Michel Thomas Language Library

I totally recommend Michel Thomas' audio lessons (his method works!) but this app is a disaster. The play/pause button works in the first few minutes then stops. It also never works on lock screen and the time monitor - which tells you where you are in the lesson - is always off. When you download a full language file, some tracks simply do not play, even though it appears that they have been downloaded. I tried to get around it by deleting and reinstalling the app, but the problem occurs again with different tracks. There is also no way to erase/re-download a track that does not play, so you simply lose so much content because of this faulty app. Not to mention, of course, that there is no way to bookmark where you've reached, mark lessons "done" or track progress in any way. It's such a shame to waste such a valuable learning method in a cheap and faulty app. Such wasted potential! I hope the company realizes this and invests in more competent developers who can at least develop a decent platform!! (Look at how the Pimsleur app works for example!!).

The method is very helpful. How ever the app itself really needs improvement! At the beginning he says how important it is for you to pause it but when the iPhone is locked or the app is not open, it does not pause correctly. It takes hitting the pause and play button twice (so 4 presses total) just to pause it when the phone is locked. By that time part of the answer has been given, I am distracted and frustrated. Also when the app is open it glitches up but not as badly. I would recommend putting the time runner (line with the track of the time of the audio) further away from the pause button. It is hard to press pause and not hit the line - and then messing up where I was in the podcast. I have to look at it and be very careful not to mess up the time- which is distracting from the material. Fix these pause/play issues and I would gladly purchase the whole set for the language. But until then it is much too frustrating and distracting.

I am a big Michel Thomas fan having listened to his original four products.This Portuguese program follows the typical Michel style. It does make acquiring Portuguese nicely doable only missing a few opportunities here and there to use a body of knowledge common to many. It has few flaws.One occasional low point is the recording quality. In the first level course, it's much less noticeable, but in the intermediate, the volume of the main instructor's voice annoyingly drops off significantly at times. It's hard to listen while driving when you have to anticipate and turn the volume up and down so as to hear what's said but then not hurt your ears when the volume returns to normal. I believe there is software that will go through a recording and normalize all parts to the same level.I have one huge pet peeve with this series. For many, many English speakers, a very common second language is Spanish. It is the easiest Romantic language to learn so many Brits and Americans have studied it. A second is French. Portuguese comes across as almost entirely a clone of Spanish but with some spelling and pronunciation differences. Often, where there is no relation to Spanish, a French reference is obvious. But these facts are almost totally absent in this program (I can't recall any actually). This is an important historical and connective point. And so many times, there is given a made up English phrase for remembering the Portuguese but never anything like, "well, it's just like the Spanish but change the..." which would have been much less of a convoluted connection. Obviously, not everyone comes with a knowledge of Spanish but sooooo many do. It should at least have been pointed out in a general sense in the introduction. In summary, it's worth the investment and probably the best course available for English speakers.