About
The teacher who believed that
everyone can learn a new language
“
Learning should be excitement. Learning should be pleasure. And one should experience a constant sense of progression.
— Michel Thomas
Michel Thomas was born Moniek Kroskof in Łódź, Poland, in 1914. A French Resistance fighter and decorated war hero, he used his early mastery of languages to adopt many identities. He channelled these experiences to develop one of the most effective language teaching methods ever created.
His insight was radical in its simplicity: it is the teacher that is responsible for the learning, not the student. He believed that everyone can learn a language. They just need the right teacher and the right approach. This philosophy inverted decades of educational thinking, freeing learners from the idea that they simply were not “good at languages”.
Michel Thomas passed away in 2005. He remains one of the world’s greatest language teachers, an inspiration to language enthusiasts. We are proud to preserve his method in these courses, supporting new generations of learners to achieve speaking confidence in new languages.
A remarkable life
1914
Born in Łódź, Poland
Born Moniek Kroskof, Michel grew up speaking Polish, Yiddish, and German and spent some time living in Germany as a young boy. His early multilingualism shaped his lifelong fascination with languages and how we learn.
1940s
War and resistance
He flees for France, joins the Resistance and adopts the name Michel Thomas. His ability to learn and switch between languages under extreme pressure informs the creation of a new method for learning languages.
1947
The Michel Thomas Language Centers launch
After moving to Los Angeles, Michel Thomas begins teaching languages at his new language centres. He taught one to one and his clients included Hollywood actors, diplomats and business leaders.
1997
The BBC documentary
A BBC documentary is released, following Michel Thomas as he teaches a group of students at a school in London, UK. In five days, the students progress from no knowledge of French to constructing complex sentences. The programme, and its depiction of the power of this new approach, made Michel Thomas and his method famous worldwide.
2000s
Audio courses published
A partnership with Hodder Education (part of Hachette UK) brings the famous method to millions of new learners. Recording the method as audio courses makes what had once only been available to a select few accessible to all.
Today
The legacy continues
New courses are taught by experienced instructors trained in the Michel Thomas method, expanding the catalogue with new languages and levels. These courses remain true to the method developed decades ago, unchanged because it works.
