Easy Languages (YouTube)
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Easy Languages is a YouTube-based language learning network that produces street interviews and subtitled conversations to teach more than 40 languages through authentic unscripted speech from local people who speak that language or dialect.{{Cite journal |last=Flemons |first=Kit |date=5 September 2022 |title=How Easy English Brings Real Language to Learners |url=https://eltabbjournal.com/from-the-classroom-to-the-streets-how-easyenglish-brings-real-language-to-learners |journal=ELTABB Connections |volume=4 |issue=9}}
History
The project began in 2005 in Münster, Germany, when media educator Janusz Hamerski led a school video workshop and, with participant Cari Schmid, created a video teaching German greetings.{{Cite news |last=Manthei |first=Lilian |date=16 March 2025 |title=Youtuberin im Interview: Alles begann mit einem "Hallo" |url=https://www.wn.de/muenster/youtuberin-easy-german-kanal-sprache-kultur-3263313 |access-date=20 April 2025 |work=Westfälischen Nachrichten |publisher=Westfälische Medien GmbH & Co. KG |location=Muenster, Germany |pages=23}} The video was later uploaded to YouTube shortly after the platform launched, where it quickly gained international attention.
In 2014, YouTube selected Easy German for its education-focused creator program, prompting Hamerski and Schmid to move to Berlin and expand the project professionally.{{Cite journal |last=Kluck |first=Nora |date=1 June 2022 |title=Deutsch lernen wie mit Freunden |url=https://www.uni-muenster.de/Alumni/schmid.html |journal=Wissen, Leben. |volume=2022 |issue=Summer |pages=4}} By 2021, the Easy Languages network had grown to include over a dozen channels in various languages, modeled on the same interview-based format.{{Cite news |last=Montali |first=Stefano |date=23 December 2021 |title=Our audience is so diverse': What it's like to teach German from Berlin's streets |url=https://www.thelocal.de/20211223/our-audience-is-so-diverse-what-its-like-to-teach-german-from-berlins-streets |access-date=20 April 2025 |work=The Local}}
Format and Global Reach
Recognition
The project has received praise in Germany’s mainstream press for its accessibility and grassroots origins. In 2023, the German government’s public diplomacy platform featured Easy German as an example of successful online German instruction.{{Cite web |date=2023 |title=Deutsch lernen mit YouTube |url=https://www.deutschland.de/de/topic/wissen/deutsch-lernen-mit-youtube |access-date=20 April 2025 |website=Deutschland.de |publisher=Federal Foreign Office of Germany}}