Author

Helen Gilhooly Audiobooks

Foundation Japanese: the Michel Thomas method applied to a first course in Japanese

1 audiobook reviewed

Main genres

Education & Learning

Who is Helen Gilhooly?

How do you teach a language to someone who cannot look at a page? The Michel Thomas method answers by removing the page altogether: no writing, no memorising, no homework, simply a teacher, two students and a listener invited to reason alongside them. Helen Gilhooly teaches Japanese squarely within that tradition.

The approach asks something particular of the teacher. Every step must be small enough to be worked out rather than recalled, and the sequence has to build so that the learner is constructing sentences before noticing any rules have been learnt. Foundation Japanese is the beginner stage of that programme, pitched at absolute newcomers rather than at anyone brushing up.

Helen Gilhooly in audiobooks

Gilhooly delivers the course, which in this format is not a performance but the teaching itself, and close to eleven hours covers the foundation stage from a standing start. It is designed for repeated listening rather than a single pass, so treat the running time as a syllabus rather than a duration.

No listener ratings have gathered against this recording yet. The sensible test is the method rather than the reviews: if learning by ear and by reasoning suits you better than flashcards ever did, this will feel like a revelation. The course is listed below.