Helen Gilhooly

Helen Gilhooly has lived and worked in Japan, and has a PGCE and an MA in Japanese. She is a university teacher trainer, language materials writer and senior director at a specialist language college in the UK. Dr Niamh Kelly is a lecturer in the Japanese Department at Dublin City University, Ireland.

Michel Thomas (1914-2005) had an amazing life. Born in Poland, he spent his early years in Frenchy 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. For more than 50 years he taught languages to the rich and famous and was the world's most sought-after language teacher. After creating several courses of his own, he passed on his method so that other teachers might use it too.