Fun and Motivation: Meet Mickey Mangan, host of the Lernen to Talk show

This week, I'm very pleased to share the story and successes of Mickey Mangan.

Mickey is best known on the internet as the host of the Lernen to Talk show. He has done all of us language learners a big favour by charting his progress as a native English speaker learning German during a year of living in Germany and taking his language skills from very basic to very comfortable.

If you have never seen or heard of the LTTS, I recommend you watch Mickey's own short introduction to the show.

I had the pleasure of speaking to him last week, highlights of which will be available to watch on Wednesday. (Note this interview is written as paraphrases, not word for word transcripts of Mickey's answers.)

Hey Mickey, thanks for chatting to me! I am definitely a fan of LTTS and I get a lot out of the episodes both as a teacher and as an expat getting to see her home country in real life snapshots. You mention right at the start that your goal is to show others how much improvement attacking a language like a fun, passionate project can bring. Are you a linguist by trade?

No, I actually went to university and took Mechanical Engineering. My first foreign language was Spanish, and I would say that yes, I liked it at school but after all those hours leading me to high school graduation I still didn't feel as though I could actually speak any of it. Think about it - that's approximately 1000 hours spent on a language and the result didn't feel like anything resembling fluency. I was left with a sense of wasted time.

“I made the most of every day and I had such fun using the language in real life.”

When I went on to university, the desire to make all those hours count stuck with me, and so I enrolled on a Study Abroad semester in Chile. That was my first experience of living in a country and going from these low-level speaking skills to full confidence (what many people would consider fluent). I made the most of every day and I had such fun using the language in real life.

Did you take Spanish in the partner university in Chile?

I took Engineering modules, but the experience of my own subject paled in comparison to the energy and stimulation I felt from focusing on understanding it all in Spanish. I found myself doing better at my own subject because it was taught in another language. That extra challenge just kick-started my interest.

On my return from Chile, I was filled such excitement and appreciation for taking the learning experience into real life that I just wanted to go abroad again and learn another language.

Was that the motivation behind LTTS as well?

Yes and no. My semester in Chile gave me a clear appreciation of how much and how fast progress in language learning can be made. But the real idea for LTTS came at summer camp!

I had a job as a counsellor at Concordia LV, a camp which provides this immersive foreign language experience for children. When I was there, I could see that those students who really signed on to making the most out of camp were the ones that improved the most. I wanted to show them what can be achieved in language learning by talking to people, and eventually the idea of the videos was born.

Fast forward to your trip to Germany. How and why Germany?

The programme was CBYX. It had a lot of attractive aspects for me in particular, being an engineer interested in sustainable energy sources for example.

“The point of the Lernen to Talk show is having fun and instilling motivation.”

And in the LTTS videos, you have managed to document a full year of language improvements. Did you ever feel that you might not achieve your goal?

Actually, I must say I knew with 100% certainty that I would be fluent in German within a year. In fact, as I was filming the LTTS I always had the final time lapse in mind - I couldn't wait to cut the videos together and just show all this progress. I felt that having this as a project and attacking it with a sense of fun really kept my motivation going. The point of LTTS is having fun and instilling motivation.

And from the comments that you receive on your videos, I can tell that it has worked!

Finally, I noticed how confident you are right from the start. How aware were you of your own progress?

I didn't feel it very strongly in the first two months, but after those two I moved to a different place and suddenly made contact with so many new people who all met me for the first time. They were so impressed with how much German I had learnt in just two months that it really boosted my confidence. Progress can be so microscopically incremental for a language learner that I would really say the best way to stay encouraged is to change your environment completely. Find a new person to practice with or join a new group, so that you can get the positive feedback.

“Progress can be so incremental for a language learner that the best way to stay encouraged is to change your environment completely.”

— (my favourite thing Mickey said)

So, now that your CBYX year has come to an end, would you say you're "done", a finished product now fluent in German?

Well. I would confidently write "fluent" next to my German and Spanish on my CV - but fluent is a meaningless word by most measures - but really I wouldn't say I'm fluent until I can fully enjoy a novel in the language.  With progress comes more interest and motivation, so now I want to discover Goethe.

What language fluency looks like

On my adventures around Pinterest, I recently came across this image which is filled with thoughts of "language fluency". It addresses a question every learner asks him- or herself lots of times - What exactly IS fluency? So many of you quote fluency as the ultimate learning ambition, so have you defined what it means to you? 

Giant beret is not a symbol of fluency

A word about SMART goals

If you have taken on challenges in the past, you may have come across this very corporate acronym before. SMART stands for specific - measurable - achievable - relevant - time constrained. Generally speaking, this is considered to be the best possible way that you can formulate a goal. "Fluency" therefore needs to be made measurable, and it's really important that you try and spell out to yourself what exactly it means to be fluent.

For example, a vague and not very effective goal would be "I want to be able to have a conversation with a French person soon." 

Now compare that to this goal, which can be considered worthwhile and functional: "I want to be able to have general small talk about the weather and travel methods (specific and  achievable ) with my French aunt (relevant ) when I go and see them in a month (time constrained )." And even with that, the question of how you measure it is not too clearly answered. Measuring fluency is up to you. Like a self-fulfilling prophecy, fluency happens when you believe it's happening.

Checklist - what makes you fluent?

In the image shown above, you can see a few good indicators that you could take as measurements of fluency. For me, these are the most important ones:

• You are able to communicate without hesitation and without long gaps, and feel confident to compensate for words you don't know
  
  
• You are secure enough in your understanding of grammar and word order that you can produce sentences without wondering where the words go or what tense the sentence is supposed to be in
  
  
• You feel that you connect, share information and understand your partner's responses in a conversation
  
  
• You find that using your language brings you a sense of achievement and confidence, which increases your core skills 

If you are a language learner or educator, what would you add to this list? Or would you take something out?

Remember it's attitude and skill combined

Finally, there are two parts to becoming that fluent speaker you dream of being. It's in your attitude, trying and going for it without worries of whether your verb endings are spot on or not. But there is also an aspect of practice and expertise, so don't think that with the right attitude you could completely neglect the study part. Once you get both of those up to the right level, you will just know that it's working. Until then....invisible progress. 

6 odd Moselle slang expressions they teach in no German class

Hello language lovers, yes it's a late blog post today. I'm writing this in Germany after a weekend full of family goodness: a wedding, a lot of time with a small child, and then a long-awaited new life came into this world. All is well then. And on the linguistic front, I have noticed that, once I return all of my good grammar goes out of the window. Wanna know why?

German dialects are strong

The German language plays host to a range of dialects as varied as the country they are from. This place used to be so scattered in different kingdoms and duchies that even across a few miles the language would have varied strongly. 

Are strong dialects cool?

To this question, I would vote quite an emphatic yes. I love being able to understand Mosel German, and in the UK I like hearing the differences between a Scouse (someone from Liverpool), a Geordie (someone from Newcastle) and a Londoner.  Dialects, just like language choices, are all about identity.

In celebration of all that dialect goodness, here are your essential Mosel phrases - if you ever want to sound local around Trier, make sure you say one. 

1. Bei dich
   This is used where high German would say "zu dir". Note how we use the dative case after the word "bei", so that indicates that the usually stationary "bei" (at) is being used as a "zu" (to).
   Example: Ja, ich komm morgen bei dich. (yes, I'll come to yours tomorrow)
    
2. Was ist das denn für Zahnpasta?
   Hmm, this one is quite odd indeed. Jumbly word order meets omission of indefinite article and mixes in nicely with a "für" thrown in. The correct German version of asking this would be "Was für eine xx ist das?", meaning "What type of xx is this?"
    
3. dem Leon sein
   The Genitive case, who needs it around here!? Why not just cut it and randomly use dative + possessive? Really, this will make you sound so local. Practice now, then keep it quiet from your German teacher.
   Example: Ich will das T-Shirt anziehen, aber das ist dem Ludwig seins. (I want to wear the T-Shirt but it's Ludwig's).
    
4. langsam
   You know this one, it means slow. But when you talk to little kids around here, we also want them to be quiet. I guess it's the Mosel musicality, basically telling a child to go "Adagio".
    
5. die Kerstin
   This slang phenomenon is common all over Germany - basically we put a "the" in front of the first name of whoever we're referring to. It's quite informal and very common among children and friends. 
    
6. ich hab 20 kilo abgeholt
   We really prefer "holen" to "nehmen" around here, and even use it where no other German would think that holen is a thing that you do...you lose weight, that's abholen (yep, abnehmen in your dictionary), you take medication, that's einholen. Read up about it here (in German language, but it's high German!). 

That's it for today guys, I hope you enjoyed the short insight into how Germans really speak. Use these liberally if you want to tear up the rulebook, but never with "Sie", because slang and the polite form of address don't mix.

If you enjoyed this article and want to learn more tips and fun stories about Germany and the German language, hop on the newsletter below. I'm looking forward to meeting you!

Fluency Masterclass, Part 3: Listening

Welcome to the next part of the Fluency Masterclass. These four articles feature my best tips on ​how to boost your proficiency in the four core skills of language learning. I believe that balanced core skills are the best way to become fluent and confident. These Masterclass articles are designed to give language learners of any level new inspiration, and a focus on the core skills

​Language Learning Core Skill: Listening

​I'll let you in on a secret: My listening skills aren't really world famous. I have a tendency to guess ahead in conversations and get excited, cut in, intterupt and so on. Hey, it keeps life interesting! But as with all weaknesses, it's good to work on them a little. So my tips are in fact good advice for listening in any situation. I have found them helpful for improving my attention span and communication skills.

​1) Listen from Day 1

Listening is so important in language learning. It's closely connected to the learner's comfort level and pronunciation skills, and in addition to that it presumes NO language knowledge at all! There is no pressure on learners to respond or produce language, no rule that says you have to pay full attention all the time, and it can be pretty entertaining too. So my advice really is this: Listen from day 1. In fact, make that day 1 about learning your new alphabet and copying the sounds you're hearing. The BBC, for example, has some excellent alphabet resources.

2) Make notes, repeat and summarize

This is such a simple and effective exercise. I recommend you start working on it in your native language before moving on to foreign language situations. Next time you find yourself listening to someone talking at length, especially in a face-to-face situation or on the phone, get out the notepad. Make notes of the most important points of what they are saying, and ensure you don't miss any. If a real notepad and pen are likely to come across just a bit odd, try and make mental notes.

This technique is in fact part of a communication approach called active listening. It emphasizes that it is important to identify the message. In language learning, this means: Don't get stuck on words you don't know. As long as you know what the main message is, stage 1 is complete. Repeat the audio a few times to fine tune every word.

3) Use a transcript - or make your own

A big part of language learning success is in recognising which sounds correspond to which letters on a page. Click to Tweet this

Remember that we are not focusing on one core skill in order to block out the others. Listening is easily combined with other skills. You can read along using a transcript. Or in order to improve your writing skills, write your own version of the transcript and then compare it with an official one. You'll be training your spelling, listening comprehension and speed all in one go!

4) Bring back the music

I wrote about the many benefits of making music a part of your language learning on the Fluent Language blog last year. If nothing else, it's fun! Music is such a great and obvious place to start for learning a language. You can work with specific materials aimed at language learners like the Teach Me Everyday series, or just get right in there and work with songs. Why not read up on how to do it on this blog article.

5) Use a really wide range of sources

Your target language has many sub-sets of language groups, and in real life situations you may never know which one you are going to encounter. So especially when you work on listening skills, it's important to cast the net wide. Take turns listening to the news,​ rap songs, local dialects and whatever you can get hold of. To get you started, note that many news services do a simplified language version of their own news casts, for example DW in German, RFI in French or ​Sveriges Radio for Swedish.

There is a wealth of further materials out on the web all about this topic, for example the following articles:

• Andrew Weiler: Improving Listening Skills
• ​WikiHow: Learn a language while listening to the radio
  
• Foreign Language Teaching Methods: Listening Skill
  

Got more tips? Comment away, I want to hear it!!

And while you're here, don't miss what's new on my blog by joining the Fluent Language Learning Newsletter.

Fluency Masterclass, Part 2: Writing

​Hey all, welcome to the second instalment in my series of articles looking at practical techniques for mastering each of the four core skills in language acquisition. Let's have a closer look at..

Writing

Yes, writing skills. That's that thing people did with pen and paper before screens and keyboards. Ideas for simple exercises to get started with might be writing your shopping list, packing list, postcards or recipes.

Using colours to mark word types, and to annotate my notes.

A word about writing and typing

In this article I do recommend you focus on old-school pen and paper. For the language learner, this provides a really important benefit: kinaesthetic (tactile) learning. This means that the movements of putting letter-shaped lines on paper in new combinations will help you remember.

There are also psychological benefits. I'm currently studying Russian - a new challenge with new letters! Putting them onto paper in my own handwriting and with my own hands gives the whole undertaking a stronger sense of achievement. It really is me mastering letters like л, Ф, and я!

If you do feel that you want to get typing, there are advantages to doing it online. Websites like Italki have journaling functions that invite native speakers to answer your questions or correct your entries, which can be excellent practice. Make sure you re-write everything after it's been corrected.

Steps to improve your writing skills

Play with colour, shape and paper

​Now that you are hopefully signed up to pen and paper, or at least stylus and paper app, you should use them to their full potential. Use different coloured pens, highlighters and crayons. Doodle. Mark up your sentences in a way that makes sense to you. Here are some tips to get you started:

• Colour each word differently depending on its gender
• Underline every verb, then shade in every object, then use another colour for different cases
• Write out the sentence in one tense, then re-write it in another
• Draw tables, boxes, diagrams, or whatever you need to illustrate your thoughts

Sound out the letters, syllables and words

While breaks and gaps in a conversation are so obvious they're bound to make you nervous, writing is something you can do in your own time. Languages have a script in order to document the sounds you make when speaking out loud, so make sure you engage fully when you are writing things down: Sound out each letter, add the sounds to make a word and really get to know them. Yes, it sounds silly. That probably means you are doing it correctly.

Listen and Write

Combining your language skills is the key to fluency. When it comes to writing, this means your integration should go both ways. Remember dictation tests from school? Find a simple audio example. Listen first and write down what you hear - this will work on your comprehension, spelling and most importantly teach you the connections between spelling and sound. Then compare your notes to the transcript to see what you got right. This exercise should be a weekly drill, because its benefits are bound to build up your skills significantly.

Writing was part two of the Fluency Masterclass. Catch up on Part 1 (Reading), and if you enjoyed this article why not subscribe to my monthly newsletter here:

Fluent Language Learning Newsletter

Other great articles about reading in language learning

• Omniglot: Want to speak a foreign language better? Learn to write first!
  
• ​The Everyday Language Learner: Five reasons you should write as part of your language learning