I was in Costco today and noticed that the new Michel Thomas courses are out for Mandarin Chinese, Arabic and Russian. Very exciting! Now I haven’t tried these courses yet, as they are brand new, but if they are even half has good as the original German, French, Italian and Spanish courses then they could well turn out to be the best CDs available for these languages. As regular readers will know, I love the original courses!

As Michel sadly passed away, these courses are each narrated by one of his students along with a native speaker and two beginner students. Here’s what Amazon says about the courses, and from my own experience I can certainly say they are very true.

No books. No writing. No drills. And nothing to memorize– ever! With his patented method, Michel Thomas has taught languages to top celebrities and–through his bestselling audio programs–more than a million everyday learners around the world. At the end of this ten-CD beginner’s program, you will have acquired:

• A full working vocabulary
• Essential comprehension skills
• Complete language confidence

Don’t try to memorize specific words or expressions. It is a basic principle of the Michel Thomas method that the responsibility for the student’s learning lies with the teacher. With Michel Thomas as your teacher, your learning will be based on understanding–and what you understand, you do not forget!

I’m sure you can find a few similarities with Genki English there! : )

I did hear a rumour that there might be a Thai version coming out, in which case I would have bought it today, but I might have to try the new Mandarin one, it should be great. If you have reviewed the new ones yourself, please let me know how you got on.

If you haven’t heard of Michel or his method yet, here’s a BBC Documentary where he took a class of failing 16 year olds and taught them French in a very short time. It takes a bit of time to get going, but it’s well worth watching.