Polyglot
Michel Thomas came to prominence through his work for the French resistance and the
successful interrogation of Nazis (who had formerly imprisoned him). After the war he started to develop (and eventually
patent) a method for teaching languages that eschewed notes, books, writing, memorisation and homework. Instead, words and phrases would be built up in lego-like constructions to provide “confidence in hours not years”. He gave private lessons to
a long list of A-list celebrities including Woody Allen, Natasha Kinsky, Tony Curtis and Grace Kelly. A BBC documentary from 1997 told his story and tested him out with the less exalted audience of 16 year old London school kids pre-selected to be “incapable of learning a foreign language” by their teachers [YT pt
1,
2,
3,
4]. He was secretive about how his methods worked until the end of his life when he finally made his
courses available as audiobooks.
[more inside]
posted by rongorongo
on Mar 20, 2008 -
24 comments
