Michel Thomas Spanish Lessons Effective, Hysterical
I know I'm being a bit juvenile here, but we got four different language courses for our big trip to Puerto Rico, and they're all very different. Some are lousy on a good day, others pretty good (but much too long) and one is really, really great, but it's still comical to me. What can I say, Spanish is a funny language.
We're bound by two rules to never speak the negative. The first is that when people give us free stuff, we don't like to name them specifically as lackluster. The second is that we try to always focus on the positive. It's usually pretty easy, but we got this particular "Learn Spanish in Your Car" series, and I won't name it outright, but that's its name, and it's terrible. Even on lesson 20, it's still just a couple words with no interaction.
I mean, really, I could make a CD this good, where are my commercial millions at already?
Then you've got the likes of Pimsleur, a famous, well-funded, professional language organization, who contributed to our parent company in spades (assuming "spades" are promo copies worth thousands of dollars,) but they were only "pretty good". I mean, they were really, really good, but the competition has better offerings, and the courses took up fully 47-hours of CD, which is like a million billion years in traditional form, since you have to go back, review, wade through and otherwise find ways to master, even if you can't.
The best one by a mile, which is like more than 5,000 feet, which is like 2,500 people's worth of footies, for those of you scoring along at home. It's great because it utilizes the Michel Thomas method of language instruction. If you don't know who he is, don't sweat it, I'm not even sure who my aunts and cousins are, but I know they are goodly and exist.
It's just an 8-hour course, and he swears by it as much as my daddy-man does. Michel Thomas (who didn't give us anything free, but came highly recommended enough to deserve the purchase,) swears that you shouldn't have to take notes or do much of anything other than pay attention.
This is the guy that taught some famous actress from back in the day how to speak French in a week, so she could marry the Crown Prince of Monaco without having to wonder what she was agreeing to whilst saying "I do".
I should point out that French isn't his first language, nor is Spanish, nor is English. He was actually a Polish, Jewish, Holocaust survivor, who made award-winning language courses in English, French, Spanish, and German. It's pretty remarkable really, but seriously, once you study them, you'll be convinced just the same yourself.
The big thing though, is that no matter how good the Spanish language lesson thing may be, it's still comical to me. Daddy says, "Como te llamo?" and I just giggle. Isn't it funny?
Oh Spanish, when will you ever be good for anything beyond ordering a sweet, cinnamon-laden churro?
I know I'm being a bit juvenile here, but we got four different language courses for our big trip to Puerto Rico, and they're all very different. Some are lousy on a good day, others pretty good (but much too long) and one is really, really great, but it's still comical to me. What can I say, Spanish is a funny language.
