“The Lernen to Talk Show”
Have you seen this blog in which a guy learns German in a year and posts weekly videos of his progress? It’s great. The guy behind the project, Mickey Mangan, wanted “to prove to people that learning a language is something you can do if you want to do it.” Every week he posted a new video, usually just a few minutes, of himself talking to Germans. He subtitled the videos in English so that English-speakers could follow and see his mistakes. Below the video he included notes about mistakes and grammar and things he noticed.
Why it worked so well
Two things stand out to me: he had to interact with people, and he had to go back and scrutinize the video the came out of the interactions. This means that he was forced to be social in a new language, and he was also forced to analyze an authentic piece of language – two activities that many learners avoid or just don’t access. I also like that he has the chance to explain what he wanted to say even if he messed up in the actual interaction. This episode from Week 12 is a great example of that.
Find out more
Mickey’s Lernen To Talk Show project ended in 2012, but he is still blogging about life and language.
