Start Japanese New Edition (Learn Japanese with the Michel Thomas Method)

‘The thrill is that you’re actually figuring it out on your own. You’re engaging with another language, not just parroting it… It’s an excellent way to start, and leaves the listener thinking, Hey, Ich kann do dis.’ - New Yorker

I’ve used Michel Thomas to get off the starting block for French, Italian and Spanish and I’m always surprised by how much I can say after only a few hours of listening. The Michel Thomas Italian course organises verbs into logical groups which helps you pick them up fast. And perhaps more importantly, it shows you how to use this grammar to build useful sentences. - Joyoflanguages.com

I experienced the same sort of pleasure that you got from suddenly getting a crossword clue right or cracking a code…the finger-snapping moment of, Oh My God! I’ve just understood what you’ve said to me in Spanish or you’ve just understood me!

The most extraordinary learning experience of my life

Thomas makes it simple - Sunday Times

Works like a dream - Daily Telegraph

Michel Thomas is a precious find indeed - Guardian

Five minutes in and you already feel like you’re winning - Time Out

Helen Gilhooly worked for 25 years as a Japanese teacher and languages director in secondary education, and for 10 years as a teacher trainer at Nottingham University. She continues to write Japanese language teaching materials and to audio-edit Michel Thomas language courses.

Niamh Kelly is an Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics in Dublin City University, where she has taught Japanese language and translation for over 20 years. She has lived and worked in Japan.

Michel Thomas (1914-2005) had an amazing life. Born in Poland, he spent his early years in Germany and then in France, where he studied psychology at the Sorbonne in Paris. When war broke out, he fought with the Resistance and suffered imprisonment in labour camps. At the end of the war he joined the US liberation army and later settled in the US where he established his world-famous language school. Languages, being his strength and passion became the focus of the next 50 years of his life that he spent developing a method that he hoped would change the way we teach and learn - so that everyone could succeed. He developed this method ‘that works with the brain’. After creating several courses of his own, he passed on his method so that other teachers might use it too.