The Lernen to Talk Show: Wie es aussieht, wenn man innerhalb eines Jahres Deutsch lernt

I seriously can't believe that I had never seen this before, but just a few days ago I learnt about the "Lernen to Talk" show. It's a Youtube video project where a young guy documents his quest to learn German in Germany within a year (plus a couple of months of preparation with an audio course in the US). The guy does a great job of explaining what he's done himself, so I'll let him do exactly that:

The Lernen to Talk show

Seriously, check it out. I've watched a few of the episodes (he's completed the year) and he's pretty good at making conversation of some description with people regardless of his level. I think this might be one of his most important skills. Also notice that he tries hard to not make mistakes, but he doesn't let the fear of mistakes inhibit him. Well, that's my opinion as an observer. His own internal experience may have been different. He doesn't talk too much about his "method", but I'll distill the basics here:

1) Studied an audio course for a few months. Got up to an A1+ or A2 sort of level I think.
2) Went to Germany.
3) 8-10 weeks (I think?) doing frequent German classes and group excursions.
4) Filmed himself once per week for a 5 minute conversation.
5) Lived with a German family for much of the rest of the time.
6) Immersed himself and got involved.

He doesn't waste time talking about his method or whatever, although perhaps an overview post will pop up in the future. He's a multi-talented guy with a bunch of interests that go beyond the usual limited "polyglot" vocabulary of talking about language-learning techniques, so it's fun to watch his videos beyond just the entertainment value of watching his struggles.

He seems to be looking for other people who want to do something similar - learning a language for a year in-country and filming it - via the website Lernen to Talk, but I'm not sure how active that project is.

The longest example of his level is from almost a year after he returned from Germany, and it makes a very interesting podcast to boot, can be found in the interview DRadio's Wissen program did with him. You can see that he still makes mistakes, but he is very comfortable speaking in German and does a very entertaining job as a guest! There's also an appearance by an expert in the field who basically says you'll always be crap at another language unless you learn it definitely before the age of 30 and possibly while you're still a small child. I basically got the sense from her that being anything other than an accent-free, native level speaker is a failure. That may not have been her intention, but she seemed quite disparaging in general, including to Mickey's own level. I wish they provided a transcript because then I might have put together a parallel translation for some sections of it, I'll probably never do any of it because I doubt I'll be transcribing it anytime soon :-) But the abbreviated version is: if you're over 30, you're over the language learning hill. Stupid me for starting German when I was already mid-30s :-)

Anyway, check out his videos and share them. I think they're very inspirational for language learners, even if you can't visit the country yourself. Watch someone else's mistakes, have a laugh, see that it's not the end of the world and that they make you better with each attempt, and then go out and make your own mistakes!