Deceased languages
13 January 2005. Inspired by .
You know it's been a good life when Boy's Own bids for the serialisation rights of your obituary.
Alright, so that didn't exactly happen, but it may as well have done for Michel Thomas. Best known as the permatanned man with open arms on the cover of his language CDs, his own biographer was left wondering if half his war stories were true. If even half of them were, the man was a giant.
The Telegraph, as ever, has the name-dropping obit here - currently not behind a paywall, but grab it while you can.
Sad news as well, because it was Michel on CD that refreshed my virtually non-existant Spanish before I moved to Spain. As any Michel disciple will tell you, his is the most remarkable language theory there has ever been, Gestapo-induced or not. With heavy doses of psychology slotted into learning, it reassures you, lies to you in just the right places and pits you alongside a stupid student and a smart one in a classroom, without any homework, grammar tables or writing down. And it does work.
He recently brought out advanced booster packs which my dad is aurally devouring, quite literally as I type. Like a slightly smarmy but very clever great uncle, we're a little less for losing a character like Michel.
In a week when Beckham gets applauded for finally learning a few phrases over the course of 18 months, it's clear that his work was just beginning.