Sharing your language story – MehrsprachICH
July 17, 2012 25 Comments
The Goethe Institute has launched a video competition called MehrsprachICH for people who speak a number of foreign languages. This is the latest in a recent wave of interest in our ever-growing online language community, polyglots, hyperpolyglots and the language-learning process in general.
Why share your language story?
Growing up I always wished to have a way to be in contact with other like-minded people. When I started at university in 1995, I was introduced to IRC and I was able to get in touch with a people in many different countries and chat in a variety of language. It was great to speak to other people in their own languages and also find other language enthusiasts.
Meeting other language learners today has never been easier
Nowadays more and more language learners have shared their stories and got in touch through their forums, blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and YouTube channels. Thankfully I have been able to plug into this amazing resource and get in touch with many interesting people too. I am really grateful for that.
This competition highlights some great stories of language learning, including my own. I encourage you to take a look at the videos and enjoy all of the stories in the competition. The winner will get to talk about their story at the international Poliglotti4.eu conference in Italy (Last year’s conference took place in Madrid).
Your opinion counts!
You decide the winner. You can vote on the Goethe Institute’s MehrsprachIch Facebook page for your favourite! 🙂
I’ve watched all of these videos and I love seeing more and more people tell their language stories online.
Have you got a story to share?
Join our helpful and encouraging community on the SpeakingFluently Facebook page. We’d love to have you with us! Let’s share knowledge, share stories and get everyone learning languages! 🙂
I encourage you to share this story with other people outside the language learning community as languages can be fun for everyone! 🙂
If you sign up for italki and buy a coupon for language lessons through them, you can use the Promo Code below at checkout to get $5 OFF your order! So a $10 coupon costs you just $5! Use Promo Code: RICHARD
Categorised in: General
This post was written by Richard
25 Comments
Richard, I just voted for you! You are the best!
加油！加油！
Thanks a lot! Every vote counts! 🙂
selam richard bir şey sorabilir miyim? Dil öğrenme sürecininden bahsedebilirmisin?
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR THIS PAGE, FOR THE PODCAST AND THE MATERIAL!! Is awesome for me to be able to learn koraen, because is such an interesting and terrific country, that i hope to visit one day, therefore here i am learning Korean a little more every day thanks to you guys, so god bless and thanks againg for the AWESOME effort. Keep on going please!! Greteangs from Mexico!!!
Bueno, como sé que Richard Simcott habla my idioma, escribo en español.
Richard, joder! eres una bestia/maestro dominando lenguas, pero bueno no voté por tí, porque sé que seguro ganarás, le di mi voto a la Búlgara que me pareció simpática. Otra cosa que quería pedir es que si conoces y conocen (a los otros miembros) algún sitio en línea donde se pueda aprender irlandés; así como livemocha o el busuu. Entonces ahí ya saben ayuden con lo que puedan.
Cómo sé que no todo el mundo habla español, lo del irlandés es serio señores, así que para los que quieran ayudarme les escribo en inglés.
So… guys I need in deed know more about that, you got it already now the message. So fucking polyglots my “payment” will be with the portuguese, italian, french and german. But with the dutch too, although is not ready yet, like says Richard it isn’t fluent.
So… men you can write for anything
Chao malditos maestros.
Sadly I am in third place, so your theory is incorrect…I am unlikely to win 🙁
Richard,
there are still 5 voting days to come, so it’s far too early to think this already now. Important for you is that you are and will stay in the leading group of this competition. 🙂 Then your chances to win will remain.
Fasulye
So… dear mates, is very unlikely that Richard lose because who win?, come on, the cute blonde, no, I don’t think so. But with the Irish, Richard if you replied me come on! tell me one site, with all the respect that I can give.
Hello Jonas, I am not quite sure what you mean. If there is something I have replied to, then please do let me know. I try to keep up with my blog, Facebook page, twitter account and YouTube as best I can with my job, family and study commitments. I never ignore people on purpose. 🙂
I’ve nominated you for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award, because I find your blog, your language learning quest, and your ideas very inspiring, not to mention motivating.
http://italkyoutalklanguages.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/645/
It comes with some rules though…
– Display the award logo on your blog.
– Link back to the person who nominated you.
– State 7 things about yourself.
– Nominate 15 other bloggers for this award and link to them.
– Notify those bloggers of the nomination and the award’s requirements
안 녕하 세 요선생님. This is my first time learning Korean and i am so etxecid about it.Your lessons are easily to understand and they are a great help to me. Though i m still having a hard time reading the korean letters. Does this letter ㅂstands for b’? And this letterㅎ stand for h’?Thank you for your hard work. 감 사합 니 다.Sarangheyo! =]
Dear Richard,
thanks a million for this post, its really encouraging to read others’s stories of how they grew a foreign language and became good at it, its really amazing to see people speaking more than 5 languages in this age especially when we have less time to practice our habits! at least in my case working 8 hours everyday! I speaking Arabic language as a mother tongue, I have studied English in my room and never been to a class and that’s why you might notice some grammar mistakes but yet I am proud to share my story with English language.
I live in Libya, north Africa, its really hard to find native speakers here unless you take the expensive classes that not everyone can afford, i decided to start learning English and to speak like a native! i started learning new words everyday, listening to radio and television and have done this for a year and that’s when i was blessed to meet someone who came from Canada to live in Libya and we became really close friends. i have asked him to do not speak a single word in Arabic ”he’s Libyan” and for a full year i have practices English with him until i mastered it! now when i speak with native English speakers their first impression is that i was born and raised in Canada! my English language has helped me many times to find a really good jobs here where i live in Libya.
I also speak an intermediate Italian even though i should speak a better level of Italian because I’m half Italian but i didn’t have the chance to live abroad and that’s why i still plan to go and take some intensive course in Italy.
Richard your advice is needed here, i don’t seem to have enough time to improve my Italian and i honestly don’t feel as motivated as i used to be when i first started learning English, have you been in my situation before? how can i get back to my old days when i used to flip the cans looking for a new word?
Best regards.
Moad Rgeyi
Are you an albino?
I know that the competition is over, but I probably can still find contestants’ videos somewhere?
I just mentioned on your youtube channel, that you should make a video of funny stories that have happened being a polyglot. One example comes to mind when someone trys to hustle you in a market, street, shop etc. But you reply and they are shocked! You must have loads of these situations/stories!
If you have the time!
Hyunwoo Sun ssi hi there nice site Im new here.. I really like to learn spakeing in korean fluently. This site helps me a lot, really a lot of things. Its much more enjoyable than reading books about the grammar lessons, because there are videos that can entertain you while learning the language.. Its fun and its not boring at all thanks guys for having this site.. HWAITING!!!!!
hi richard i just found out about you and your videos and decided to check this website out ….. you mentioned something about a polyglot conference in milan and i really want to know more about it … so if you could email me information about it that’d be great
Are you still active with this site? I just found it and would like to know more. What was the outcome of the competition?
I have been away from a long time – lots of work, study and family commitments. Trying to get back to it now though. 🙂 I won with competition with the great support I was shown by the language community! 🙂
It’s often a good idea to remember to consider overseas audiences as well. There are some people on facebook, such as the Japanese or Korean, with plenty of users. Obviously there are difficulties where admins do not speak their fan’s language. But think about it: just one part-time translator could add an extra 50,000 followers. Why shouldn’t we consider that?
Great competition! I just wanted to check if there are any videos from this competition. I would love to know the best language story that can provide great information to me.
Hello. (Not sure of the best way to contact you). I signed up for an online Spanish course you suggested in Sweden. You said you’ve done similar ones. One of the supporting documents for those courses are that you have a high school diploma in that language. I only started to be interested in language when I was a bit older. Just wondering, did you find any way around this? I’m signed up to start in the spring but won’t be able to now!
Thanks!
Claire
Hello, did you reach out to the tutor to ask for permission to be exempt from that because of previous knowledge? That is something I did with Russian as I had not officially studied it before. If it is a general high school diploma you mean and not Spanish specific, I am unsure if that can be overcome as easily. Feel free to reach out to me on my Facebook.com/SpeakingFluently page – I’ve been away from the blog for a while and just getting back to it now after a LONG break! 🙂
The -ICH suffixe has already been used by a German bank Postbank few years ago. I find it sad Goethe Instutut had to use the same marketing tools.