliant

What did you love best about Michel Thomas Beginner Spanish, Lesson 1?

This system is brilliantly put together and makes it super-easy to start speaking simple Spanish almost immediately by concentrating on the words that are the same (or almost the same) between Spanish & English.

I spent 3 weeks trying to learn Spanish from free podcasts, which ranged from decent to terrible. Then, on the advice of a friend I tried the Michel Thomas lessons and loved them. Vastly superior.

Love it

it has been extremely helpful and can not wait to move on to the next lesson.

Hard to understand

What disappointed you about Michel Thomas Beginner Spanish, Lesson 1?

In what I can only assume is a very thick (German?) accent the narrorator is very hard to understand or hear so it makes it impossible to learn.

What didn’t you like about Michel Thomas’s performance?

Hard to hear and understand, gave up about twenty minutes in as the accent was so thick it made it impossible to learn anything or understand what was beings said.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Anger

Any additional comments?

Change the narrorator otherwise this whole lesson is useless.

1 of 5 people found this review helpful

Terrible

Trying to learn Spanish from someone with a thick German accent was useless. Could. It understand a single word the narrator was saying in English or Spanish

0 of 2 people found this review helpful

Introductory recording contains lesson 1-2

Would you listen to Michel Thomas Beginner Spanish, Lesson 1 again? Why?

These lessons are great. The Michel Thomas Spanish Introductory course recording contains lesson 1 and 2. So....Buy introductory lesson, then lesson 3,4,5,6,7. I bought lesson 1 and 2 and was a bit miffed to find I already had them in the Introductory course!

13 of 13 people found this review helpful

Good but very expensive in this form

What made the experience of listening to Michel Thomas Beginner Spanish, Lesson 1 the most enjoyable?

Starting to learn any language with the Michel Thomas method is great. I started with German and I'm currently working my way through Arabic, Spanish, and Mandarin.

However purchasing from Audible is the most expensive method and on top of that you can't lend them to anyone else. My recommendation would be to buy the CD's, rip them into iTunes and convert them to audiobook format so that you get to keep your place as you progress.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

Decent method, poor quality recording

Michel Thomas' method works, that's a fact. However, the way in which this has been recorded makes it difficult to listen to. The giggles and the pronunciation battles that his two students are encountering don't necessarily make for an enjoyable listen. Compare this to Paul Noble's course and the production quality isn't comparable.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Poor quality recording, BEEEEEEP!!!!!

It's a shame as the content appears to be good, the format appears good, but the quality is so poor I struggle to make out what is said. This coupled with the extremely loud BEEEEP!!!! Makes it strenuous listening. I bought this to listen to whilst winding down. That won't happen! Such a shame.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Surprising how fast you progress

By identifying words that are similar you get started quickly. then with a few basic grammar constructs you speak whole sentances with emphasis on correct pronounciation. very good start.

easy listening

easy listening. learning made very simply and enjoyable. no stress on the listener to grasp everything at once.

Easy intro Spanish

Would you listen to Michel Thomas Beginner Spanish, Lesson 1 again? Why?

Yes. Good pace and clearly demonstrates how to speak Spanish. Useful language to use straight away with confidence.

What did you like best about this story?

The presentation enables you to join in and practise speaking sentences as the two students and Michel Thomas encourage participation.

What about Michel Thomas’s performance did you like?

Most encouraging with brief statements which are built on to enable students to form sentences for themselves. Rules of language introduced as more words are used which leads to greater flexibility in forming sentences. His technique promotes simple exchanges in Spanish which Is obviously enjoyable to both students.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes.

Any additional comments?

The free audible download offers a most useful demonstration that this is the language learning facility for me.

Brilliant!

He makes it all so easy. I would recommend having a Spanish book on hand so as to help visually with the words. Top marks!

Please rerecord

Obviously this is a very useful book but the poor quality of the recording is a huge distraction.

great way to learn

wanted to get this book on audio for so long after losing a copy years ago. It really does work.