I prefer to approach a language as conversation, so for me, this language course is ideal. Michel Thomas builds vocabulary and grammatical usage in a way which makes remembering and using the language easy. If you loved your first year of a language course and fell apart during the second year when the teaching switched from conversation to grammar, this course is for you.

If you are not familiar with the author of this course, Michel Thomas is perhaps the most famous language instructor of our time, known as the language instructor to the stars and celebrities, having taught Mel Gibson, Raquel Welch, Johnny Carson, Julie Andrews, Laurence Fishburne, Lucille Ball, Natalie Wood among many other movie and television stars. In addition to being a famous language instructor, Michel Thomas was a World War II hero, Holocaust survivor, and a published author. Unfortunately, he left us in January, 2005, at the age of 90.

In this course, Michel Thomas uses his same method that he has used in order to teach many how to speak foreign languages. Amazingly, he accomplished this task without the use of textbooks, memorizations exercises, homework, boring drills, etc. The method he uses in this course which involves a classroom setting using two students with little or know experience speaking Spanish demonstrates just how effective his teaching method really is.

The only drawbacks of this course have been mentioned so many times by other reviewers that I dare mention them at the risk of sounding redundant. But in case you missed them, the only three drawbacks are:

a.) Mr. Thomas is not a native speaker and the students on the recording are also not native speakers. So this course will not assist you in developing a real Latin American accent.

b.) It will also not be too much help if you are looking for a course that will help you understand the Spanish of rapidly speaking native speakers from Latin America.

c.) Since Mr. Thomas is European if you are looking for a course with an emphasis on conversational Latin American Spanish, this may not be the ideal course for you.

If you are simply looking for a course that not only focuses on conversational or everyday spoken Latin American Spanish but a course that will also help you develop a good Latin American Spanish accent and help you better understand the Spanish of rapidly speaking natives, the course that satisfies that criteria best is Learning Spanish Like Crazy. On the other hand, if you are looking for a course that will help you easily master the fundamentals of Spanish grammar and help you quickly build a large vocabulary (and retain it as well), then Michel Thomas is a great choice.